Ioniqa: Virgin PET from Non-recyclable Packaging
Name: Ioniqa Sector: Recycling technologies Pros: An intelligent magnetic separation process transforms low-quality plastics into virgin PET Characteristics: Magnetic materi...
Yescapa: Private Campervan Hire
Name: Yescapa Sector: Collaborative use service Pros: Campervan, caravan and van rental for private individuals, with insurance and 24-hour assistance included Characteristics:&n...
Subscription Electronics with Grover
Name: Grover Sector: Product as a Service Pros: By signing up to the service, users have access to all the most innovative technology through a pay-as-you-go system Characteristi...
What a Waste
The circular economy is needed now more than ever. The USA alone produces around 260 million tons (US short tons) of municipal solid waste per year from homes and businesses, amounting to around 2.0...
The Circular Economy Makes Progress, Climate Actions Stall
The Action Plan for the Circular Economy includes approval of the directives on waste in force as of 4th July 2019, regulation on fertilizers pushing for recovery of organic waste, agreed on 12th De...
Decarbonise Now
The Mauna Loa observatory, in Hawaii, has found the average concentration of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, to be above 410 parts per million (ppm), the highest level seen in the last 800,...
The Future Demands Ambitious Goals
But, as the latest round of the UN climate change talks begin in Katowice, Poland, it is worth remembering that we have, in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the framework we need to build a common response...
We Are Still in Time
Photo Credit: MCC Thomas Koehler In October, the IPCC – that under the auspices of the United Nations studies the effects of climate change – published a s...
Towards a Sustainable and Prosperous Europe
2018 has been a turning point for the transformation of Europe into a more sustainable and circular society. The year started with good news for innovation frontrunners in the form of the ...
Circular Economy Academies
“We will all become ‘circular’ because it is the right thing to do, but I don’t think it is necessary for every person to know in detail what the circular economy i...
Are Universities Ready for the Circular Economy?
University of Bradford. ©Tim Green aka atouch/Wikimedia Commons/cc-by-2.0 Looking at the numbers and expectations regarding the development of a circular economy ...
Sustainable and Circular: This is How Brussels Envisions the Bioeconomy
Phil Hogan Carlos Moedas “A turning point, a milestone.” This is how Carlos Moedas and Phil Hogan – respectively Europ...
Regenerating Local Territories with the Bioeconomy
The new European Strategy for the bioeconomy places emphasis on the territorial dimension: rapidly developing local “bioeconomies” throughout the continent. The geographical focal points...
A Way Out of the Crisis
Greece’s rescue package amounts to €290 billion over the last eight years. However, for Athens it mainly boils down to blood and tears. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperat...
The Chemical Industry Says Goodbye to Fossil Fuels
Michael Carus, in his latest paper on the process of industrial change from a fossil-fuel-based system to one founded on renewable energy, cites the concept of “creative destruction,” ta...
Keeping CO2 Underground. Naturally
Two pieces of news – and not just one as the media have chosen to focus on – emerged from the latest IPCC report published last October. Indeed, everybody concentrated on the 1.5 °C ...
Carbon Smart Circular Economy
A carbon-proof circular economy? For Dr. Jennifer Holmgren this is not an impossible task. LanzaTech is working to create a large scale industrial Carbon Capture and Usage project (CCU). With two go...
How to Redirect Capital Towards Circularity
The potential role of sustainable investments in the transition to a circular economy is the focus of a study undertaken in 2018 by the Italian Sustainable Investment Forum and CONAI, the Italian Na...
France Turns Towards the Circular Economy
Following an intense consultation phase with stakeholders (businesses, councils and citizens), in April 2018 the French government licenced the roadmap that will guide the country’s transition...