National
- Econobiz (2023)
- Report on Circular Economy 14.10.22
- The MCCI Roadmap for a Waste Plastic Free Mauritius (2022)
- Republic of Mauritius: Industrial Waste Assessment: Opportunities for Industrial Symbiosis (April 2017)
- Industrial Waste Management - Cost Structure Review Report
- Green Economy Assessment for Mauritius
- UNDP Business Model – Circular Economy Optimising Private Sector Investment in Mauritius
- Circular Economy Roadmap and Action Plan
International
- Delivering The Circular Economy – A Toolkit to Policy Makers
- WEF ACEN Five Big Bets for the Circular Economy in Africa
- OECD Business Models for the Circular Economy
- The Circular Gap Report
- It’s time for a circular economy
- Growing the next generation of materials
- It's time to ask nature
- Building Circularity; Circularity (UNEP)
- Circular-economy-healthy-people-and-planet (UNEP)
Global Alliance on Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency (GACERE) (UNEP)
What a Waste 3.0: Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management Toward Circularity until 2050.
Cook, Ed; Ionkova, Kremena; Bhada-Tata, Perinaz; Yadav, Sonakshi; Van Woerden, Frank. 2026.
Click here to follow link: https://hdl.handle.net/10986/44141
What a Waste 3.0 is the third edition of the World Bank Group’s What a Waste series, following the 2012 and 2018 publications. It updates and expands these earlier publications and provides a global reference dataset on municipal solid waste in the context of a transition toward circularity, drawing on the most recent publicly accessible data from 217 countries and economies and 262 cities. This edition consolidates data on waste generation, composition, collection, treatment, and disposal, and presents trends by region and income group. It also includes information on legislation, institutional arrangements, plastics management, private sector participation, employment, environmental impacts, and the costs and financing of municipal waste services.
Circularity in the built environment. A Reading Guide
ECESP Leadership Group Circular Construction & Infrastructure, March 26th 2025
Click here to follow link: Reading Guide on circularity in the built environment 2025
The past 5 years we have seen significant advancements in adopting circular principles within the construction and infrastructure sectors. The focus has shifted towards minimizing waste, maximizing material efficiency, and integrating sustainable practices at every stage of the building lifecycle. Key trends include the rise of modular construction, increased use of recycled and reused materials, and the development of policies that support circular economy initiatives. This reading guide is designed to help architects, building companies, real estate developers, material suppliers, policymakers and other stakeholders navigate the wealth of information available on circular principles in the built environment.
The guide is structured around key themes, followed by a detailed list of the publications for further reading. This approach ensures that readers can quickly grasp the essential concepts and then delve deeper into specific topics of interest. In addition to providing a comprehensive overview of key publications, this guide highlights the significance of the R strategies—Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, and Recycle—as a foundational framework for the circular economy. These strategies offer a systematic approach to minimizing waste and maximizing resource efficiency, which are essential principles for achieving sustainability in the built environment. By understanding and implementing the R strategies, stakeholders can make informed decisions that contribute to a more resilient and regenerative construction sector.
Building Prosperity
Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation, 2024
Click here to follow link: Building-Prosperity-July-2024.pdf
Shifting to a circular economy, which is nature-positive by design, can build prosperity while tackling climate change and other global challenges. This study shows that a targeted set of investable and scalable actions in the built environment sector represents a signifcant economic opportunity for Europe, increasing resilience, competitiveness, and the vibrancy of its cities. This report is written for policymakers, business leaders, investors, and industry experts with a vested interest in improving the competitiveness of Europe’s economy while delivering benefts to business, individuals, society, and nature. It highlights the importance of the circular economy transition for a prosperous and resilient economy and a thriving natural world. It outlines the potential benefits that are ready to be realised, and the actions that can deliver these positive outcomes now and in the long term. In this report, the nature-positive impact and economic potential of the circular economy framework has been demonstrated through the lens of the built environment, with the report’s research, analytics, and modelling focusing on the European Union. Specifically, this publication aims to activate key players in the built environment sector, by identifying the most impactful and nature-enhancing strategies to accelerate the transition to a nature-positive, circular economy. The report’s broad recommendations for key stakeholders will help to set direction for how these strategies can be harnessed and implemented in context-specifc settings, and will serve as a springboard for the Foundation’s programme of activation and engagement following this publication.
