Brewing with Leftover Bread
Call it a hype if you will, but the circular economy is here to stay: it is gaining traction around the world, and the strategies it provides can solve our current dependence on finite resources. By...
Fashion, Cannibals and Forks
Top image: Details of Besani’s knitted textile. “Is it progress if a cannibal uses a fork?” John Elkington is asked at the beginning of Cannibals with Forks, one of t...
Jeans for Rent
Swedish label Filippa K has been one of the leading companies in sustainable, circular fashion since 1993. As its founder, Filippa Knutsson, claims “inspired by my needs, I have created a bran...
Rethinking the Function of the Fridge
Over the last decades, the functionality of the home refrigerator has remained pretty much the same: a big cold box with a temperature between 4 and 7 °C, in which you store all food products yo...
DS Smith: The Power of Less
Until about 20 years ago, the papermaking industry was regarded as one of the most detrimental sectors on the planet precisely because of the raw materials employed: cellulose and wood pulp provided...
Symbiosis & Innovation
Industrial symbiosis. A concept that can be either narrowed to the known role, at industrial level, of partnership, or developed into a 360-degree view. In the case of the circular economy, grafted ...
From Sheets to Packaging to Newspapers
The European Pulp and Paper Industry can be considered one of the bioeconomy beacons of the Old Continent. The Pulp and Paper sector has a high rate of collection and recycling, uses raw materials s...
The Double Life of Peach and Apricot Kernels
Apricot and peach kernels, salt used for salting meat: since February 2017, in Emilia Romagna, they have no longer been considered special waste to be disposed of, originating from the processing ph...
When the States Invade Canada
The comic strip is We Stand Guard, written by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Steve Skroce. To “stand on guard” are Canada’s citizens, who must keep a close watch on the decidedly ag...
The Hard Things to Say
The co-planning approach changes results. Although not yet very popular, it is growing. There is a spurious version that may be defined as “open” to users, which are the central subjects...
The Future Despite Trump
What will the world be like in 30 years time, in 2049? The Blade Runner sequel is well described in Roberto Giovannini’s column. But in reality what will the situation be like? Forecasts becom...
Surprise, Surprise: Germany is not that Circular
The Germany you would not expect. Despite being Europe’s number one manufacturing power and world-renowned for its strict waste management policy (since 2005, for example, putting waste which ...
Who Will Fund the Rescue of Earth?
This article was published in \"Valori\". An Italian monthly publication on social economy, ethical finance and sustainability, n° 145, February 2017 (www.valori.it) When the final curt...
Penelope's Lesson
After re-reading the myth of Penelope’s web, it is possible to find much more than a simple ruse to cheat the suitors, but a symbol of the reversibility and circularity of processes. Everything ca...
Turning Wounds into Stories
Italy is a fragile land and it has been increasingly devastated by seismic disasters, which have altered its profile by hitting people and destroying historic villages, settlements, and their artist...
Industrial Renaissance
Some of the world’s leading companies with unique production plants worldwide, some still excellent research despite many obstacles (investments in R&D is merely over 1.3% of GDP), the abi...
What if we Went Back to Coins and Currency?
Over five thousand alternative coins are circulating the world, from Brazil to Japan and from the USA to Europe. Created to contrast the economic crisis and complementary to official currencies, the...
When Design Meets Existing Things
It has already been a few years since the media started talking increasingly often about the regenerative economy: an economy born out of the cooperation between different trades acting within the s...
The Economy that Came from Outer Space
What happens when you work in an environment where there are no material supplies, the only resource is waste, oxygen is lacking, external conditions are extreme and the only energy is tha...
Vietnam Opens Up to the Circular Economy
This article was originally published in the \"SwitchasiaMAG\", winter 2016/17; tinyurl.com/jf722ll The concept of closed-loop production was very popular in Vietnam during the 20th Ce...