scholarly journals Residue Valorization in the Iron and Steel Industries: Sustainable Solutions for a Cleaner and More Competitive Future Europe

Metals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1202
Author(s):  
Johannes Rieger ◽  
Valentina Colla ◽  
Ismael Matino ◽  
Teresa Annunziata Branca ◽  
Gerald Stubbe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Steel Industry ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Added Value ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Steelmaking Process ◽  
Iron And Steel ◽  
Sustainable Solutions

The steel industry is an important engine for sustainable growth, added value, and high-quality employment within the European Union. It is committed to reducing its CO2 emissions due to production by up to 50% by 2030 compared to 1990′s level by developing and upscaling the technologies required to contribute to European initiatives, such as the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) and the European Green Deal (EGD). The Clean Steel Partnership (CSP, a public–private partnership), which is led by the European Steel Association (EUROFER) and the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP), defined technological CO2 mitigation pathways comprising carbon direct avoidance (CDA), smart carbon usage SCU), and a circular economy (CE). CE approaches ensure competitiveness through increased resource efficiency and sustainability and consist of different issues, such as the valorization of steelmaking residues (dusts, slags, sludge) for internal recycling in the steelmaking process, enhanced steel recycling (scrap use), the use of secondary carbon carriers from non-steel sectors as a reducing agent and energy source in the steelmaking process chain, and CE business models (supply chain analyses). The current paper gives an overview of different technological CE approaches as obtained in a dedicated workshop called “Resi4Future—Residue valorization in iron and steel industry: sustainable solutions for a cleaner and more competitive future Europe” that was organized by ESTEP to focus on future challenges toward the final goal of industrial deployment.

scholarly journals Circular Bioeconomy Business Models to Overcome the Valley of Death. A Systematic Statistical Analysis of Studies and Projects in Emerging Bio-Based Technologies and Trends Linked to the SME Instrument Support

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1899
Author(s):  
Fabiana Gatto ◽  
Ilaria Re
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Future Perspective ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Strategic Orientations ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
Valley Of Death

Reducing the environmental pressure along the products life cycle, increasing efficiency in the consumption of resources and use of renewable raw materials, and shifting the economic system toward a circular and a climate-neutral model represent the heart of the current macro-trends of the European Union (EU) policy agendas. The circular economy and bioeconomy concepts introduced in the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan and the Bioeconomy Strategy support innovation in rethinking economic systems focusing on market uptaking of greener solutions based on less-intensive resource consumption. In recent decades, industrial research has devoted enormous investments to demonstrate sustainable circular bio-based business models capable of overcoming the “Valley of Death” through alternative strategic orientations of “technological-push” and “market-pull”. The study highlights industrial research’s evolution on bio-based circular business model validation, trends, and topics with particular attention to the empowering capacity of start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to close the loops in renewable biological use and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The research methodology involves a bibliographic search based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach and the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Data Hub investigation to understand SMEs’ key success factors and start-ups of the circular bioeconomy sector. Eco and bio-based materials, nutraceuticals, and microalgae represent the most sustainable industry applications, leading to circular bioeconomy business models’ future perspective.

scholarly journals Circular Economy in Poland: Main Achievements and Future Prospects

2021 ◽  
pp. 141-154
Author(s):  
Anna Avdiushchenko
Keyword(s):  
Development Strategy ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Added Value ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Global Competitiveness ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
Regional Authorities ◽  
Sustainable Economic Growth

AbstractCircular economy (CE) is a new development strategy adopted by the European Union (EU) authorities in 2014, aiming to boost global competitiveness, foster sustainable economic growth, and generate new jobs. The CE approach maintains the added value in products for as long as possible and eliminates waste; moreover, it implies totally systemic change and innovation not only in technologies, but also in organization, society, finance methods, and policies. Such an approach leads to a new model of production and consumption and a new relationship between stakeholders at the local, regional, national, and EU levels. The first consideration of CE priorities in Poland started in 2016 when the Inter-ministerial Committee for Circular Economy was established. Representatives from nine ministries became committee members, and the chief document they prepared was the Roadmap for Circular Economy Transition. The document proposed an action plan for CE implementation and focused on increasing resource efficiency and waste reduction in Poland. Prepared with the active involvement of all possible stakeholders—businesses, NGOs, the academic and research community, and local and regional authorities—the Roadmap can be seen as a quick and effective guide. In addition to national government initiatives, there were numerous attempts to implement CE principles at the local and regional levels. The main goal of the current research was to examine the effectiveness of such national, regional, local, and business CE projects for influencing Poland’s CE transition during the past three years. This study reviews the main policy documents, reports, and expertise of national, international, regional, and local organizations and NGOs involved with CE in Poland. The research is also supported by a review of the relevant academic literature. As a result, it was possible to estimate the current level of achievement, as well as future prospects for CE in Poland. Moreover, this research identifies potential opportunities for updating existing planning policies and tools related to CE-based development in Poland.

