A new Eu policy for sustainable product
The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan 2020 strives to bring about a green transition of the European economy. It looks at the entire life cycle of products and their materials, from design to end-...
Can developing countries benefit from the circular economy?
Developing countries have not benefited from the linear economy, the economy in which goods are manufactured from raw materials, sold, used, and then discarded as waste. They have poor access to che...
Mottainai! Inside the Tokyo Olimpics’ circularity strategy
There are plenty of serious stories to cover in the run-up to the Olympics between the pandemic, record temperatures so high they’re making beach volleyball courts unplayable and, apparently, rogu...
USA: the introduction of the COMPOST Act is a major step forward for soil conservation
Without soil there is not agriculture and without agriculture there is not bioeconomy. The USA celebrates the introduction of the Cultivating Organic Matter through the Promotion of Sustainable Tech...
Circular cities and the informal economy: Africa is now hungry for data
The spread of circular economy practices and principles in developing countries often runs up against the obstacle of a lack of data. The problem grows even bigger when working in informal contexts,...
Sustainability in Packaging Europe conference returns to Barcelona in November 2021
Following on from last year's hugely successful online event and the 2019 in-person event which attracted over 500 attendees, Sustainability in Packaging Europe plans to return to Barcelona across t...
Urban Metabolism: the city as a living organism is circular by nature
Urban metabolism is an approach that first of all requires starting from a vision: regarding cities as a living organism. It’s not mere philosophical speculation, there are practical reasons to ad...
Searching for the circular car
Creating a platform for all the players in the automotive supply chain that relies on field knowledge, partnerships, funding and creativity to develop the technologies and business models of the car...
When design helps to develop an end-of-life experience
In the context of product life cycles and the circular economy, the phrase "end of life" typically refers to the point at which a product or service has reached the conclusion of its use by a consum...
Metropolis 2052. The future belongs to circular cities
Forced to watch it from balconies and windows, a city, to those who have experienced urban lockdown, appeared as an unknown and largely misunderstood object. In the frenzy of production, a kaleidosc...
World Environment Day: conservation is no longer enough, it’s time for restoration
The year 2021 started with some news that mostly went unnoticed, as, after all, did many other things in a pandemic-dominated year-long news cycle. A study published in Nature estimated that the mas...
WEEE: illegal trade of electronic waste must be stopped to achieve EU goals
Countries in the European Union collect and recover more end-of-life electrical and electronic devices than the rest of the world. This work, however, is still not sufficient to achieve the recyclin...
Between work automation and ecological transition, data on the future of green jobs
New economy, new jobs. This is the equation that has been in vogue ever since Henry Ford produced the first mass-produced car on an assembly line in Detroit in 1908, a car that sold over 15 million ...
Clothing recycling: the first automated plant for textile waste is in Sweden
Textile and fashion industry have a huge circular potential that has yet to be developed. One of the main issues currently holding back the application of the circular economy in this sector is sort...
International Atomic Energy Agency: this is how nuclear decommissioning becomes circular
We’re back on the topic of nuclear power. 2021 may mark the tenth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, which on March 11th, 2011 rekindled the fear of the risks of atomic energy in the world, ho...
Making plastic circular is an increasingly chartered field
Streams of all things plastic floating across our oceans are now common news footage. By 2040, the amount of ocean plastic globally could triple to 29 million metric tonnes. Of the plastic we throw ...
How to recycle a nuclear power plant
From Italy’s point of view – a country that stopped the production of nuclear energy in its territory after the 1987 referendum – nuclear decommissioning is an old story that is struggling to ...
Regeneration: The Next Step for Outdoor Fashion
Fashion companies have advanced from sustainability to a regenerative economy in three steps. In phase one, they focused on their products’ health impacts. Then they aimed to reduce their greenhou...
Beyond ownership: Tool Libraries on the rise
Going beyond ownership and borrowing a blender or a ladder for a limited time at a Tool Library: despite the restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 emergency, this has been one of the simplest an...
SynBio: What Synthetic Biology Can Do for the Circular Economy
Synthetic biology or SynBio is a powerful and versatile tool that can be used in a wide number of applications. The limit lies in the researcher’s fantasy – and, obviously, ethical issues linked...