How the World's Economic Growth Is Actually Un-Economic
The focus of the recently concluded G20 summit was economic growth. The final communiqué begins: “Raising global growth to deliver better living standards and quality jobs for...
Over 50 Billion Tons of Matter Wasted Every Year: Resources to Preserve
The surface of the Earth has always been in slow but constant movement: excavated by waterways and glaciers, eroded by winds, upset by mountain formation and volcanic eruptions, subjected to changes...
The Doughnut Economy
Between Social Boundaries and Planetary Boundaries In 2009, a group of leading Earth-system scientists brought together by Johan Rockström of the Stockholm Resilience Centre put forw...
Europe's Recovery Depends on Green Fuel
The curb put by Jean-Claude Junker – President of the European Commission – stopping the directive on circular economy prohibiting the dumping into landfills of recyclables and imposing ...
Rockstrà¶m, 'Biomaterials: A Viable Alternative to Fossil Fuels'
Our ecological footprint surpasses the Earth’s absorption capacity. One of the less known elements of the planetary equation is the impact of the extraction of many raw materials.&nb...
Elemental Sustainability
The unique chemical and physical properties of metals mean that they are extensively utilised by industry in a huge variety of applications, including electronics, transport, materials, industrial c...
Circular Economy: All Eyes on the Juncker Commission's Next Move
At a time when the EU is under immense pressure to tackle unemployment, a sluggish Eurozone economy, immigration, energy security and terrorism, the pressure to bump policies perceived as being &ldq...
Is Europe Changing Its Policy on the Circular Economy?
New elections not only introduce new faces in the assemblies but they often change policies and targets in line with the new political views of the winning alignment. The European Parliament electi...
The War for Biomass
Nevertheless, are agricultural waste and refuse able to feed the whole bioeconomy? The global situation we are faced with at the moment is very complicated: on the one hand, the demand for biomass i...
In Italy the Bioeconomy Is Worth 241 Billion Euro
We now know that in Italy the bioeconomy is worth €241 billion and employs approximately 1.6 million people. Such figures are provided by Intesa Sanpaolo Think Tank based on a thorough ...
Waste Thieves
So, a substantial overall growth bolstered by many industries. In 2010, building sites recycled and used 51 million tons of inert waste and 22 million of scrap iron (equalling 77% of the iron and ...
The Blue Economy Is Worth 500 Billion Euro
According to the Commission, sea-related industries and their services generated between 3% and 5% of Europe’s GDP, in 2007: spanning from the 1.2% of GDP of Ireland’s ocean economy; to ...
Why China is Embracing the Circular Economy
One potential remedy to resource supply constraints and consequently high resource prices and volatility could be for China to further engage with the concepts and approaches of the circular economy...
In the Large-Scale Retail Trade, One Carrier Bag Out of Two Is Illegal
Illegal carrier bags were spotted in five regions: Campania (7 carrier bags), Basilicata (6), Apulia (3) and Lazio (1) while the carrier bags picked up in Lombardy and Veneto were all legal. At city...
Kickstarting the Circular Economy in China
The task is daunting considering the pressing need to provide a growing population of 1.3 billion with a greater standard of living, while income disparities have reached a thirty-year record peak.(...
The Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant
In 2009, in the middle of the financial and economic crisis, Europe was awakened by the fact that it was losing industrial significance to emerging economies. To counteract, the European Commission ...
Eco-Friendly Playing Fields
They can do so thanks to football pitches made with recycled rubber and synthetic turf. Such solutions guarantee playing performances equivalent to those of traditional fields and that, as illustrat...
Net Gain: Fighting Ocean Pollution
Then he got an idea. He and two friends had been talking for months about finding a way to address the issue of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans by starting a business making pr...