Michael Brunn

Over the past legislative cycle, the EU introduced ambitious circular economy measures, yet the absence of strong market signals, predictable demand and a coherent industrial policy has limited their overall impact.

The BIR expresses concern regarding the announcement made last week by European Commission Executive Vice-President for Trade, Maroš Šefčovič, on the launch of preparatory work on a new trade measure targeting recycled aluminium exports from the European Union, with a formal proposal expected in spring 2026.

The hours spent training production and maintenance teams can lead to variable results. They might just tick the boxes without providing a return on investment. Or they can enhance safety, foster team building, and develop a deep understanding of the equipment that boosts efficiency and uptime.

The European PET value chain encourages the adoption of the pr EN18120 series for design for recycling and recyclability assessment protocols for plastics packaging developed by CEN TC261/SC4/WG10 Design for Recycling (DfR) standards for plastic packaging, developed under the European Commission's mandate.

Haelixa's DNA marker is applied directly to post-industrial and post-consumer waste, before shredding, staying intact through New Focus Textiles' mechanical recycling process. The non-toxic DNA marker, which is derived from Swiss mountain herbs, is a permanent tag, and cannot be removed or copied, remaining embedded throughout spinning, weaving, dyeing, and finishing.

The project, Beyond Single-Use Plastics: Processing Innovation Driving Sustainable Pharmaceutical Packaging (SusPack), is coordinated by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and delivered by a consortium of 12 partners. SusPack focuses on industry-led innovation to advance sustainable medicines manufacturing in the UK, addressing waste reduction, emissions control, and energy efficiency. The project has been awarded funding under the Innovate UK Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Programme (SMMIP) Grand Challenge.

Compared with 2023, the circularity rate increased by 0.1 percentage points (pp), however, it is the highest share on record so far. Compared with 2015, the rate is 1.0 pp higher.

Partnering with digital trade specialist company Ubloquity, the new system sets a new global standard for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance, delivering transparent and granular traceability for Plaswire's RX polymer - a recycled composite material derived from decommissioned wind turbine blades. This marks the world's first application of blockchain to track and verify recycled polymers throughout the entire lifecycle, from blade collection to reuse.

For Germans, Germany's raw material security starts at the recycling center, as the IFAT Circularity Monitor, a representative YouGov survey commissioned by IFAT Munich, shows. 73% of Germans rate the circular economy as important with regard to national (raw material) security, and more than half see it as a pacesetter for new economic growth. At the same time, 83% state that they still feel poorly or only sufficiently informed about this subject.

The sellers of Auris Noble will retain minority ownership positions and continue to lead day-to-day operations.