European experience in transition to circular economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.V. Ratner
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
National Level ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
European Experience ◽  
General Scientific ◽  
The Eu

Subject. The article considers the concept of circular economy, which has originated relatively recently in the academic literature, and is now increasingly recognized in many countries at the national level. In the European Union, the transition to circular economy is viewed as an opportunity to improve competitiveness of the European Union, protect businesses from resource shortages and fluctuating prices for raw materials and supplies, and a way to increase employment and innovation. Objectives. The aim of the study is to analyze the incentives developed by the European Commission for moving to circular economy, and to assess their effectiveness on the basis of statistical analysis. Methods. I employ general scientific methods of research. Results. The analysis of the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy enabled to conclude that the results of the recent research in circular economy barriers, eco-innovation, technology and infrastructure were successfully integrated into the framework of this document. Understanding the root causes holding back the circular economy development and the balanced combination of economic and administrative incentives strengthened the Action Plan, and it contributed to the circular economy development in the EU. Conclusions. The measures to stimulate the development of the circular economy proposed in the European Action Plan can be viewed as a prototype for designing similar strategies in other countries, including Russia. Meanwhile, a more detailed analysis of barriers to the circular economy at the level of individual countries and regions is needed.

scholarly journals Towards a Circular Economy Taxation Framework: Expectations and Challenges of Implementation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonidas Milios
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Material Resource ◽  
Waste Hierarchy ◽  
Tax Relief

AbstractThe transition to a circular economy is a complex process requiring wide multi-level and multi-stakeholder engagement and can be facilitated by appropriate policy interventions. Taking stock of the importance of a well-balanced policy mix that includes a variety of complementing policy instruments, the circular economy action plan of the European Union (COM(2020) 98 final) includes a section about “getting the economics right” in which it encourages the application of economic instruments. This contribution presents a comprehensive taxation framework, applied across the life cycle of products. The framework includes (1) a raw material resource tax, (2) reuse/repair tax relief, and (3) a waste hierarchy tax at the end of life of products. The research is based on a mixed method approach, using different sources to analyse the different measures in the framework. More mature concepts, such as material resource taxes, are analysed by reviewing the existing literature. The analysis of tax relief on repairs is based on interviews with stakeholders in Sweden, where this economic policy instrument has been implemented since 2017. Finally, for the waste hierarchy tax, which is a novel proposition in this contribution, macroeconomic modelling is used to analyse potential impacts of future implementation. In all cases, several implementation challenges are identified, and potential solutions are discussed according to literature and empirical sources. Further research is required both at the individual instrument and at the framework level. Each of the tax proposals needs a more detailed examination for its specificities of implementation, following the results of this study.

scholarly journals Environmental Consequences of Closing the Textile Loop—Life Cycle Assessment of a Circular Polyester Jacket

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2964
Author(s):  
Gregor Braun ◽  
Claudia Som ◽  
Mélanie Schmutz ◽  
Roland Hischier
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Energy And Material Flows

