Ireland Steps Up Against E‑Waste: IMR Featured in National Circular Economy Campaign with EU Circular Procurement Pilot
- Circuleire IMR
- 13 hours ago
- 2 min read
The national “Circular Economy & Net Zero” campaign launched yesterday in the Irish Independent and online at businessnews.ie. Referring to ‘driving innovation through Ireland’s New Circular Roadmap’, Minister of State Alan Dillon, TD called the circular economy ‘an economic necessity that strengthens Ireland’s competitiveness, supports high quality jobs and builds communities that thrive’.
Focused on tackling the global e-waste challenge IMR’s article featured our involvement in Circular Shift - an Interreg NWE project driving market building for circular products and services across five EU countries.
In 2024, Ireland’s Office of Government Procurement (OGP) launched a new ‘first-of-its-kind’ framework for public bodies to acquire remanufactured laptops. The €30million contract was granted to GreenIT and Circular Computing, specialists in remanufacturing enterprise-grade laptops. Approximately 60,000 could be procured during the term potentially reducing CO2 emission by 19 million Kgs, mined resources by 72 million Kgs and water consumption by 11 billion litres.
While Ireland’s OGP has created the procurement framework conditions to enable circular market building in the context of ICT/Electronics, mainstreaming these circular procurement practices requires new ways of working.
In response, Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) is leading the Irish pilot within Circular Shift (an Interreg NWE project). Patrick O’Donnell, IMR CE Technologist manages the Irish component of the project working with associate partners Department of Climate, Energy & Environment, DCEE, WEEE Ireland and Sandyford Business District to deploy eight procurement pilots across laptops, phones and workwear.
The project addresses three key barriers to scaling circular procurement: limited value chain coordination, lack of internal commitment and capacity, and insufficient impact measurement tools. Eight procurement pilots across laptops, phones and workwear underpinned by a value chain collaboration methodology, decision-making framework and impact dashboard combined with bespoke training modules will support the adoption of circular procurement best practices.
Read the full article
Read our Remanufacturing Sector Report
Read the GreenIT case study
Get Involved / Join the Conversation
Interested in collaborating on a circular procurement pilot or shaping how organisations buy, maintain, and manage laptops? Get in touch with Patrick at circularshift@imr.ie
Explore the Circular Shift website
Subscribe to the Circular Shift Newsletter
Or join the discussion with #CircularShiftEU
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