Construction accounts for 50% of all extracted material use in the EU. The European Commission calls for a further strengthening of resource efficiency in buildings and construction by considering the lifetime costs of a building rather than just the initial costs and also better infrastructure planning. They have set the 2020 milestone to have the majority of rennovation and constuction standards to be of high efficiency standards.

"Launched at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2017, this new research presents three strategies to increase reuse and recycling of plastic packaging to 70%, from today's recycling rate of just 14%. The report provides a clear action plan, endorsed by over 40 industry leaders, for the global plastics industry to design better packaging, increase recycling rates, and introduce new models for making better use of packaging." (https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation....

This commentary by the EASAC primarily examines the proposed benefits and potential enabling policies of the circular economy. A broad range of sources is used to recognize gaps and inadequacies in proposed benefits and policies in order to foster a substantial discussion among stakeholders as to how to proceed in the transition process. The study also examines barriers and indicators and comments on their nature and efficacy respectively. Furthermore, the commentary provides advice regarding avoidance of barriers and the use of proper indicators.

"The challenges of balancing industrial development, environmental and human health, and economic growth in China and elsewhere in the world are drivers for recent resource use and low-carbon development strategies that include the application of the circular economy (CE) concept. A central theme of the CE concept is the valuation of materials within a closed-looped system with the aim to allow for natural resource use while reducing pollution or avoiding resource constraints and sustaining economic growth. The objectives of this study are (1) to review the history of the CE concept to...

If the material artefact remains in the ownership of the producer then there is a financial incentive to direct innovatory activities to produce more durable goods and the producer has responsibility for disposal. A smaller stock of products is needed to satisfy demand and if customers use these sequentially intensity of use increases as does the probability of a higher service yield before the product becomes outdated due to outdated technological characteristics, e.g. fashion. *In result orientated services, producers use their competencies to ensure the correct use of material artefacts...

"Circular building concepts, as proposed within e.g. Circular Economy and Cradle-to-Cradle frameworks, imply radical changes for the construction sector. Cradle-to-Cradle® in particular has put forward the idea of buildings as material banks, radically altering the way material flows need to be managed. The notion of material banks (temporary storage of materials that comprise the building assemblies) sheds new light on the value of building materials and products, and how to maintain and restore this. The basics are straightforward: high quality, pure material use and anticipated material...

"In the last years, the circular economy (CE) paradigm is being widely explored by researchers and institutions as a possible path to increase the sustainability of our economic system. Reuse, repair and recycling are becoming crucial activities in many sectors. At the same time, companies are showing an increasing interest for this new economic model. However, the state of the art shows that a deep research on CE assessment and indicators is still lacking, in particular on the micro level. This work tries to fill this gap, first analyzing the current literature on CE assessment, then...

This paper provides an overview of the main that were discussed at the Global Forum on Extended Producer Responsibility, which took place in Tokyo on 17-19 June 2014.

"This report was prepared for the project "Managing hazardous additives in plastic reycycling in India". This project is part of the Sustainable Recycling Industries programme (SRI), funded by the Swiss State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO) and jointly implemented by the Institute for Materials Science & Technology (Empa), the World Resources Forum (WRF) and ecoinvent." (p. 1)

This report seeks to give an overview of developments related to the sharing economy on both business and consumer level, based on surveys, interviews and social media.