The textile industry is recognized as being one of the most polluting industries. Thus, the European Union aims to transform the textile industry with its “European Green Deal” and “Circular Economy Action Plan”. Awareness regarding the environmental impact of textiles is increasing and initiatives are appearing to make more sustainable products with a strong wish to move towards a circular economy. One of these initiatives is wear2wearTM, a collaboration consisting of multiple companies aiming to close the loop for polyester textiles. However, designing a circular product system does not lead automatically to lower environmental impacts. Therefore, a Life Cycle Assessment study has been conducted in order to compare the environmental impacts of a circular with a linear workwear jacket. The results show that a thoughtful “circular economy system” design approach can result in significantly lower environmental impacts than linear product systems. The study illustrates at the same time the necessity for Life Cycle Assessment practitioners to go beyond a simple comparison of one product to another when it comes to circular economy. Such products require a wider system analysis approach that takes into account multiple loops, having interconnected energy and material flows through reuse, remanufacture, and various recycling practices.

scholarly journals New tools and opportunities in growth and climate friendly greening for small and medium enterprises in the European Union

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-31
Author(s):  
Xénia Szanyi-Gyenes ◽  
György Mudri ◽  
Mária Bakosné Böröcz
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Access To Finance ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
The Eu

The role of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is unquestionable in the European economies, while financial opportunities are still inadequate for them. The more than 20 million SMEs play a significant role in European economic growth, innovation and job creation. According to the latest EC Annual Report , SMEs are accounting for 99% of all non-financial enterprises, employing 88.8 million people and generating almost EUR 3.7 tn in added value for our economy. Despite the fact that there is plenty of EU funding available for these SMEs, for certain reasons these funds hardly reach them. But we have to see that the EU supports SMEs by various way, e.g. by grants, regulatory changes, financial instrument, direct funds. On the other hand, SMEs and decision makers realised that the environmental sustainability has to be attached to the economic growth, therefore more and more tools are available for these enterprises. Over the last few years, public institutions, the market, the financial community and non-governmental associations have explicitly demanded that firms improve their environmental performance. One of the greatest opportunities might lay in the Climate- and Energy Strategy till 2030 as 20% of the EU budget is allocated to climate-related actions, however the easy access to finance is still a key question. Does the EU recognise the actual difficulties? Is there a systemic reason behind the absorption problems? Is the EU creating a more businessfriendly environment for SMEs, facilitating access to finance, stimulates the green and sustainable growth and improving access to new markets? The paper analyses the current European situation of the SMEs and the effectiveness of some new tools, which are specially targeting SMEs. JEL classification: Q18

scholarly journals Circular Economy on Construction and Demolition Waste: A Literature Review on Material Recovery and Production

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 2970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarence P. Ginga ◽  
Jason Maximino C. Ongpeng ◽  
Ma. Klarissa M. Daly
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Construction And Demolition Waste ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Demolition Waste ◽  
Material Recovery ◽  
New Construction

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) accounts for at least 30% of the total solid waste produced around the world. At around 924 million tons in the European Union in 2016 and 2.36 billion tons in China in 2018, the amount is expected to increase over the next few years. Dumping these wastes in sanitary landfills has always been the traditional approach to waste management but this will not be feasible in the years to come. To significantly reduce or eliminate the amount of CDW being dumped, circular economy is a possible solution to the increasing amounts of CDW. Circular economy is an economic system based on business models which replaces the end-of-life concept with reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovering materials. This paper discusses circular economy (CE) frameworks—specifically material recovery and production highlighting the reuse and recycling of CDW and reprocessing into new construction applications. Likewise, a literature review into recent studies of reuse and recycling of CDW and its feasibility is also discussed to possibly prove the effectivity of CE in reducing CDW. Findings such as effectivity of recycling CDW into new construction applications and its limitations in effective usage are discussed and research gaps such as reuse of construction materials are also undertaken. CE and recycling were also found to be emerging topics. Observed trends in published articles as well as the use of latent Dirichlet allocation in creating topic models have shown a rising awareness and increasing research in CE which focuses on recycling and reusing CDW.

scholarly journals A Process Oriented MCDM Approach to Construct a Circular Economy Composite Index

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Garcia-Bernabeu ◽  
Adolfo Hilario-Caballero ◽  
David Pla-Santamaria ◽  
Francisco Salas-Molina
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
National Level ◽  
Composite Index ◽  
Composite Indicator ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Monitoring Framework

