An $8.4 million, multi-year project in Europe found that providing incentives directly to consumers can impact the recycling rates of mobile devices.

Nottingham Trent University in the UK led an international consortium as part of the CIRC4Life project. Spanning May 2018 through Oct. 2021, the European Union-funded effort sought to improve the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Recycling rates of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) could be improved with incentives such as discounts with retailers or credits towards the planting of trees, a pilot study has shown.

As part of the CIRC4Life project - conducted by an international consortium led by Nottingham Trent University - a new recycling and reusing incentive system was developed to increase the recycling of items such as mobile phones, tablets and more.

Recycling rates of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) could be improved with incentives such as discounts with retailers or credits towards the planting of trees, a pilot study has shown.

Co-creation, one of CIRC4Life’s business models, is a methodology for integrating stakeholders’ feedback in the development of new products and services.

This business model aims to bring end-users closer to the design and manufacturing phases by identifying their preferences and needs. It also fosters an improved understanding of the interactions between the different actors of the supply chain.

Our collaborative recycling and reuse business modelis based on a user-friendly waste collection system and aims to put citizens at the heart of the process.

Future owners of this model will develop a collection system for sorted residues by involving all stakeholders; citizens, but also municipalities, businesses and companies exploiting waste.

The recycling activities are supported by a smartphone app, a traceability module and an eco-credits incentives scheme, which rewards consumers for sorting their waste and recycling reusable or repairable items.

Our circular business model for driving sustainable consumption aims to deliver accountable, eco-oriented processing along the value chain, from producer to consumer.

By presenting the customer with options and the right methodology to assess the environmental impact of products, this model enables the consumer to make more sustainable decisions.

The model also provides a traceability solution to monitor a product’s sustainability along the value chain and supports end-users and stakeholders to actively implement the circular economy via awareness raising and knowledge sharing activities.

Two online final events were organised and hosted by CEPS in collaboration with Make Mothers Matteron 22nd and 23rd of September 2021 under the heading “Closing the Loop: Circular Economy Business Models in the Electronics and Agri-food sectors”.

The circular economy is at the core of the transformation of Europe’s industrial landscape and the move towards more sustainable economic models. Next to the central role it now has in EU policy strategies like the Green Deal and economic growth and recovery, it is also increasingly being integrated in business strategies, practices and supply chains. Despite its growth in industrial applications, a variety of barriers limit the adoption of circular practices by businesses. However, several opportunities also exist and have helped inspire the uptake of circular business models.

The events discussed lessons learnt from the implementation of circular economy business models in CIRC4Life project and looked at the existing challenges and policies needed to further boost circular solutions.

On the 10th of June 2021, over 120 participants took part in CIRC4Life EU Green Week 2021 Partner Event entitled: ‘Traceability across circular value chains: How to unlock its potential and mitigate challenges?’

CIRC4Life is a demonstration project, which is developing three circular economy business models (CEBMs) in 4 sectors (industrial and domestic LED lighting, tablets, vegetables , meat supply chain), implemented by 5 European companies.  The business models aim to engage consumers in the transition towards a circular economy using 3 approaches: Co-Creation of products and services with end-users, Sustainable Consumption and Collaborative Recycling/Reuse.

A few years ago, on the occasion of the International Day of Families, CIRC4Life partner MMM organised a successful conference on "The Role of Families in Achieving the Circular Economy", in collaboration with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

During the two-day Open Innovation Camp event, 70 circular economy experts from 18 countries took part in evaluating the CIRC4Life results and jointly and individually provided critical and encouraging comments. Participants provided excellent feedback, mentioning an intense but well structured workflow, excellent presentations, and valuable exchanges.

Today, our consumption and production patterns are not sustainable. Raw materials are collected, transformed into products which are used briefly, and then thrown away. This “take, make, waste” economy creates an unprecedented pressure on our environment.  In order to achieve a more sustainable future, strengthen our social foundation while staying within planetary boundaries, we need to rethink how businesses create value, for their clients and society at large.  Circular business models, which adopt a set of circular principles to close the loop, offer a promising avenue. But which mindset can support the design of successful circular business models? The three ingredients below should be addressed when cooking your new circular venture.

Last week, the intelligent bin for the collection of out of use small electrical and electronic equipment was installed in another school in Getxo, Spain. This time the container was placed in the Julio Caro Baroja Institute where students will take part in the demonstration. This is the second school to participate in the project and again it was great to see the enthusiasm shown by the pupils!

CIRC4Life partner ALIA (Spain) have launched their second collaborative recycling pilot project, this time in the city of Lorca, in collaboration with the City Council and the municipal waste management company LIMUSA. ALIA is an animal feed manufacturer, in charge of the demonstration of CIRC4Life’s three CEBMs in the meat sector.

