You are here
Circular economy for a sustainable future
In Europe, the circular economy promises to maintain the value of products, materials and resources for as long as possible, while protecting human health and the environment. In 2016, circular activities in the EU generated almost €147 billion in value added with €17.5 billion worth of investments.
Business involvement is key to the success and implementation of the circular economy in Europe. Already today, the private sector has demonstrated leadership in the development of more sustainable practices. This brochure outlines a series of ‘circular’ solutions from across member companies of the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU). The examples feature different dimensions of circularity:
- products that make use of recycled or secondary resources;
- processes that enable the recycling of products or materials; and
- services that contribute to attaining the circular economy in Europe and globally.
For questions, please contact Karina Grucka (KGR@amchameu.eu)
Recommendations:
- Encourage cooperation between governments, industry and civil society to achieve circularity in products and services at every stage of their lifecycle.
- Support innovative approaches for an efficient and responsible use of resources.
- Support models and practices that expand the useful life of products.
- Promote regulatory action that ensures large-scale availability of economically competitive secondary raw materials, for the relevant waste streams, enabled by intra-EU waste shipments.
- Ensure legislation for a circular economy.
- Promote educational consumer campaigns.
- Consider the environmental performance of manufacturing processes and products in public procurement decisions.
- Provide market surveillance and law enforcement authorities with sufficient capabilities to enforce product regulations and environmental standards.
