Ecomondo Regenerates Itself with the Circular Economy
This year, Ecomondo – the international Trade Fair of matter and energy recovery and sustainable development, celebrates its twentieth anniversary. Born in Rimini in 1977 under the n...
Kiribati's Lesson
Pacific Ocean, about 14,500 km from Italy: Kiribati, formerly known as Gilbert Islands, has been a republic since 1979 and geographically belongs to Micronesia. 717 square kilometres and 1...
The Dame Who Sank the Linear Economy
Energetic, discrete, influential, outspoken, complex, Ellen MacArthur is the Dame of the circular economy. She convinced Google and the World Economic Forum that the linear model is over a...
On Climate We Need Environmental Justice
The etymology of “garden” (gan) in Hebrew is the same as “to preserve” or “to protect” (le-hagen). The passage from Deuteronomy (20:19-20) forbids...
The Non-Matter Design
True, not all objects around stemmed from a designing mind: a great deal of anonymous design (just think of the “Hidden Forms” exhibition held in 2014 at Triennale di Milano) has made ...
Winners and Losers of a Circular Future
On the quest to develop a circular economy for Europe, leadership has now been passed from the European Commission to the Parliament and Council. With amendments drafted and discussions continuing i...
Looking After Green Spaces with GPP
Can GPP indeed represent the lever to unhinge the rigidity of the “production-consumption-discard” model characteristic of a linear economy in order to bend it towards a circular one? It...
If It Becomes an Online Whip-Round
Do you remember the old “whip-round” we used to have amongst classmates to buy a present? Well, compare that to the viral potential of digital technologies, to Internet platforms and soc...
From Maple Trees to Biorefineries
Supported by: Great availability of renewable raw materials, institutional infrastructure and support: These are the ingredients that make Canada one of the major players in the bioecon...
An Industrial Rebirth
Yet for all the focus placed on Canada as a resource-rich country, another story deserves to be told. This one talks of transformation and innovation, of adaptation in the face of adversity and of t...
All Canada's Resources
It is well known that Canada is rich in biomass. Less known is the fact that the country also has a myriad of strongly developed industries that can leverage the potential of the bioeconomy. In Cana...
Sugar is Better than Oil
C4H10O2. This is the formula of 1,4-Butanediol, a chemical compound derived from butane, a colourless gas which is obtained through fractional distillation of oil and natural gas. It is a fossil-der...
The Unburnable Carbon Bubble
Mark conceived, with his co-founder Nick Robins who is currently Co-director of UNEP Inquiry, the “unburnable carbon” and “carbon bubble” idea. Since its launch, th...
From Waste to Green Building
Europe is asking us to prohibit – by 2025 – the use of landfills for plastic, metal, glass, paper and cardboard recyclable residues and for biodegradable ones; it is also calling for an ...
Oil Draws a Perfect Circle
The regeneration of used mineral oils represents a well-established positive example of circular economy in our country. Today, in Italy over 95% of used lubricating oils which enter a regeneration ...
A Journey Where Matter is for Good
The circular economy. It is difficult to determine where it starts and where it ends. We could imagine a 3D journey in which a circle becomes a spiral and the third axis is represented by the second...
Artificial and Safe
They appear as black granules, with the distinctive smell and colour of tyres from which they originate: this is recycled rubber from ELTs. It is precisely because of its smell and colour that such...
Intersecting Supply Chains
Intersecting production chains. This could be the key element of the circular economy where the stark difference between twentieth and twenty-first centuries could be noticed, as far as the use of r...
The Peak of Resources
There is a ghost hovering around the world. Its name is “The Peak”. In a way, it is an obvious concept: if we exploit a non-renewable resource, its production is bound to start from zero...
Mission 99% Accomplished
Changing often means evolving, keeping up with the times. What seemed to be a pioneering activity more than thirty years ago, when the Mandatory Consortium for Used Oils (Consorzio Obbligatorio Oli ...