by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Cities across Europe are investing heavily in circular economy initiatives, yet one critical challenge remains unresolved: how to get products back. While enormous attention is devoted to recycling technologies, material recovery, and reverse supply chains, the weakest link is often the very first step of the process: collection. A recent guide from the INCREACE project …
Deposits, design, and EPR are the three keys to better material recovery in Europe. A new report by the Coordination and Support Office of the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI-CSO) sets out policy recommendations for the upcoming EU Circular Economy Act (CEA). A recurring concern throughout the report is the persistently poor collection performance …
Most discussions of city logistics focus on getting goods to people. The harder, less glamorous challenge is what happens when those goods reach the end of their useful life. Packaging, electronics, batteries, textiles — the volumes are enormous, growing with every e-commerce surge, and the urban infrastructure to handle them sustainably barely exists. A chapter …
The linear “take-make-waste” model of the textile sector is increasingly recognised as unsustainable. In response, a new paper addresses the first-mile logistics of post-consumer textile (PCT) collection as a critical yet under-studied part of closing the loop. Their work focuses on the strategic assessment of collection value chains: how textiles, once discarded by consumers, are …
Rigid polyurethane (PU) foams are everywhere: they keep our homes warm and our refrigerators cool. Yet, until now, their end-of-life options have been limited to landfill or incineration — wasting valuable raw materials and contributing to climate burdens. The European research project CIRCULAR FOAM – Systemic Expansion of Territorial Circular Ecosystems for End-of-Life Foam set …
How can logistics providers help shape the transition towards circular supply chains (CSCs)? To find out, a recent study focused on a single logistics service provider (LSP) through a detailed case study. By focusing on the provider’s own perspective, the research sheds light on both the hurdles and the opportunities that come with making supply …
Implementing circular urban supply chains is a significant economic transformation that can only work if coordination decisions are solved between the actors involved. What are the research challenges in circular urban supply chains? Creating regional ecosystems On the one hand, this requires the implementation of efficient urban collection technologies, where waste collection companies collaborate with manufacturers, …
Little progress has been made in recent years toward achieving a fully circular economy by 2050 and halving abiotic resource use (abiotic means non-living and is used to refer to the part of habitat or ecosystems that is not living) by 2030. The use of most resources did not decrease. Only fossil fuel use decreased, …
Closing the materials cycle for rigid polyurethane foams. This is the ambitious goal of the new pan-European “CIRCULAR FOAM” project. The EU-funded lighthouse project coordinated by Covestro, a world-leading polymer company, brings together 22 partners from 9 countries from industry, academia, and society. Within four years, they want to jointly establish a complete circular value …
If the demand for plastics follows its current trajectory, global plastic waste volumes will grow from 260 million tonnes per year in 2016 to 460 million tonnes by 2030. In Europe, still, only around 30% of all plastic waste is collected for recycling. This proportion must increase, but limited EPR schemes, fragmented waste management systems, …