Titel Deelnemers "Korte inhoud" "Toward circular economy : the impact of policy instruments on circular economy innovation for European small medium enterprises" "Qiuzhen Ren, Johan Albrecht" "The transition from current linear economy toward a circular economy (CE) needs the adoption and diffusion of circular economy innovation (CEI). However, the rate and direction of CEI influenced by policy instruments are still not well understood. This paper explores the roles of demand-pull and technology-push policy instruments in shaping CEI in Europe. The different impacts on the adoption across different sectors and the specific effects on each circularity innovation pattern are also examined. The findings indicate that both command-and-control regulation and technology-push instruments are significant in stimulating Small Medium Enterprises' (SMEs') adoption of CEI. While the environmental tax hinders SMEs' implementation of CEI in the whole economic activity sectors, it is a significant driver of CEI for SMEs in the manufacturing sector. The technology-push in-strument strongly encourages SMEs to invest in re-planning and re-designing activities to minimize the usage or maximize the re-usage of water, energy, and materials. Environmental tax highly determines SMEs' adoption of CEI related to improving energy efficiency. In contrast, the command-and-control regulation significantly in-creases SMEs' likelihood to undertake innovation activity in minimizing waste by recycling or reusing the waste. Our study elucidates the potential interactions between policy instruments and CEI, paving the way toward the desirable CE." "The Challenge of Circular Economy in the Concrete Sector: Life Cycle Thinking Approaches to Assess the Environmental and Economic Impact of Alternatives to Conventional Concrete" "Andrea Di Maria" "Circular economy (CE) is receiving increasing attention worldwide as a way to replace the current linear production/consumption model. Within the ""European Circular Economy package"", a set of actions supported by the European Commission in 2015, the construction sector has a prominent role in the transition towards a CE. Among the traditional construction materials, concrete is the most commonly used in modern construction. Concrete is a proportionated mix of hydraulic cement, acting as a binder, and fine coarse aggregates. Due to the massive use of natural aggregates and the emissions released during cement production, concrete raises considerable environmental concerns. Concrete uses up to 42% of natural aggregates produced globally in 1 year, and the ordinary Portland cement (OPC), the most commonly used binder in concrete, is responsible for the 8-10% of the global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Therefore, the interest for CE in the concrete sector has rapidly increased, to find alternatives to OPC and natural aggregates, but also to create new opportunities for businesses and employment. To assess the environmental performances of the proposed alternatives, attributional life cycle assessment (ALCA) is the most commonly used methodology. However, this assessment method presents some methodological issues when applied to the evaluation of the CE for the construction sector. The goal of the thesis is, therefore, to analyse the environmental and economic costs/benefits of alternative construction blocks produced using metallurgic slag and recycled construction and demolition waste. The thesis also explores different methodological approaches in LCA, to investigate how different approaches may lead to different results. The results presented in the thesis can provide useful information for policymakers to promote the aspects contributing to sustainability and to limit the ones creating a barrier for CE in the construction sector. To achieve the goal of the thesis, chapter 2 and chapter 3 present an ALCA evaluation of two newly developed construction materials that use metallurgic slags (stainless steelslag and industrial goethite) as an alternative to OPC. The thesis analysed threedifferent valorisation routes: alkali activation, carbonation, combined ""plasma fuming + inorganic polymerisation"". The analysis highlighted the environmental benefits of the slag-based materials, such as the avoided landfilling of the slag and the reduction of carbon emissions for alkali activation and carbonation. At the same time, the analysis highlighted some environmental hotspots that can still represent a barrier to the development of the proposed technologies. In particular the production of chemicals in the alkali activation, the electricity consumption and the CO2 production for carbonation, and the electricity consumption and direct emission for plasma fuming. In chapter 4 an ALCA is combined with life cycle costing (LCC) to analyse the use of construction and demolition waste as an alternative to natural aggregates in concrete production. The study highlighted the main environmental benefits/hotspots, and the economic barriers of high-quality recycling of construction and demolition waste (CDW). In particular, transport distances play an essential role in the environmental sustainability of the system. The selling price of the recycled aggregates and the investment costs for the construction of the recycling plant are among the