Unilever and Veolia partner on sustainable packaging

ByThe Circular Economy Team December 1, 2022

, Unilever and Veolia partner on sustainable packaging, TheCircularEconomy.com Unilever is working toward a self-imposed goal to be, by 2025, using plastic packaging only if it is designed to be fully reusable, recyclable, or compostable. And since recyclables are only ever actually recycled if there’s a lucrative market for the resulting material, the multinational has also pledged to use 25% recycled material in its packaging by that same deadline. According to the media release, “Veolia will work with Unilever to implement used packaging collection solutions, add recycling capacity and develop new processes and business models through this partnership in various countries.” The partnership will begin with material collection projects in India and Indonesia. From there, presumably, the companies will build on their learnings and expand collection and recycling efforts accordingly. “The scale of the plastic waste issue is getting worse, not better, with the production of plastics expected to double over the next two decades,” acknowledges Marc Engel, Unilever’s chief supply chain officer. “We all have a lot more to do to address this critical issue and we hope that by partnering with Veolia, a world leader in waste management, we can take meaningful strides towards a circular economy.”

Read the full article at: www.cosmeticsdesign.com

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Circular Economy? Member States want it ‘despacito’

ByThe Circular Economy Team December 1, 2022

After an 18-hour-long last negotiating meeting between the Council and the European Parliament an agreement to review the Waste Framework Directive, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and the Landfill Directive has been found. Zero Waste Europe welcomes the new agreement which should deliver the promised benefits in jobs, economic savings and reduced environmental impact. However ZWE is concerned that the pace of ambition is too slow to address the challenges that Europe is facing today. The agreement keeps Europe in the right path but it mitigates the ambition brought by the European Parliament in March, and almost every single meaningful objective proposed by the Commission or the Parliament has been axed or delayed by the Council. New EU Waste law aims at recycling 65% of total municipal waste by 2035, later and lower than 70% by 2030 that the Parliament had proposed. The push for repair and reuse through a specific target of preparation for reuse proposed by the Parliament has disappeared along with the marine litter reduction target. ‘National governments have lost the chance of securing a quick and ambitious transition towards a circular economy’, Zero Waste Europe’s Policy Officer on Waste, Ferran Rosa said. Despite the low ambition in terms of objectives, the new directives have the potential to deliver substantial change and contain the relevant elements to move towards a zero waste circular economy, such as the separate collection of bio-waste and textiles that becomes compulsory by 2023 and 2025, respectively, and the call on the Commission to propose targets on waste prevention and food waste reduction. Additionally, the new text aims at mainstreaming economic incentives in an attempt to transform waste management policies and the design of products under producer responsibility schemes. According to Mr Rosa, ‘the text is a long list of good intentions, objectives and obligations, but only implementation will deliver substantial change’.
Read the full article at: zerowasteeurope.eu

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Lebanon: EU helps implementing circular economy in wineries

ByThe Circular Economy Team December 1, 2022

In late November 2018, together with its local partners in Lebanon, SCP/RAC, The Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production, has participated to The final capitalisation Seminar of the Pilot Project entitled “Wine Innovation for Sustainable Economies” in order to discuss its outcomes. The seminar has been preceded by a visit to the beneficiary of the project in the Beqaa valley namely Château Kefraya, to have more insights about the in situ composting process piloted on its premises. The seminar has witnessed the participation of many actors and has been an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas on the circular economy in Lebanon, beyond the winery sector.

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How Circular is the Circular Economy?

ByThe Circular Economy Team December 4, 2022

The circular economy has become, for many governments, institutions, companies, and environmental organisations, one of the main components of a plan to lower carbon emissions. In the circular economy, resources would be continually re-used, meaning that there would be no more mining activity or waste production. The stress is on recycling, made possible by designing products so that they can easily be taken apart.
Attention is also paid to developing an “alternative consumer culture”. In the circular economy, we would no longer own products, but would loan them. For example, a customer could pay not for lighting devices but for light, while the company remains the owner of the lighting devices and pays the electricity bill. A product thus becomes a service, which is believed to encourage businesses to improve the lifespan and recyclability of their products.
The circular economy is presented as an alternative to the “linear economy” – a term that was coined by the proponents of circularity, and which refers to the fact that industrial societies turn valuable resources into waste. However, while there’s no doubt that the current industrial model is unsustainable, the question is how different to so-called circular economy would be.
Several scientific studies (see references) describe the concept as an “idealised vision”, a “mix of various ideas from different domains”, or a “vague idea based on pseudo-scientific concepts”. There’s three main points of criticism, which we discuss below.

