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Newly formed groups in Europe and Canada are working to deliver a circular economy for packaging materials: PlasticsEurope has created a Plastics Packaging Circular Economy Group to maximize resource efficiency across the plastics value chain; and Ontario’s Circular Economy Innovation Lab is hosting a series of workshops as part of a Printed Paper and Packaging Rapid Lab.
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At United, we are committed to environmental sustainability and believe that the actions we take today shape our path towards a more sustainable future. We aim to minimize the environmental impacts associated with our operations and are continuously looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint in the air, on the ground and at our facilities.
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Add sewage sludge and seaweed to the list of raw materials that have potential for circular economy solutions: Toyota is experimenting with converting human waste into hydrogen to fuel its Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car; and Wageningen Food & Biobased Research has been exploring seaweed’s potential for a range of products including fuels, bioplastics and animal feed, as well as opportunities for symbiosis for seaweed cultivation and byproduct use.
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On Thursday, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation hosted the launch event of its Circular Cities Network, a global network of city leaders who are pioneering the application of circular economy approaches to address today’s urban challenges.
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Ford has announced that it will offer its employees in Shanghai with ongoing education about the importance of recycling e-waste and access to an e-waste recycling system. The program, financially supported by the Ford Fund, is part of Better World Initiative and done in partnership with Green Initiatives’ [WE] Project.
The more than 1,000 employees of Ford headquarters will be able to place used electronics in numerous collection boxes located around the facility. Items can include mobile phones, appliances, storage devices such as external hard drives and USB drives, physical media including CDs and video games, entertainment equipment such as televisions and musical instruments, and electronics of all varieties.
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Discussions on the circular economy always trigger great interest, even on the final afternoon of the action-packed SB’16 Copenhagen conference, judging from the enthusiastically packed room at this breakout on circular business models.
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IKEA has been quietly piloting various initiatives across its European stores to see how it can build circularity into its service offering for customers. It’s a bold move, given that consumer-facing circular economy business models are still relatively embryonic, particularly in the retail market.
“Over the coming years, we will support customers to care and repair, rent, share, bring back, and resell their IKEA products to prolong product life,” IKEA’s sustainability manager Jonas Engberg told me in a recent interview.
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Why set yourself an impossible challenge? For a company that sells $1 billion worth of carpet tiles a year, total elimination of its environmental impact by 2020 is surely beyond the realms of possibility.
Industrial manufacturing processes, heavy use of raw materials and layers of supply chain that are not always possible to influence make it difficult to comprehend how Mission Zero can be achieved.
But this is exactly the point for Interface. What are the realms of possibility, and how close to zero impact can be achieved? In 1994 the company’s founder Ray Anderson signalled a sea change in corporate attitude towards sustainability. Legal compliance, although important, was no longer enough.
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DETROIT – General Motors was again ranked on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for corporate sustainability leadership in the automotive industry. This is the second year GM has been selected as an index component and the company remains the only automaker on the North American index.
The Dow Jones Sustainability Index is the leading global benchmark for corporate sustainability. DJSI tracks leading sustainability-driven companies based on investment firm RobecoSAM’s analysis of financially relevant environmental, social and governance factors.
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Businesses of all sizes can realize opportunities presented by the shift from linear ‘take, make, waste’ models and systems to circular ones. As the originator of the circular economy concept Walter R. Stahel once said, “A circular economy will directly create numerous jobs with a broad diversity of skills at local and regional level, and give rise to new SMEs [small and medium enterprises] exploiting opportunities in the local loops.”
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Two design challenges are back and accepting new entries for products designed to help enable a sustainable future.
The non-profit H&M Foundation is accepting applications for the second edition of its Global Change Award through October 31st, 2016. The competition is seeking early stage ideas that present new circular approaches for the fashion industry – whether by changing the way garments are designed, produced, shipped, bought, used, or recycled – by adding disruptive technology or using a new business model.
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The European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN) and 35 other associations1 representing a wide range of sectors including major consumer goods brands, packaging producers, material producers and extended producer responsibility (EPR) organizations have presented the European Union with a set of joint recommendations for its circular economy legis
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A new report from relief and development charity Tearfund and the Institute of Development Studies suggests that businesses and governments could help save lives and create jobs by adopting a circular economy approach to waste management.
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How many packages have you relied on today? Responsible and innovative packaging is critical to delivering shippable, shelve-able, sellable, product value. Consumers, retailers, and brands count on packaging. And then what?
The best way to retain investment value and mitigate risks is to recycle these materials.
“Municipal recycling programs are the hubs of the reverse logistics needed to return valuable packaging to the supply chain,” says Jeff Meyers, The Recycling Partnership’s Director of Corporate Partnerships.
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More and more companies are looking for ways to adopt circular models for their products, and some of the latest examples have been provided by industry giants. Furniture company IKEA, chemical firm Total, and Inditex - parent company of apparel brands Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti and Bershka - are all working to reduce their environmental footprint by changing how their products are made.
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With the potential to change how businesses think about their waste, circular economy models could be an effective means of emissions reduction towards the commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement in addition to economic benefits, waste reduction, and reduced consumption of virgin materials.
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A key business driver for today’s vehicle manufacturers is to find cost-effective ways to reduce material impact, and weight, in the cars they build. Lighter vehicles result in less fuel consumption – and consequently, fewer emissions.
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BASF is contributing its polymer expertise to the three-year WRAP Consortium project kicked off by the European Commission
last year and aimed at developing high-performance sporting goods that can also be recycled. The “Sport Infinity” concept being pursued by cross-industry teams of companies is spearheaded by German sporting goods manufacturer Adidas and is focused in particular on applications in European football, or soccer, as the sport is known in the US.
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Until now, recycling paint has been a laborious, costly process, leading to huge amount of unused paint going to waste and ending up in landfills. Thanks to a collaboration between Dulux-owner AkzoNobel, design and innovation company Seymourpowell, and Newlife Paints, recycling paint may finally be able to become ‘mainstream.’
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Fashion designers have long asked for a place to find materials they know are healthier for people and the planet — and now they have one. The new Fashion Positive Materials Collection, which debuted this week, includes 39 materials for fashion applications that are Cradle to Cradle Certified or have received a Material Health Certificate, which at higher levels of certification ensures safe materials suitable for circular design.