leading economic factors affecting the economic viability of CDW high-quality recycling schemes. In chapter 5 a consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) is used to include market dynamics into the environmental LCA analysis.The study identifies the marginal suppliers that are potentially affected by the production of slag-based construction blocks. The study shows the importance of including market dynamics when assessing the large-scale changes. Chapter 6 presents a comparison between ALCA and dynamic life cycle assessment (DLCA), using a time-dependent life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) on climate change, to analyse the long-term effect on global warming of slag-based construction blocks . DLCA has shown more consistency when stating the actual time-frame of the study, allowing a more informed analysis of emission flows and global warming potential (GWP) effect over time. In general, the thesis demonstrated the potential for the implementation of a CE in the concrete sector, and highlights some of the main environmental and economic bottlenecks of the technologies. This provides useful information to help in developing the technologies. The results presented in the thesis can provide more informed decision support on the implementation of CE in the concrete sector, by helping decisionmakers to better understand the environmental and economic consequences of their decision With the presented case studies, the thesis also contributes to the development of methodologies to combine and integrate environmental and economic analysis when assessing the effects of the CE." "Economic and environmental implications of policy instruments for the circular economy" "Macarena Larrain, Pieter Billen, Luis Cifuentes, Steven Van Passel" "The objective of this paper is to examine the recycling rates for mechanical and thermochemical recycling of postconsumer polyethylene flexible packaging after the implementation of different policy instruments. The study uses a supply chain equilibrium model that incorporates market data and techno-economic assessments to simulate market equilibrium. It combines this with a life cycle assessment to explore the environmental implications of implementing different policy instruments. The results show that instruments that do not target a specific technology are more likely to increase thermochemical recycling than mechanical recycling. Furthermore, a higher recycling rate is not equivalent to a better environmental outcome. An increased collection target that ensures a supply of plastic waste would increase the overall recycling rates the most. A recycled content standard for mechanical recycling would lead to the highest increase in mechanical recycling, with top results for environmental indicators, but low results for economic indicators." "Life cycle cost assessment and economic analysis of a decentralized wastewater treatment to achieve water sustainability within the framework of circular economy" "María J. López-Serrano, Fida Hussain Lakho, Stijn Van Hulle, Ana Batlles-delaFuente" "Macroeconomic and environmental consequences of circular economy measures in a small open economy" "Bart Lahcen" "UNLABELLED: This paper investigates the economy-wide impact of the uptake of circular economy (CE) measures for the small open economy (SOE) of Belgium, in particular the impact of fiscal policies in support of lifetime extension through repair activities of household appliances. The impact assessment is completed by means of a computable general equilibrium model as this allows quantification of both the direct and indirect economic and environmental impact of simulated shocks. The results show that different fiscal policy types can steer an economy into a more circular direction. However, depending on the policy type, the impact on the SOE's macroeconomic structure and level of circularity differs. Furthermore, common claims attributed to a CE (e.g. local job creation or decreased import dependence) can be, but are not always, valid. Hence, policy-makers must prioritize their most important macroeconomic goals and opt for an according fiscal policy. Finally, this paper finds that the CO2 equivalent emissions calculated from a production (or territorial) perspective increase, while they decrease from a consumption perspective. This is explained by the substitution of international activities by local circular activities. This comparative analysis advocates for the consumption approach to assess the CE's impact on CO2 equivalent emissions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00168-021-01079-6." "Ensuring circular strategy implementation: The development of circular economy indicators for ports" "Lynn Faut, Fanny Soyeur, Elvira Haezendonck, Michael Dooms, Peter De Langen" "Port clusters are expected to play a significant role in the transition towards a circular economy, both at the level of facilitating regional and global transport within circular production chains, as well as hosting circular activities in port areas. There is strong evidence that significant investments in the circular economy (CE) are being made in port areas, albeit without much knowledge on their impacts. To ensure an efficient use of port resources in view of this transition, these impacts should be adequately