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Kingfisher spearheading the circular economy

ByThe Circular Economy Team December 4, 2022

Kingfisher has established a number of design principles (in collaboration with experts from Bioregional). ”These principles help our product developers and suppliers integrate circular design principles into our products and supply chains in a way that is good for customers and for our business”, Laurie says. Kingfisher’s principles focus on six so-called impact areas: safe materials for humans and nature, sustainable materials that are easily and widely recycled, reused or renewed, utility and function, including efficient use of materials and design for longevity and reuse, energy and carbon, focusing on reducing fossil fuel energy use, water stewardship and ethical responsibility, including fair and safe working conditions in the supply chain. Retail Detail had an exclusive interview with Caroline Laurie, Head of Sustainability of the Kingfisher group that has several large DIY-chains in its portfolio, operating around 1200 stores (store brands such as B&Q, Castorama or Brico Depot) and omnichannel operations in 10 European countries. According to Laurie, Kingfisher has been integrating circular economy principles into product design for many years, working with partners including Bioregional and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “We focus on solutions that reflect growing customer interest in smarter consumption, and product ranges or services that help customers and our business to get more from less, reuse or use longer. Most people have never heard of the circular economy but they know they want quality products that are long-lasting, create less waste and are easy to recycle.”
Read the full article at: www.retaildetail.eu

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New Case Study Report on Messaging the Circular Economy

ByThe Circular Economy Team December 2, 2022

As more companies commit to innovative circular economy and sustainability strategies and investments, there is an increased need to learn the best practices for successfully communicating these decisions externally. The Chamber Foundation recently published a case study and insights publication, Messaging the Circular Economy, which showcases (1) tactics companies are taking to educate customers on their circular products, ambitions, or service offerings, and the opportunity the circular economy represents in the United States; (2) perspective pieces from nonprofit organizations, communications and advisory firms, academia, and trade associations on how to communicate to external stakeholders about circularity; and (3) research on what messages resonate with which audiences. The case study publication covers approaches from a wide range of businesses, from internationally headquartered to U.S.-headquartered, publicly traded to privately held, business-facing to consumer-facing, and across industries, from consumer electronics to apparel. Communicating business relevance, shared responsibility, and corporate priorities about extending the useful life of products and services involves many tactics, exemplified and explained in the publication. Within the report, you’ll see details of video campaigns, graphics, white papers, and playbooks, as well as the value in transparency regarding lessons learned and approach rationale. The publication fills the gap in the literature on how companies can most effectively communicate about their circular ambitions, products, and service offerings. Businesses that want to understand how best to communicate such priorities can reference the examples and research insights featured in the report.
Read the full article at: www.uschamberfoundation.org

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A 20-second tweak for smarter, simpler Android security

ByThe Circular Economy Team December 1, 2022

Security is important. That much is obvious, right? And despite all the over-the-top, hilariously sensational headlines suggesting the contrary, the most realistic security threats on Android aren’t from the big, bad malware monster lurking in the shadows and waiting to steal your darkest secrets whilst drinking all of your cocoa. Nope — the biggest risk to your security on Android is (drumroll, please…) you. The likelihood that you’ll at some point provide personal information to an ill-intending person or fail to properly secure an account in some way is without a doubt the most realistic threat to your virtual wellbeing. Malware? Meh. That’s rarely scary in anything more than a theoretical sense. [ Keep up on the latest thought leadership, insights, how-to, and analysis on IT through Computerworld’s newsletters. ] And guess what? The best way to protect yourself, aside from that always-advisable juicy dollop of common sense, is to secure every account possible with both a strong, unique password and the extra layer of protection that’s two-factor authentication. That’s especially important for your Google account, but the same steps are advisable for any account where two-factor auth is an option. The one problem with two-factor authentication, or 2FA for short, is that it can be a bit of a pain in the patootie (to use the technical term) in practice. The whole point of 2FA is that it requires a second step to sign into any account where it’s active. In many cases, that step is a single-use code that’s generated by a special app and then entered into the sign-in screen. And that typically means you have to stop what you’re doing, go back to your home screen, open your app drawer, and then open your 2FA code-generating app to get the necessary code and copy it over into whatever form you’re facing. [Want even more advanced Android knowledge? Check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse to learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone.] That’s a hassle, to say the least. But hang on, my efficiency-adoring amigo, for there is a better way.
Read the full article at: www.computerworld.com

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