a2ad675a-3d2a-4cc8-a7c1-5ea94d4f5d0d Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE NON-MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: IKEA WEBSITE: IKEA.COM SECTOR : BUILT ENVIRONMENT PUBLISHED: 14 JULY 2025 TAGS: RETURN, REUSE, RECYCLE, TAKE-BACK, SECOND LIFE, FURNITURE About IKEA IKEA is a home furnishing retailer founded in Sweden in 1943. As of July 2025, there were 486 stores worldwide, serving millions of customers. IKEA has been measuring their climate footprint and setting goals to minimise their environmental impact since the 2016 financial year (FY). The Challenge Every year, 10 million tonnes of furniture is thrown away by businesses and consumers across Europe, and most of this either ends up in landfill or is incinerated ( Forrest et al., 2017 ). The fast furniture industry is wasteful, resource-intensive and polluting. In the EU, furniture waste accounts for more than 4% of the total municipal solid waste (MSW) stream ( Forrest et al., 2017 ). According to IKEA’s FY24 Sustainability Report, their climate footprint is estimated to be equivalent to 21.3 million tonnes CO2 (IKEA, 2024 ). This represents a decrease of 5% compared to their FY23 report and 28% compared to their FY16 baseline but it’s still equivalent to approx. 5.6 coal-fired power plants’ emissions in a year ( EPA.gov, 2025 ). IKEA’s report also highlights that the majority of their climate footprint comes from raw material extraction and processing (52%) and their product use in customers’ homes (17%), which includes the energy consumption of lighting and appliances over the product’s lifetime (IKEA, 2024 ). The Circular Solution in Practice IKEA’s Buy Back & Resell Programme is designed to increase the number of times a piece of furniture is used before being recycled or sent to the landfill. IKEA buys back eligible preloved items from customers and resells these good quality second-hand pieces in the store’s Circular Hub section. Aside from second-hand items, the Circular Hub also offers ex-display products and discontinued furniture. To avail of this service, customers can fill out a form on IKEA’s website, to estimate the furniture’s buy-back value. Then they must bring their assembled IKEA furniture, together with the estimate, to an IKEA store. An IKEA worker will inspect the furniture before accepting it and giving the final agreed value as an IKEA gift card. The Buy Back Program is available in 28 countries, including Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Japan and Italy. Impact The Buy-back scheme helps IKEA in cutting their carbon footprint by reducing the amount of virgin raw material inputs required for their products. This can be fulfilled through closing the product loop by facilitating appropriate recycling after multiple uses. In addition, this scheme can contribute to promote the repair concept, by making all the different components of furniture available for purchase separately. Sometimes, the smaller parts (such as dowels, screws, washers, etc.) can be obtained free of charge at the stores. Furthermore, through this scheme, accessible and affordable furniture will be available for low-income households. During IKEA's 2024 Buyback Friday campaign alone - an alternative to Black Friday - almost 55,000 IKEA products were returned to stores for resale (IKEA, 2024 ) . Replicability The European Union (EU) manufactures almost one-quarter of the world’s furniture, constituting an €84 billion market ( Forrest et al., 2017 ). Consumers are becoming more concerned about the environmental impact of the goods they buy. Moreover, government regulations such as the EU Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR ) are pushing for eco-design criteria for products to greatly enhance their circularity, energy performance, and other aspects of environmental sustainability. Businesses will be required to provide product information from conception to end-of-life for almost all physical goods placed on the EU market. IKEA is serving as an industry pioneer in circular concepts by offering its Buy Back Programme. Businesses can be drawn to this scheme because it can increase profitability by decreasing the cost of production. Furthermore, it can be replicated to a variety of industries such as home appliances, electronics, and textiles. Among the Irish stores in the circular furniture industry are: Finline Furniture , take back old Finline sofas and give them a makeover. reducing the number of sofas going into landfill. Their upcycled sofas are striped down, re-padded, re-sprung, re-foamed and re-upholstered before being resold good-as-ne w. for a fraction of the price. Rediscover Furniture , is a furniture restoration and upcycling social enterprise housed at the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun, Dublin. Walsh’s Furniture Repair & Assembly specialises in in repair of upholstery, leather, timber, and furniture assembly. ALL CASE STUDIES