In the presence of the town’s mayor and other local authorities, CIRC4Life partner ALIA, an animal feed manufacturer, recently installed an intelligent bin for the collection of biowaste in the town of Abarán. This pilot action is part of ALIA’s undertaking to develop products and services in a more sustainable and efficient way. Within the framework of the CIRC4Life project, ALIA’s aim has been to co-create circular economy solutions with all relevant stakeholders, engage citizens in collaborative reuse and recycling and promote sustainable consumption.

According to a recent study by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) it is estimated that a stock of 700 million electrical and electronic devices is “hibernating” in EU households, a clear case of untapped potential! In a hypothetical scenario where all these devices are collected and recycled, approximately 14,920 tonnes of gold, silver, copper, palladium, cobalt, and lithium with a value of over €1 billion could be recovered, making significant amounts of secondary material available again.

On 20th October 2020, our partner CEPS organised a webinar called “How to encourage consumer engagement in the circular economy”. The event gathered 70 participants including representatives from national governments, EU institutions, NGO’s, academia and businesses.

Drawing on the results of CIRC4Life, which implements circular economy business models in different value chains, this event presented examples of circular business models and discuss how to engage consumers in circular practices as their buy-in is key to unlocking the potential of new circular approaches.

On 20th October 2020, our partner CEPS organised a webinar called “How to encourage consumer engagement in the circular economy”. The event gathered 70 participants including representatives from national governments, EU institutions, NGO’s, academia and businesses.

Drawing on the results of CIRC4Life, which implements circular economy business models in different value chains, this event presented examples of circular business models and discuss how to engage consumers in circular practices as their buy-in is key to unlocking the potential of new circular approaches.

A book entitled “Sustainable Product Development: Tools, Methods and Examples” was published by Springer in May 2020. This book is edited by Professor Daizhong Su, the coordinator of the CIRC4Life project. He is the Head of Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering Centre at Nottingham Trent University and has been working in product design and manufacture for more than 35 years and conducts research in sustainable product development for the last 20 years.

Our demo 3 is testing the three CIRC4Life business models on a micro-farm during the production process of vegetables (salads and potatoes) situated on the island of St. Martin’s (Isles of Scilly, UK).  The demo was launched in September 2020, and will be running until July 2021.

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In the next weeks and lasting until July 2021, our partner Kosnic, an industrial luminaire producer, will be launching a demonstration in the county of Berkshire (UK).  Our partner ONA will also be launching a domestic lighting demo during the same period in Valencia (Spain). Due to COVID19, some demo activities have been postponed or cancelled.

Our partners, Indumetal recycling, a WEEE recycling company, and Recyclia, an environmental platform for recycling electronic products, batteries and lamps, are putting circular economy into practice by developing a demonstration (pilot) in Getxo (Basque Country), in Spain. It will run from November 2020 until September 2021, in collaboration with Getxo’s Local Authority, local shops and schools.

DEMO 4 is applying the three business models into the meat supply chain. The pilot aims to co-create circular economy solutions with all relevant stakeholders, promote sustainable consumption and engage citizens in collaborative reuse and recycling. It is taking place in Lorca and Abarán villages (Region of Murcia, Spain) and it was launched in June 2020 and will run until July 2021.

From the 22nd to 25th September, our partner Laurea University of Applied Sciences invited staff, students and guests to visit the CIRC4Life showroom as part of the real life testing of the living lab activities. The objective was to collect feedback from end-users on our new products and the developed app at their Tikkurila campus in Vantaa (Finland).

The CIR4Life project showroom is taking place between the 22nd to 25th September 2020. It will showcase project developments and products & collect feedback from end-users at Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland.

We are inviting staff, students and guests to visit the CIRC4Life showroom exhibition located at the Tikkurila campus on the second floor.

Our partner Laurea UAS has launched a new survey on the eco-point concept and in particular in relation to the eco-recycling, eco-shopping and incentives schemes.

We would like to know if the CIRC4Life eco-account would help you adopt eco-friendly shopping habits and recycle and reuse electronic products more frequently.

Please help us design better ways to encourage people to make more sustainable choices by answering our survey (in English or Spanish) which will be open until the 22th of June 2020.

