VELTHA'S NEWSLETTER N°18
Veltha is very grateful for your support and interest in what we do to perform research and enable knowledge exchange in the field of Circular Economy.
The Policy Lab springs to Action and
becomes an incubator for EU project proposals!
Veltha is proud to announce the Policy Lab transition towards a more practical direction: the lab will no longer be just about information exchange but also ideas for practical use. After many discussions and knowledge exchange with European regions, we have decided to get down to business and take the lessons learned from our past Policy Labs and our event under the COP26 framework, to become an incubator for EU project proposals.
So what's next?
As you may know, we have held Policy Labs with several regions within the EU in order to improve understanding about the transition to circularity and identify the possibilities for a just and equitable transition to this new economic system. During the 3-month period of our Labs, the regions and private stakeholders raised a number of significant and challenging issues that could hamper or have an impact on the transition towards circularity. Having collected all the inputs and feedback, we are pleased to announce that the next upcoming Policy Lab will be held on December 16th, 2021, from 10:00 to 12:00 CET. Attending this very first workshop is of vital importance, as we will briefly introduce the existing interregional funding instruments that represent the framework for potential project ideas, and together for a circular economy world, we will exploit the Policy Lab platform to proactively create and brainstorm ideas for EU project proposals.
Are you a regional representative interested in participating?
Get out your calendars, another Loops episode is coming!
We are honoured to invite you all to the fourth episode of Loops 2.0 that will be streamed virtually on the 30th of November, 2021, at 11:00 CET.
Another Loops episode is upon us and this time we will be diving into the world of water reuse. To help us with this exciting discussion we have invited along two Horizon 2020 projects using circular solutions to recover in-demand nutrients and resources across Europe. Joining us as our special guests are Frank Rogalla, the project coordinator for RUN4LIFE, and Roelof Roll, the project coordinator for ZEROBRINE.
Currently, in Europe, about 1 billion cubic metres of treated urban wastewater is reused annually. According to the European Commission this only accounts for 2.4% of the treated urban wastewater effluents and less than 0.5% of annual EU freshwater withdrawals. More can be reused as the reuse of treated wastewater can provide significant environmental, social, and economic benefits.
What are the projects doing you ask?
The RUN4LIFE project's aim is to recover nutrients and resources from wastewater such as domestic wastewater (black, grey, and organic kitchen water) using innovative technologies to reuse the water and by putting it into fertilizers creating a circular solution.
The ZEROBRINE project's aim is to re-design the value and supply chain of water and minerals by using a circular economy approach for the recovery of resources from brine generated by process industries.
A call to tackle textile waste: 11 Countries write a joint letter to the EU
In a joint letter sent in the first week of October 2021, eleven European countries have reached out to the European Commission in an effort to demand new measures to tackle the issue of waste in the textile industry. The letter is a follow-up to the roundtable discussion that took place on the 1st of June, 2021, attended by Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius to discuss initiatives created by the European Commission. The letter was released by the eleven European countries as a response to share their views on the EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles. In the EU, approximately 2.2 million tons of textile municipal solid waste was generated in 2018, the figure is believed to have risen as the average European discards around 11kg of textiles per year. The letter highlights the need for a more circular and sustainable approach that increases the market for Europe to stay competitive without losing focus on both environmental and social aspects in the textiles sector. Find out in the blog the demands set out by the eleven countries.
Rethinking the Food System through Circular Economy
The global food system can be defined as an interconnected network encompassing the whole range of actors, infrastructures, and activities involved in the production, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food and diet products throughout the world, that originate from agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and parts of the wider economic, societal, and natural environments in which they are embedded. Food security for the consumers within this global food system is considered by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as having the following four levels: availability of food, economic and physical access to food, food utilization to reach a state of nutritional well-being, and the balance and solidity of the previous three levels over time. However, our current food system is filled with inequalities and issues that prevent adequate food security for all. Find out in our blog the solution to tackle food security after the Covid-19 crisis and how the food system can succeed through a circular economy.