Global Waste Management Outlook 2024: Beyond an age of waste – Turning rubbish into a resource.
United Nations Environment Programme, 2024
Click here to follow link: https://wedocs.unep.org/20.500.11822/44939
The Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 is a collective effort of UNEP and the International Solid Waste Association. It was published in response to Resolution 2/7 from the second session (UNEP/EA.2/RES.7) of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) and reaffirmed in Resolution 4/7 from its fourth session (UNEP/EA.4/RES.7).It provides a pioneering scientific assessment of the impacts and costs of the growing amounts of waste to be managed, and calls for global action to prioritise waste prevention and municipal waste management services for the sake of planetary and human health. The report evaluates three potential scenarios of municipal waste generation and management, examining their impacts on society, the environment, and the global economy. It also presents potential strategies for waste reduction and enhanced management, following the waste hierarchy, with the aim of treating all waste materials as valuable resources.
Continental Circular Economy Action Plan for Africa (2024-2034)
Click here to follow link: EU-DEL-AU_Continental_Circular_Action-English-Africa-Circular.pdf
In French : 45336-doc-GIZ-AU_Continental_Circular_Action_French78.pdf
This Continental Circular Economy Action Plan for the African Union (CEAP) guides the continent, its regions, and countries on their individual and collective journeys towards circular economy between 2024 and 2034. It directs the continent on a competitive and cleaner development pathway by setting out Africa’s key priorities and intervention areas for an enhanced circular economy approach to development. This Action Plan’s implementation requires commitment and active participation from all stakeholders across all sectors. African parties and international partners are called to deepen their collaboration and rework political, economic, and trade-related activities, including applying lessons learned and avoiding the pitfalls of resource-intensive practices.
Extended Producer Responsibility: Basic facts and key principles
OECD, 2024
Click here to follow link: https://doi.org/10.1787/67587b0b-en.
In english : Extended Producer Responsibility | OECD
In french : La responsabilité élargie des producteurs | OCDE
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach that makes producers responsible for their products along the entire lifecycle, including at the post-consumer stage. This policy paper summarises the current consensus on the EPR policy approach.
By taking stock of what's known and well established in the literature, it aims to foster a common understanding of the EPR approach and to provide guiding principles for its successful implementation. This paper makes a valuable contribution to an increasing number of policy debates and processes that are ongoing, both at national and international levels, in areas such as plastics, electric and electronic waste and textiles
Sustainable and circular construction A Policy Brief from the Policy Learning Platform for a greener Europe, March 2024
Click here to follow link: Policy brief on sustainable construction
The following pages provide an overview of EU initiatives to inspire local and regional authorities and showcase practical examples of stimulating the transition to a circular and sustainable building sector. These include instances of innovative policies, actions concerning the recycling and reuse of construction materials, and demonstrations of potential for using recycled and bio-based materials. Furthermore, there is a selection of Interreg Europe good practices from various projects, KARMA, INERTWASTE, CONDEREFF, POTENT, REPLACE and REDUCES, with a high degree of replicability in other municipal contexts. The knowledge, solutions and good practices showcased in this policy brief come mainly from Interreg Europe projects.