Imagine a future where a user or buyer of a product can access close to all of the vital information: environmental and social impacts of the products production and use, support resources such as manuals, learning materials, systems for feedback and collaboration and knowledge support for effective recycling/ repair/ refurbishment through one integrating user interface. Imagine a future where a company can compile all relevant information on a product’s content and impact from different and distributed sources – regardless of the type of information and data. Imagine a procurement office that can evaluate a product from many more aspects than price: total product environmental and social impacts, availability of future re-use markets, future potential for effective recycling/ re-use/ repair/ refurbishment and future efficiency in closing the resource loops. These contexts expose ICT solutions to extensive challenges in the forms of data complexities, demands on performance, IP management and data/ transmission volumes.

Eco-shopping has been launched in the demo (pilot) taking place in Lorca and Abaran (Region of Murcia, Spain) beginning of May in two shops in order to collect consumer preferences on the new developed products as long as the products will be in the shops.

In the framework of the CIRC4Life project, an ICT platform was created to support new circular economy business models (CEBM) and the Eco-account system which were developed within the project. The platform supports the models across the value chain by serving stakeholders along their purchasing and recycling behaviors. The ICT platform collects necessary information and offers tools facilitating the following CEBM’s actions: sustainable consumption, collaborative recycling and reuse, traceability of product’s sustainability along the value chain and actor’s cooperation in terms of circular economy.

The CIRC4Life project has created a new tool linked to an innovative incentive scheme which encourages end-users to adopt eco-friendly behaviours and allows them to make informed sustainable consumption choices.

Circular economy features as a key priority in the European Green Deal, which signals the new Commission’s ambition to accelerate the circular transition, and recognises the importance of developing markets for climate neutral and circular products.

Some key questions that need to be addressed in the coming years are the following: How can we encourage consumers and businesses to engage in circular approaches and business models? How do we create the business case and ensure consumer buy-in? Introducing the right incentives for circular economy business models and consumers will be key to achieve the circular economy potential.

On November 5th 2019, our partner Recyclia conducted its annual EcoEncuentro meeting, which gathered more than 200 professionals in the electronic recycling sector of Spain. The meeting aimed to present the current situation and future prospects of the recycling of waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Spain.

In addition, For its part, our partner ALIA took part in SEPOR the Livestock, Industry and Agrifood trade fair happening between the 4th and 7th November 2019. It is organized every year in Lorca (Murcia) and biodiversity, animal health and technological advances are presented and discussed. It is one of the most important and ancient trade fairs inside the Iberian Peninsula with more than 72,000  visitors.

The CIRC4Life project is developing three new circular economy business models that aims to engage consumers in the transition towards a circular economy. The new business models are the following:

1. Co-Creation of products and services with end-users

2. Sustainable Consumption

3. Collaborative Recycling/Reuse

These new business models will be demonstrated and piloted in 4 sectors by relevant industrial partners in Spain and the UK:

Between July and October 2019, Make Mothers Matter conducted three consumer surveys covering the following topics:

• Reuse and Recycling attitudes

• The eco-points system (rewarding scheme for consumers adopting sustainable behaviours)

• Sustainable lighting products

The  aim was to :

• Uncover ways of engaging consumers in CE​ (circular economy)

• Feed the development of business models and demonstrations​

• Provide policy-relevant insights in the transition from linear to circular economy​

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Based on the results of 190 votes, as well as feedback received through CIRC4Life project website, the winner is the label No.4 designed by the CIRC4Life project. However, the Design Challenge Jury has decided to reward the designer of label No. 1., Aleksanteri Repo, with the inclusive invitation to the Innovation Camp 2020, to be held in Spain, as the winner among external participants.

On September 24th, our partners CIRCE and Indumetal are organising a workshop in Gexto (Spain) in collaboration with the Getxo Municipality, local businesses and citizens.  The objective is to motivate citizens & consumers to collect unused electrical and electronic products (such as tablets or mobile phones) in order to create a collaborative reuse and recycling system.

Make Mothers Matter has launched a new consumer survey on the eco-points system. We are looking to involve end-users in the creation and design of new business models. Our aim is to develop an app showing the environmental impact of consumer choices when buying, reusing or recycling products.

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Your input is crucial as we are looking to understand the preferences of end-users to better integrate them in the development of the new circular economy business models. 

The CIRC4Life consumer’s survey on LED lighting products is launched!

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We are looking to involve end-users in the creation and design of new business models. Our aim is to develop new sustainable domestic and industrial lighting products. 

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Your input is crucial as we are looking to understand the preferences of end-users to better integrate them in the development of the circular economy business models. 

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The CIRC4life Design Challenge 2019 has been officially launched by Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland.

We invite design students, professionals, and citizens of the EU and worldwide to take part in designing a more sustainable lifestyle. It will be open for submissions until the September 29th.

The competition seeks answers to the following questions: How can we make sustainability information of a product visual and easy to understand? What kind of sustainability visualisation would have an impact on consumers purchasing decision? 

