The European Commission published last week some very interesting documents on circular economy:
In the Circular Economy Package there are included the goals of the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, and the measures on how to reach this goals. The most important targets regarding waste management are a recycling percentage of 65% of municipal waste by 2030, reducing the landfill of waste to 10% and some concrete measures to promote re-use and green products on the European market (which you can find here: Circular Economy, Closing the loop 2015). The report is the outcome of the Circular Economy Conference, which took place this June and involved around 700 stakeholders that are active in the field and could positively participate shaping the European policies for the next decades.
All this ambitious measures should help to create some kind of a win-win situation reducing waste, savings for businesses and the creation of 580.000 jobs.
The Action Plan offers a wide range of impacts on companies and households; from product design, production processes, consumption to final disposal all life stages of a product are covered, but also the creation of secondary raw material markets and water reuse can be found in the AP directed to the European Parliament and the Council. The last part of the Report is about Innovation, investment and horizontal measures to increase R&I within the union, and some monitoring processes that guarantees a better understanding of goal achievement.
Further information can be found on the official EU site for Circular Economy
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/index_en.htm