The purpose of this contribution is to develop a Circular Economy Composite indicator to benchmark EU countries performance. Europe is at the forefront of the global transition towards a sustainable and circular economy. To this end, the European Commission has launched in 2015 a Circular Economy Action Plan including a monitoring framework to measure progress and to assess the effectiveness of initiatives towards the circular economy in the European Union (EU) and Member States. Still, this monitoring framework lacks a composite indicator at the national level to aggregate the circular economy dimensions into a single summary indicator. Although there is a wide range of sustainability composite indicators, no aggregate circular economy index exits to this date. We use a multi-criteria approach to construct a circular economy composite index based on TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preferences by Similarity to Ideal Solutions) methodology. In addition, we introduce a novel aggregation methodology for building a composite indicator where different levels of compensability for the distances to the ideal and anti-ideal (or negative-ideal) values of each indicator are considered. In order to illustrate the advantages of this proposal, we have applied it to evaluate the Circular Economy performance of EU Member States for the year 2016. This proposal can be a valuable tool for identifying areas in which the countries need to concentrate their efforts to boost their circular economy performance.

scholarly journals Innovative activity as a determinant of competitiveness of industrial enterprise

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-9
Author(s):  
Nataliia DASHCHENKO
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Innovative Activity ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Innovation Activity ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Export Credit ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
Production Technologies

The article deals with the dependence of the competitiveness of industrial enterprises on the level of innovation activity. The essence and main characteristics of the competitive advantages of the enterprise from the point of view of innovative activity in the course of innovative activity are highlighted. One of the factors that can increase the competitiveness of business is the active use of innovative production technologies, which will ensure a continuous improvement of scientific, technical, industrial, financial and social activities in the context of changes in the institutional environment. The results of analytical research of priority sectors of Ukrainian economy from the point of view of innovative activity are presented. With the transition of the economy to the next technological institution, it is worth talking about the change of priority industries in the structure of industry - from low-processing with low added value to innovative high-tech and high-margin. As the first Ukrainian Business Innovation Index showed, only some companies are ready to invest in innovation and have a strategic vision. According to research, most companies are still not ready and do not plan to make fundamental changes in their business models in the near future. Innovation is limited to the introduction of new production technologies, automation of tasks, training of staff new skills, changing approach to marketing and communications. The necessity of systematic support of innovative activity is substantiated, the basic directions of optimization of structure of economy of Ukraine are allocated. The European vector of Ukraine gives a good chance to digitize the processes. In particular, for state-owned companies in areas such as energy and oil and gas, the prospect of digitalization has become the prospect of entering the European Union. However, without major changes to the regulatory system, government priorities, and extensive government-business cooperation, no real major changes can be expected. The issue is not only in the tax field or subsidization, but also in education, digital skills of the population. The necessity of updating the issue of development of high-tech sectors of the economy has been proved, which will increase the competitiveness of industrial enterprises. Given the trends identified, it is appropriate to emphasize the need to take concrete actions to change the structure of the economy, to increase exports of high-tech products, the creation of export-credit agencies, industrial parks.

scholarly journals The Commitment of Packaging Industry in the Framework of the European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleonora Foschi ◽  
Alessandra Bonoli
Keyword(s):  
European Commission ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Food Packaging ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Official Journal ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Market Restriction ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Plastic Products

European Commission is strongly committed into issues related to plastic materials production and plastic waste management. While the Circular Economy Package has set targets generally referred to recycling rates, the European Strategy for plastics in a circular economy (and related action plan), fosters sustainability along the entire plastic value chain: from primary producers to converters, brand owners and retailers to waste collectors and recyclers. The Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (more commonly known as Directive on Single-Use-Plastics, waiting for publication in the Official Journal of the European Union) rules targets on ten plastic products most often found as littering on global beaches, directly affecting plastic industry and, consequently, market. Policy makers and industrial stakeholders are called upon to collaborate. The article aims to illustrate interactions between European Commission and all plastic value chain stakeholders on implementing measures to reach ambitious targets pursued by the recent European policy. The study shows how European Commission has robustly worked to regulate production and consumption patterns on plastic carrier bags and packaging (including food packaging) thus facilitating the achievement of specific targets provided by the recent Directive. However, additional provisions concerning market restriction have been introduced; industrial stakeholders carried on a prompt response by promoting the creation of alliances, join venture and association, as well as a more integrated plastic value chain. On the base of this purpose, a virtuous example of a closed supply chain is presented.

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