On December 14, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly declared March 30 as International Zero Waste Day, an initiative led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and UN-Habitat. This initiative aims to address the global waste crisis, recognizing that households, businesses, and public service providers generate between 2.1 and 2.3 billion tons of municipal solid waste annually, while 2.7 billion…
By Sahar Azarkamand, researcher of the ARECO Fellowship at the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle of ESCI-UPF. The European Union generated approximately 83.4 million tons of packaging waste in 2021. According to forecasts, if no measures are taken, packaging waste could increase by another 19% by 2030 (European Council, 2024). In recent years, the amount of packaging has grown more…
COP 28 urged governments to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. The conference closed with an agreement that signals the “beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era by laying the groundwork for a rapid, just and equitable transition, backed by deep emission reductions and increased financing (UNFCCC, 2023a).…
While the previous news have focused on the concept of circularity, circular strategies and indicators to measure it; this article focuses on what do we mean by material cycle. One of the key objectives of circularity is to “circulate products and materials (at their higher value)”. But to circulate materials or products, we first need to understand what a material…
The transition to a circular economy aims at closing material loops in order to reduce waste, use resources more efficiently and minimize the environmental impacts. But what are the strategies that the companies can establish to achieve this? In this respect, Potting et al. (2017) apply a useful framework (Fig.1) that defines 9 R-strategies, group them in three main circularity…
Reuse and recycling are the two key strategies to move towards circularity, as reported last month. But several issues arise when assessing the environmental impacts or benefits of applying these strategies. How do these burdens or benefits can be shared between the product being recycled and the next product that will use the recycled material for its manufacturing? What is…
