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...
How Circular Is Circular?
In recent years, the circular economy has drawn increasing attention, so much so that today it has become a sort of slogan/symbol to describe environmentally-friendly changes made (or to make) to a ...
Pushing the Limits of Technology, Recognizing the Limits of Natural Resources
“Being able to live well within natural limits is the great challenge of our century and it requires a change in development model. We must adopt a habit of production and conservati...
A Question of Fibre
Not all fibres were made equal. With regard to paper, we are used to “noble” wood-derived cellulose, that a few decades ago came from virgin sources, but over the last few years has been...
Paper: Sustainability Enters the Production Cycle
Sustainable processes. It is not just a question of matter and energy, but often of methods and processes as well. This is a new approach taking hold in the management of industrial activities and o...
We Recyle Oil
In the circular economy one of the most controversial sticking points is the supply of material to recycle or regenerate. As William McDonough outlines in this issue of Renewable Matter, waste shou...
700 for the Bioeconomy
Promoted and organized by EuropaBio, representative association of European biotech and biobased industry, EFIB (European Forum on Industrial Biotech), has reached its eighth edition. Thi...
Joseph Beuys: Recognizing Nature's Intelligence
“For some time we still have the chance to freely come to a decision, that is following a different flow from the one we went through in the past. We still can decide to align our intelligence...
Remaking Will Change the Economy of Tomorrow
The Culture of Second-Hand Goods The culture of second-hand goods means sharing what we have now with those who owned it before and with those who will own it after us: both in space and time. And ...
Awakening the Sleeping Giant
In the past, a damaged object used to be mended. Clothes were patched, pots and working tools were repaired. End-of-life materials’ recycling was normal. The throwaway civilization, though, re...
Better Remanufactured than New
“Take-make-dispose”: these are the key words describing the industrial system of the last 150 years. In other words, a system based on a linear production and consumption model where goo...
The Match is still to be played
The match on circular economy is still to be played. And the European Parliament will make its voice heard on the measures proposed by the EU Commission last December replacing those of July 2014. T...
Time for a Copernican Revolution
She calls it “a Copernican revolution”. And the circular economy certainly is. Because, as Franco Battiato put it, it changes the world’s perspectives, placing sustainabi...