Browsing: circular

The European Union imported 49.7 million tonnes of recyclable raw materials in 2025 while exporting 36.2 million tonnes to non-EU countries, widening the bloc’s net import position to 13.5 million tonnes, according to data released by Eurostat.

Cork County Council has allocated more than €50,000 under its 2026 Circular Economy Fund to support 29 community level projects aimed at reducing single use plastics and accelerating reuse based consumption models across schools, sports clubs, festivals, and community organizations.

Scotland’s energy transition could require as much as 241 million tonnes of material by 2050, according to a new roadmap from Zero Waste Scotland, highlighting the growing tension between decarbonization goals and the resource intensity of large-scale energy infrastructure deployment.

Less than 1 percent of global textile waste is currently recycled back into new textile fibers at scale, a figure that underscores the structural gap between policy ambition and industrial capability as Extended Producer Responsibility frameworks begin reshaping the sector in Europe and parts of the United States.

Stellantis is expanding its circular economy strategy in the Middle East and Africa through a new vehicle dismantling center in Casablanca, underscoring how automakers are increasingly treating end of life vehicle management as both a supply chain necessity and a cost control mechanism rather than a peripheral sustainability initiative.

Global electronic waste exceeded 60 million metric tons annually in recent years, yet only a limited share is formally recycled, leaving substantial volumes of recoverable nickel, cobalt, and other battery metals unused.

UK consortium has secured funding through the Battery Innovation Programme to develop a localized recycling pathway aimed at retaining critical battery materials within the national economy.

Innovation in battery circularity technologies is accelerating at a significantly faster rate than battery manufacturing itself, highlighting a structural divergence between technological development and industrial deployment.

India recycles an estimated 60 percent of its plastic waste, far exceeding the global average of 14 percent, yet only around 13 percent is converted into high-value recycled outputs, revealing a structural inefficiency in the country’s recycling value chain.

Europe’s circular economy workforce expanded by 10 percent between 2014 and 2023, reaching approximately 4.4 million jobs across the EU-27, yet structural barriers continue to limit the transition from niche applications to system-wide industrial adoption, according to assessments published by the European Environment Agency. The findings highlight a widening gap between policy ambition and market readiness as the bloc prepares its forthcoming Circular Economy Act.