Food Waste Index Report 2024. Think Eat Save: Tracking Progress to Halve Global Food Waste
Click here to follow link: Food Waste Index Report 2024. Think Eat Save: Tracking Progress to Halve Global Food Waste
To galvanize the necessary action on food waste reduction to achieve SDG 12.3, it is crucial to understand how much food waste there is. Measuring food waste enables countries to understand the scale of the problem – and therefore, the size of the opportunity – while providing a baseline against which progress can be measured. This Food Waste Index Report 2024 builds on the 2021 report in three ways: 1) New data has been used to develop a new estimate of global food waste. This is covered in chapter 2 of the main report. 2) This report builds on the SDG 12.3 food waste measurement methodology published in the Food Waste Index Report 2021, providing more detailed guidance on measurement at the retail, food service and household sectors. The additional guidance explores different methodologies, their strengths and limitations and how to effectively prioritize subsectors for measurement. This is covered in chapter 3. 3) The report starts to move from food waste measurement to food waste reduction. The “Solutions Focus” chapter explores effective approaches to food waste reduction around the world. This 2024 report spotlights public-private partnerships for reducing food loss and waste. Subsequent Food Waste Index reports will explore other leading approaches and food waste solutions. This is covered in chapter 4.
Food safety in a circular economy
FAO, 2024
Click here to follow link: Food safety in a circular economy
Agrifood systems require sustained growth to maintain food security for the global population, while facing unprecedented pressure from challenges of climate change and resource depletion. In this context, evaluating, holistically planning and transitioning to circularity will be critical to improve sustainability and face those challenges. While circular economy initiatives offer considerable promise in improving sustainability and increasing performance, these benefits are juxtaposed by the increasing evidence that contaminants, physical, microbiological or chemical, can get introduced, persist and potentially lead to unsafe food. Therefore, protecting food safety is key for the success of transitioning our current linear agrifood system to a more sustainable and circular one. This report provides a synthesis of current and emerging evidence of food safety risks in circular agrifood initiatives, with an aim to understand challenges and opportunities to manage and enhance food safety. Food safety has to be an equal performance indicator for any transition, requiring addressing data gaps, focusing research efforts and exploring opportunities for improving food safety outcomes. All parties in the agrifood system need to proactively do their part to ensure agrifood systems develop, by harnessing the innovation in this area, and at the same time produce safe food.
Universal Circular Economy Policy Goals
Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2021
Click here to follow link: Universal circular economy policy goals | Ellen MacArthur Foundation
As governments and industries around the globe move towards a circular economy, it’s key to align ambitions and create a common direction of travel.The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s five universal circular economy policy goals aim to ensure the transition fosters innovation and decouples economic growth from the consumption of finite resources. The goals provide a blueprint for co-operation - to make them effective, we need to work together across the private and public sectors. By recognising that the relevant policies are interconnected, we can avoid creating a patchwork of fragmented solutions, and by aligning nationally and internationally, we can reduce friction across borders and lower costs. Close co-operation also minimises the risk of individual policy measures remaining isolated in a wider, unchanged economic system that’s based on a linear ‘take-make-waste’ approach.
Facilitating the Circulation of Reclaimed Building Elements: a review of 5 years of methods and experiments in North-West Europe
Click here to follow link: vb.nweurope.eu/media/21449/fcrbe_final-report_ve.pdf
The review of five years of methods and experiments in North-West Europe under the FCRBE project highlights the significant progress made in facilitating the circulation of reclaimed building elements. The project, which ran from January 2019 to January 2022, aimed to enhance visibility for existing operators and create common methodologies. Key achievements include:
A comprehensive online directory of over 1500 specialized operators engaged in construction material reuse.
An exhaustive market research report on the quantities of reused construction materials in the North-West Europe region.
The introduction of a "Truly Reclaimed" label to authenticate the provenance of reused materials.
Development of innovative specification methods for the prescription of reused materials in public markets.
A catalog of freely accessible products of commonly reused construction materials.
The project's success is attributed to its focus on creating a framework for international collaboration among specialized trade and professional bodies, research centers, architecture faculties, and public administrations. It has tested and funded 36 case studies in the construction and demolition sector, resulting in the recovery of 360 tons of material. The project's emphasis on increased communication towards the interests groups of the construction industry, including authorities, ensures a smooth integration of its findings into practice.
Learning Resources
Books and Chapters in Books
Research papers
2023
2022
