Blackwater, Black Gold
“Nothing grows out of diamonds. Out of dung, flowers do grow,” used to sing Fabrizio De André in 1967. Asking the poet’s for forgiveness, fifty years on we can go a step fur...
The Birth of Waste
Adriana Varella and Nilton Malz, Digital DNA, Palo Alto (California), 2005. Photo by Wonderlane, graphic elaboration Nature does not generate waste: evolution has...
Seek and you Shall Find
The circular economy concept is becoming increasingly widespread, but it is not easy to apply to the operational and everyday run of businesses. Indeed, by definition, the circular economy requires ...
Islam: The Third Way
The imposition of an uneven, forced modernization, on the one side; the retribution of archaic, systematic violence, on the other. In the Islamic world, a third way between these two extre...
Fair Competition
The results of the graphic work presented herewith are editorial artefacts, produced in only one copy and on paper, magazines (Issue 0) in their own right, as a result of a workshop carried out betw...
From Nowhere to COP21
ArtCOP21. The acronym implies an agenda of cultural events in Paris that is paving the way for the 21th round of negotiations about climate and is going to animate the capital of France as long as t...
Compliance Schemes: Drivers of Economic Development
It used to be an emergency, a public concern, a cost for the community. It is now becoming a resource, a shared benefit, an economic and employment opportunity. Waste is changing. Its nature, meanin...
Technical Effectiveness of Extended Producer Responsibility Schemes: What Do Data Reveal?
In the EU, according to the web pages dedicated to waste, we currently use 16 tonnes of material per person per year, of which 6 tonnes become waste. In 2012, total waste amounted to 2.5 billion ton...
Natural Capital and the Circular Economy: Two Sides of the Same Coin
The traditional juxtaposition of environmental and common good’s issues stimulates some considerations on a possible systematic approach to the two themes within the general principles of a le...
Why Waste is Not Treated in the Same Way
To regularly ensure the best environmental results and the lowest costs for citizens, adequate waste treatment – from collection or where waste is generated, up to the end of the treatment pro...
Packaging Management System: Assessing a Tree by its Fruits
In 1997, 80% of Italian urban waste was disposed of in landfills: an amount equal to about 22.3 million tonnes. In the same year, in Italy, the national average separate collection amounted to 9%: 1...
Waste Boundaries
The hierarchy of waste management priorities has been in place – both at EU and national levels – for several years now. Against this legal framework, prevention is top of the list, but ...
WEEE: One Problem, Multiple Solutions
What we are holding in our hands is the latest technology, poised between our love for cutting-edge innovations and the anxiety for the temporal fragility of such ephemeral extraordinarine...
The Treasure Hidden in the Mines
This article is condensed from the study Le miniere urbane dell’alluminio (Urban Mining of Aluminium) produced by CiAl – Consorzio imballaggi alluminio (Aluminium Packaging Consortium) (...
New Products for New Markets
EFIB2015 speaker, Marie Wheat of the United States Department of Agriculture, talks to Joanna Dupont-Inglis about the challenges and successes of developing the USDA BioPreferred® Prog...
The Circular Economy: A Work in Progress
For Europe, 2014 was supposed to be the year of the circular economy: a new paradigm to project development models for society and industry from now to 2050. Those hopes were doused at the end of la...
Bioeconomy: An Investment of 1 Euro Today Will Reap 10 Euro in 2025
An investment of one euro in 2010 will generate a return of 10 euro in 2025. An investment of 35,000 euro into research and development over the same time frame will create one full-time job. This i...
Metamorphosis of a Consortium in a Changing Waste Economy
Since its creation over 30 years ago, one of the Italian Mandatory Consortium for Used Oils’ assets has been the choice of its legal structure. The COOU has a private-law corporate structure, ...
How to Turn a Plastic Cup into a Scooter
Separate waste collection is similar to a football game. In the first half, the good is produced and consumed and then, if possible, it is sent to separate waste collection. In the second half, the...
The Future of Lego Bricks is Bio-Based
Lego bricks of the future will be bio-based. The world’s largest toy manufacturer has decided to invest in research and development to find new, sustainable materials for the production of its...