monitored. Research on circular economy indicators for ports is still in an exploratory stage, characterized by an absence of in-depth research on the development of port-related circular economy indicators. This paper focuses on the development of a comprehensive set of relevant and feasible CE indicators, which aim to support port managing bodies (PMBs) as well as port stakeholders to monitor the CE transition taking place. Through multimethod qualitative research, including content analysis, focus groups, a gap analysis and a qualitative survey, an actionable list of CE 12 indicators for ports was developed. Seven of which are highly feasible and five of which have medium feasibility in terms of stakeholder relevance and ease of implementation. Findings related to (1) the overall limited CE ambition levels of PMBs and (2) the difference in the values of some indicators for different port typologies are also discussed. The value of this study for practitioners lies in providing them with an actionable set of KPIs which can support their efforts and communication related to their CE transition." "Macroeconomic and environmental consequences of circular economy measures in a small open economy (November, 10.1007/s00168-021-01079-6, 2021)" "Bart Lahcen" "Circular economy indicators : what do they measure?" "Gustavo Longaray Moraga, Sophie Huysveld, Fabrice Mathieux, Gian Andrea Blengini, Luc Alaerts, Karel Van Acker, Steven De Meester, Jo Dewulf" "Circular Economy (CE) is a growing topic, especially in the European Union, that promotes the responsible and cyclical use of resources possibly contributing to sustainable development. CE is an umbrella concept incorporating different meanings. Despite the unclear concept, CE is turned into defined action plans supported by specific indicators. To understand what indicators used in CE measure specifically, we propose a classification framework to categorise indicators according to reasoning on what (CE strategies) and how (measurement scope), Despite different types, CE strategies can be grouped according to their attempt to preserve functions, products, components, materials, or embodied energy; additionally, indicators can measure the linear economy as a reference scenario. The measurement scope shows how indicators account for technological cycles with or without a Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach; or their effects on environmental, social, or economic dimensions. To illustrate the classification framework, we selected quantitative micro scale indicators from literature and macro scale indicators from the European Union 'CE monitoring framework'. The framework illustration shows that most of the indicators focus on the preservation of materials, with strategies such as recycling. However, micro scale indicators can also focus on other CE strategies considering LCT approach, while the European indicators mostly account for materials often without taking LCT into account. Furthermore, none of the available indicators can assess the preservation of functions instead of products, with strategies such as sharing platforms, schemes for product redundancy, or multifunctionality. Finally, the framework illustration suggests that a set of indicators should be used to assess CE instead of a single indicator." "Resource efficiency indicators to assess circular economy strategies : a case study on four materials in laptops" "Gustavo Longaray Moraga, Sophie Huysveld, Steven De Meester, Jo Dewulf" "Electronics require a complex composition and energy-intensive manufacturing. Yet, most of the world’s waste electrical and electronic equipment is not collected and recycled. Circular economy (CE) strategies can reduce the loss of materials and environmental footprint in electronics. Resource efficiency indicators – typically defined as benefits (handprint) over burdens (footprint) – can measure materials’ life cycle performance. This paper aims to develop resource efficiency indicators that show the benefits and burdens of materials use. We illustrated the indicators with a case study of four materials (aluminium, copper, iron, and plastics) embedded in laptops. The study includes scenarios with different CE strategies: energy recovery, recycling, refurbishing, and reuse. The scenarios show the use of the materials in several cycles of laptops over a 25-year time horizon. Generally, scenarios with cycles of refurbishment and reuse showed improved resource efficiency compared to recycling scenarios. Compared to energy recovery the improvement was up to 189% (refurbishment) and 157% (reuse) in the case of aluminium. Nonetheless, it is remarkable that the average resource efficiency results showed a preference for refurbishing over reuse during 25 years. The result is limited to a shorter functional inuse time of reused laptops. This analysis is relevant for a CE, where the value of materials should be kept for as long as possible. Our methodology expands the traditional one-cycle perspective by measuring the use of materials for 25 years. Policy-makers can use our indicators to assess CE strategies for several product cycles that keep materials in use lowering environmental impacts" "Development of circular economy indicators starting from the in-use occupation of materials" "Gustavo Longaray Moraga"