National circular economy hub to lead UK in bid to create a sustainable future

Many plastic-based building materials that could be recycled aren’t, because most companies haven’t yet figured out how. The AZEK Company cracked this code, and diverted nearly 300 million pounds of waste from landfills in 2019. Every time an office building or an old home is demolished, all of the broken-down materials have to go somewhere. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 230 million to 530 million tons of construction waste are produced annually — and much of that material ends up in landfills. The bulk of construction and demolition waste is old bricks, masonry, concrete, wood and metal; but it’s not exclusively that. Some plastic-based building materials — such as windows, flooring and decking — that could be recycled aren’t, because companies haven’t yet figured out how to collect and reuse the plastic at the heart of these products.

Update on our work on sustainable food systems by Francesco Rampa, Head of ECDPM’s Sustainable food systems team Dear Francesco, I hope that this message finds you and your family well and that you’re keeping safe. Although vaccines against COVID-19 are being developed at an impressive speed, the social and economic effects of the pandemic will linger much longer. If anything, 2020 and the exceptional situation we found ourselves in reminded us that, no matter how distant, communities around the world are connected. In 2021, we need to build back our food systems better, not only to avoid more health crises but also because of looming challenges such as climate change, malnutrition, poverty, inequality and biodiversity loss. Our team continues to work for a positive change towards sustainable food systems in Europe and Africa. Here is what has kept us busy over the last months. We wrote a guide on the concept and practice of a sustainable food systems approach to help practitioners and decision-makers to handle the complexity and move towards more coherent, effective and context-appropriate interventions for the necessary transformations. The guide came in handy also when discussing the design and adoption of a sustainable food system approach for Irish official development assistance. While Ireland’s development policy recognises the need for systemic responses to the challenges posed by unsustainable food systems, this has not been integrated into any of the country’s development strategy or operations yet. In an upcoming paper, we will put forward a three-year plan to integrate the sustainable food system approach into Irish strategy and operations – keep an eye out in the coming months! In the search for the sustainability of food systems, trade can either help or hinder the process. Together with the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), we…

Out of the 157 companies named in the index, Colgate, Boots and Superdrug topped the health and beauty category…