35d992f8-fb6d-4ebc-9ef3-af3bc7170bfe Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link COMPANY: CELTIC RENEWABLES WEBSITE: CELTIC-RENEWABLES.COM SECTOR : CHEMICALS / BIOECONOMY PUBLISHED: 16TH JUNE 2026 TAGS: GREENCHEMICALS, WASTEVALORISATION, FERMENTATION, INDUSTRIALBIOTECHNOLOGY, ABEFERMENTATION, BIOECONOMY, GREENSOLVENTS, CIRCULARMATERIALS, BIOBASED In the second week of September 2025, a delegation of CIRCULÉIRE members and staff were invited to Glasgow, Scotland, by Zero Waste Scotland to meet Circular Economy Industry Pioneers and Stakeholders from the Scottish Ecosystem. On 10 September, the delegation visited Celtic Renewables' plant in Grangemouth, where the company is using fermentation to transform waste materials into high-value green chemicals. This case study is part of a special series transferring knowledge and learnings from the Scottish circular economy ecosystem to circular economy pioneers in Ireland. The Challenge Fossil fuels are primarily associated with being an energy source, but less widely recognised is their role as the foundation of the modern chemicals industry. Around 13% of fossil fuels are used not for combustion, but as raw materials for making products such as plastics, fertilisers, and solvents ( Zanon-Zotin et al., 2024 ). Solvents are all around us. Ethanol is used in perfumes, acetone in nail polish remover, and butanol in acrylic paint. These carbon-based chemicals are vital to many everyday products, but they come with a cost. To produce a kilogram of butanol, 2.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide are released, while producing a kilogram of acetone releases 1.9 kilograms of carbon dioxide ( ESIG, 2021 ). Most of this impact comes from the fossil fuels used as raw materials to make them. The global demand for these chemicals continues to rise. By 2050, global production of the seven major base chemicals - the building blocks of plastics, fertilisers, solvents, and pharmaceuticals - could grow by nearly 70% from 2020 levels, requiring 81% more energy to produce them ( PwC, 2024 ). Today, 95% of the raw materials to make these precursors still come directly from fossil fuels ( PwC, 2024 ). The industry needs to completely change how it makes chemicals - from the feedstocks to the processes to the energy sources - if it wishes to meet its carbon reduction targets. PwC estimates this shift will require between $1.5 and $3.3 trillion in investment by 2050 to reach net zero ( PwC, 2024 ). There is huge potential in the market for a greener, more circular solution to disrupt this legacy approach. Whiskey is core to Scotland's identity and is embedded in its history, culture, and economy. Yet it produces a significant amount of waste. Producing a single litre of whiskey creates between 10 and 18 litres of residue waste ( Edwards et al., 2022 ). This adds up to approximately 7.5 million tonnes of residue being produced across Scotland per year. Much of this is used as animal feed or fertiliser, though a small number of distilleries have permission to discharge co-product to sea under Scottish Environment Protection Agency regulation ( Edwards et al., 2022 ). Yet this waste is full of valuable resources that should be captured and circulated within the economy. What if it could be used to make green chemicals? Circular Solution Celtic Renewables was founded by Professor Martin Tangney, who originated the research at Edinburgh Napier University that would become the basis for the company. Beginning at test tube scale, his team worked to revive a century-old fermentation process and reimagine it for the circular economy. The company was established in 2012 as a university spinout and has since raised over £90 million in public and private funding, building Scotland's first biorefinery - a commercial demonstrator plant on a 2.5 acre site in Grangemouth, operational since 2023 ( Celtic Renewables, 2026 ). The CIRCULÉIRE team visits Celtic Renewables in Grangemouth, Scotland, to see how whiskey and agricultural waste is being transformed into high-value green chemicals. ABE fermentation - known historically as the Weizmann process - is at the heart of Celtic Renewables' approach: clostridia bacteria convert sugars and starches into acetone, butanol, and ethanol solvents. Originally developed at the beginning of the twentieth century, it formed the backbone of smokeless gunpowder (cordite) manufacturing in the UK and the US during the First World War. By the early 1960s, it had been displaced by cheaper, fossil-fuel-derived alternatives as petrochemical process economics proved superior ( Nguyen et al., 2018 ). With growing demand for green chemicals, several companies have tried to revive the process. Celtic Renewables has succeeded where others failed by putting circularity at the core of its business model. Competitors like Green Biologics - which shut down in 2019 - relied on conventional feedstocks such as corn starch and sugar, where high raw material costs made it impossible to compete with fossil-fuel derived alternatives on price ( Bomgardner, 2019 ). Instead, Celtic Renewables uses waste streams such as whiskey residue and rejected potatoes as the food source for the bacteria. This cuts feedstock costs to just 10–20% while also solving a waste disposal challenge for food and drink producers. Professor Martin Tangney on why the chemicals our economy needs should come from above the ground, not below it. As Professor Tangney explains in the video above: "Anywhere we can find the raw material that has been generated by another industry, we can potentially process that biological material into our high-value sustainable chemicals". The ambition extends well beyond Scotland - the company sees potential in waste streams from any food, drink, or agricultural sector globally. The Grangemouth demonstrator plant has been producing green solvents and shipping regularly to customers since becoming operational, with the process constantly being refined and improved ( Zero Waste Scotland, 2025 ). Building on this success, Celtic Renewables has secured £16.23 million in new investment to fund the planning and development of a new £120 million industrial-scale biorefinery at Grangemouth - with ten times the production capacity of the current facility and plans to create 149 new skilled jobs by 2030 ( Celtic Renewables, 2026 ; