All the Secrets of Cork, Circular by Nature
Forty million cells and only 0.16 grams per cubic centimetre. Around 90% air. These are some of the characteristics that make every single piece of cork unique. A naturally derived material that has...
A Heritage Worth Preserving
Looking at any map of the geographical distribution of cork oak (Quercus Suber L.), what immediately catches the eye is the precise area in which it has spread over time: the Mediterranean basin. Th...
An (Almost) Perfect Circle: Paper Recycling in Italy
Making a virtue of necessity. This has always been the mantra in the Italian paper industry. A Country of “poor” forests that are not particularly productive in terms of biomass, the Ita...
Ecodesign for Aluminium
Thinking circular. It sounds easy but, when dealing with industrial processes, the approach of having a common thread linking products from the cradle to the grave, and considering end-of-life recyc...
Cupclub, the Startup Providing Cups as a Service
Name: CupClub Sector: Product as a service in the packaging sector Plus: Reusable packaging service for beverages Characteristics: Cupclub helps shops reduce throwaway packa...
ecoBirdy: New Toys from Recycled Plastic
Name: ecoBirdy Sector: New materials and products from recycled materials Plus: Furniture and designer objects for children made with recycled plastic waste Characteristics: ...
InStock Recovers 500 Tonnes of Food
Name: InStock Sector: Catering Supplies from salvaged food Plus: InStock transforms food surplus into products served in restaurants, catering companies and food trucks Character...
Evoware, the Algae Based Packaging that Disappears
Name: Evoware Sector: New bioplastic materials Plus: Biodegradable and edible packaging for food and other products made from algae Characteristics: Design and product...
The EU Wants to Seal the Deal on Plastic
Maybe, this is the reason behind the single use plastics directive presented by the European Commission on the 28th of May 2018 (see n.21/2018 by RM) which was already voted for on the 10th of July ...
Sometimes We Are the Villains
However, as illustrated by the recent research conducted at UCLA and published in Futures – “Existential risk due to ecosystem collapse: Nature strikes back” – in the majorit...
The Age of Plastic
The media is full of Chris Jordan’s famous pictures of seagull carcasses with their stomachs full of bottle caps, tubes and other plastic paraphernalia. Documentaries denouncing the indecent...
A Fiscal Update: The Winning Strategy
The latest study by The Ex’tax Project, New era. New Plan. Europe., shows that by implementing the tax shift, the European Union and EU member states would benefit from higher economic growth,...
What If Karl Polanyi Was Right?
With this sentence, Karl Polanyi outlines the idea that, as of the early 1900s, society was forced to conform to the needs of the market mechanism instead of choosing the more logical approach of ec...
Re-designing the Future
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation “A circular economy is one that is restorative and regenerative by design.” The big challenge for innovators and pioneers is to desi...
Waste + Information = Resource
Circular economy principles rely on a very simple equation, “waste = resource.” However, the reality is somewhat different. For example, converting plastic waste into valuable material i...
For a Circular Europe
After years of delays, the European Parliament in Strasbourg has approved the Circular Economy (CE) Package. However, things have not yet come full circle. “The way for a new develop...
An Important Step Forward
Janez Potocnik – Forum for the Future of Agriculture, Brussels 2016 Adopted by the European Parliament on April 18th 2018 and approved by the European Council on...
The American Way
What is the difference in the way Brussels and Washington D.C. see the circular economy? To get an answer one should have attended the Fourth Circular Economy Summit, organised by the powerful US Ch...
BusinessEurope, Circular Means Business
©BUSINESSEUROPE / Photo: Erik Luntang “Business is fully on board with the circular economy revolution. Not only because it is good business to save resourc...
Circular Economy Package: The Packaging Directive
Packaging has found its place in the European Circular Economy Package, approved last April by the European Parliament. It involves a revision a revision of Special Directive 1994/62/CE on packaging...