Gardens and Barren Rocks
Is there a connection linking opposites? On the one hand, European aspiration to a government in flux, to a circular economy where matter and energy enter a virtuous circle through the cre...
When Repairing a Washing Machine Becomes a Crime
For that Italy dreaming of the circular economy, life is not at all simple. Consumers, companies, recycling managers and consortia must meander through a jungle where the good will to anticipate and...
Dangerous Short-sightedness
Whichever way you look at it, the very concept of biorefinery involves innovation: from the choice of production location – often in decommissioned industrial areas – to the type of raw ...
Circular Economy and Producer Responsibility: A Match that Can Work
Over the years, managing end-of-life tyres has confirmed that, in order to achieve the objective of an effective total recycle thus creating a circular economy model by minimizing resorting to consu...
It Is Time to Pass from Words to Action
From words to action. In a nutshell, this is the challenge launched by the EU at the 4th Bioeconony Stakeholders’ Conference held in Utrecht (The Netherlands) on 12th and 13th April, in the st...
An Uphill Struggle
Covers illustrating this dossier are successful prototypes of an unprecedented and unique communication model the world over. Great trendsetter and conveyor of taste and style, the Uni...
United by a Desk
In the beginning it was the loft, communicative yet impersonal. Then the digital revolution wave brought about home teleworking: working hours tailored to family needs, ecological elimination of the...
How to Preserve Value in Waste Management
This article was published in Ecoscienza 5/2015; www.arpa.emr.it/ecoscienza/rivista.asp?id=49 Can we comprehend that waste management is a “wicked” problem: a really comple...
Aluminium letters
Cans and calligraphy: this sounds really like an odd combination. But if you search online for cola pen everything becomes clear and you discover a collection of tools which buffs and experts of thi...
Water Boundaries
Water is the best example of circularity in nature. Everybody remembers clearly the charts showing the water cycle on biology textbooks in high schools. Snow, rain, tributaries, lakes, seas, evapora...
Pulses are Circular
It is a fact that the circular economy is in search of a clear definition. This process will hardly stop at the aspect, albeit crucial, of matter recovery, by restoring a role and function to materi...
Earthworms vs. Ecomafia
In Rosarno, situated in the previously lush Gioia Tauro Plain, in the Reggio Calabria province, earthworms are about to start their titanic clash against ecomafia. David vs. Goliath. In this context...
Circulab, the Circular Economy Business Game
Circular economy is not just about rethinking waste management, it is a whole new economical and philosophical approach to business. It is complex, diversified and therefore hard to grasp for the un...
Who Said Flies are Useless?
Disposing of waste thanks to a fly and producing feeds out of it. This is the objective of the “Insect Bioconversion” project, a study on the use of a fly – Hermetia illucens &ndas...
Follow that Waste!
It’s easy to talk about the circular economy. The moment waste is recycled, we start talking about the circular economy. Such statement, to be fair, can be defined as superficial. The apparent...
How Brexit Will Penalize the Bioeconomy
Media is full of news and analyses on Brexit. All European households are talking about it, whereas politicians, investors, entrepreneurs and foreign citizens living in the United Kingdom (and vic...
In Italy, 90% of Waste is Still off the Radar
This is the snapshot of the “dark half” of the circular economy. The flows coming into the urban, agricultural and industrial circuits are under the spotlight and they are carefully meas...
Connett: Creative Communities to Win the Waste Challenge
Paul Connett is considered the “father” of the Zero Waste Strategy, which regrettably often has become a slogan with no real meaning. We asked him to tell us what the state of ...
The Revival of Eco-Local Materials
The innovative use of poor materials (wood, straw and other vegetable materials, earth and stone) is becoming more and more popular in residential buildings, both in public works and in large buildi...
Children of a Lesser God
According to the calculations of the European Commission each of the 28 member countries produces, on average, a mountain of about 173 million tons of waste from C&D (Construction and Demolition...