The EU is seeking to move towards a circular economy model, but there are challenges to achieving this goal. A recent platform meeting considered ways of improving the replicability of LIFE projects to facilitate the transition.

A circular economy makes use of resources for as long as possible, extracting their maximum value. Products and materials are then recovered and re-used at the end of their lives. Such an economy eliminates waste and improves resource-efficiency whilst creating new opportunities for growth, thus combining economic growth and employment with positive environmental effects.

The European Commission (EC) adopted the Circular Economy Package in December 2015, aimed at transforming the EU into a more competitive, resource-efficient economy. A LIFE platform meeting was held recently, on 27-28 June in Milan, Italy, about the circular economy, with a focus on industrial waste. The aim was to enable participants, in particular the LIFE projects present, to share their experiences of issues related to the circular economy and to stimulate replication of successful results. The well-attended event attracted 69 participants from 32 LIFE projects based in eight Member States.

Christian Strasser, Deputy Head of the LIFE Programme Unit, spoke of the importance of platform meetings for reviewing the programme's contributions and for developing and enforcing policy. Such events can help identify "gaps or problems in the implementation of policy or legislation", he explained, as well as being useful for looking at common barriers and success factors. Mr Strasser said a key aim of the meeting was "to strengthen replicability and the sustainability aspects of our projects". He concluded by hoping that attendees would profit from the event, exchanging information and establishing contacts, in order to create new opportunities in the future.

Circular economy package explained

Julius Langendorff, Deputy Head of DG Environment's Waste Management & Secondary Materials Unit, gave attendees an overview of the circular economy package, which is currently under review by the European Parliament and Council. "It consists of an action plan with measures that the Commission will take forward over the next three years," he explained. These range from promoting better eco-design to incorporating waste and resource-efficiency measures in guidelines on best available techniques.

Mr Langendorff said an important part of the circular economy package was "strategies on plastics announced for next year and on the interface between chemicals products and waste legislation". In total, the package includes 50 actions and lists a number of priority sectors which face specific challenges in the context of the circular economy because of the specificities of their products or value chains. The priority sectors are plastics, food waste, critical raw materials, construction and demolition waste, and biomass and bio-based products.

It also includes proposals for revised legislation on waste. Mr Langendorff said the Commission is currently reviewing and updating the recycling targets for municipal solid waste for the period up to 2030. (The Waste Framework Directive contains legally binding targets up to 2020 for municipal solid waste and for construction and demolition waste.) "Municipal waste is generally considered as one of the most challenging waste streams to tackle," he added. "What we have proposed is that from the current 50% target for 2020 - 50% recycling of municipal waste - that should go up to 65% in 2030." The Commission is also proposing that only 10% of municipal waste be allowed to go to landfill by 2030, with the possibility of five-year extensions for countries with very low recycling rates.

Mr Langendorff added that "there may also be a call to do the same for construction and demolition waste, and perhaps for industrial and commercial waste", depending on the European Council and Parliament's review of the package. Some other initiatives include attempts to improve separate collection. "One of the things that is currently not an obligation in EU legislation is to ensure separate collection of bio-waste," he explained. Mr Langendorff concluded that the waste proposals currently under discussion by the Council and Parliament will be adopted in mid-2017 at the earliest, with transposition of the new, more ambitious directives to follow afterwards.

LIFE projects illustrate concept

Representatives of seven LIFE projects then gave presentations on their activities, as well as highlighting issues for discussion in two workshops later the same day - one on improving projects' replicability and the other on boosting the market for secondary raw materials (see second article for further details). The projects comprised 'GtoG' (LIFE11 ENV/BE/001039), 'CRESIM' (LIFE11 ENV/IT/000095), 'LIFE REVA-WASTE' (LIFE12 ENV/ES/000727), 'LIFE ClosedLoopCarpet' (LIFE12 ENV/NL/000269), 'LIFE REBus' (LIFE12 ENV/UK/000608), 'LIFE/3 xEnvironment/PL' (LIFE12 INF/PL/000009) and 'WISER LIFE' (LIFE13 ENV/IE/000763). These all dealt with different aspects of the circular economy concept; the focus of the projects' activities was wide, ranging from construction and demolition waste, to agro-food and carpet waste. Their presentations set the scene and introduced some of the main barriers to achieving a circular economy as well as issues with the replication and transferability of results. The projects also suggested potential solutions for further discussion.

The platform meeting concluded with a visit on the second day to an industrial plant of the host project 'Life Is.eco' (LIFE13 ENV/IT/001225). The beneficiary Saint-Gobain’s Vidalengo site, near Bergamo city, manufactures products made of mineral wool for thermal and acoustic insulation in the building sector. Through its LIFE project, the company has established two pilot plants at the site for recycling two types of waste - glass wool and bituminous membranes. Thanks to the innovative recycling system developed, the recovered waste can be fed back into the production cycle to make new material. This has ensured substantial energy savings for the plant and vastly reduced the amount of material that would otherwise be sent to landfill. The project aims to treat 130 000 tonnes of bitumen-polymer and glass-fibre waste in this way every year. For participants, seeing the recycling and production system in action was a tangible demonstration of the power of the circular economy to create sustainable growth and ensure high levels of environmental protection.

Fuente:  LIFEnews N°7/ 2016