For more information, please visit this page: https://www.circ4life.eu/challenge-description

The CIRC4Life project is creating a new eco-points system linked to an innovative incentive scheme to encourage end-users to reuse and recycle their products. It shows the environmental information of a product in a simplified way to end-users in order to promote informed sustainable consumption choices. It also introduces novel features called eco-credits. Users can accumulate these points obtaining eco-credits if they reuse or recycle a product. The end-user’s environmental impacts will be recorded in an eco-account thanks to a mobile app on their smartphones. They will be then able to recycle their products via an intelligent recycling system in a nearby collection point. Eco-credits can be transformed into a discount or a similar incentive when buying another product.

The concept of a Circular Economy (CE) is based on interconnected companies that form infrastructure and economy, coming together and re-thinking the operating system itself. In this sense CE forms an ecosystem to solve complex problems, which cannot be solved by individual companies and organisations.

Living Labs is a concept used as part of the stakeholder engagement process in our project in order to test in a real life setting new products or services. Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland is responsible for the Living Labs. Their role in the project is to develop a common framework and implementation plan for Living Labs, and to coordinate end-user and stakeholder involvement in the Living Lab activities. The CIRC4Life Living Lab is used both as a methodological approach towards development of Circular Economy Business Models, and as a process of engaging stakeholders in a systematic way. Living Lab activities started in October 2018 and will last until October 2020.

On the 5th of July we launched the consumer’s survey on attitudes to reuse and recycling concerning electronic and food products.  The main objectives are to involve end-users in the creation and design of the new business models and raise awareness about the importance of reuse and recycling.

The survey period will run until September 16th 2019 and we hope to collect many responses from all over Europe. 

Recyclia, the main entity handling electrical and electronic waste (WEEE), batteries and lighting products in Spain, has taken up the challenge to identify what type of incentive schemes would best encourage end-users to reduce food waste and to reuse and recycle electronic devices. They mapped existing incentive schemes, identified potential barriers, proposed solutions and policy recommendations to address these challenges.

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The idea behind the incentive schemes is to find ways to make waste management attractive and beneficial to the general public in order decrease the amount of waste generated, increase the reuse and recycling ratios, thus, saving resources and raw materials.

Several partners from the CIRC4Life research project (Laurea, Enviro Data and Make Mothers Matter) are participating at the 3rd  edition of the World Circular Economy Forum in Helsinki from 3 to 5 June 2019. Around 2000 practitioners from across the world have gathered to discuss how to scale up the circular economy.

Make Mothers Matter is organising in partnership with the European Economic and Social Committee on the eve of the International Day of Families a seminar on “the Role of Families in achieving the Circular Economy”.

The CIRC4Life Innovation Camp will take place from 12 to 15th November. It is an open innovation and co-creation spring where multidisciplinary and multicultural teams work on developing user-centred solutions for a real-life challenge in a set timeframe.

On 22nd October 2018, CIRC4Life coordinator Professor Daizhong Su and Georgios Tsimiklis from ICCS participated in the second edition of the World Circular Economy Forum 2018 (WCEF) taking place in Yokohama (Japan).

CIRCE, Indumetal, Recyclia had a project meeting with company Ihobe at Bilbao on 16th July. Ihopeis a publicly-owned company coming under the Basque Government's Ministry for the Environment, Territorial Planning and Housing. Ihobe supports the Basque Government in the implementation of the environmental policy and in the spreading of the environmental sustainability culture in the Basque Autonomous Community. Ihobe's mission as a publicly-owned company is to support the Basque Government's Minister for the Environment, Territorial Planning and Housing in the implementation of the environmental policy and in the spreading of the sustainability culture in the Basque Autonomous Community.

A €7.2-million (£6.4-million) project led by Nottingham Trent University is looking to develop a circular economy approach for everyday products and services throughout their life cycles.

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The ‘CIRC4Life’ project is funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme, a €77-billion (£68-billion) research and innovation funding programme running from 2014 to 2020, and aims to reduce carbon emissions and divert waste from landfill.

Nottingham Trent University is leading a €7.2 million project to develop a circular economy approach for everyday products and services through their life cycles.

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The ‘CIRC4Life’ project – funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme – will work to reduce carbon emissions and the amount of waste going to landfill.

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Three new circular economy business models will be developed along the product value chain. They will be demonstrated in four industrial areas: LED lighting products, computer tablets, meat supply chain and organic vegetable foods and farming.

Nottingham Trent University is leading a €7.2 million project to develop a circular economy approach for everyday products and services through their life cycles.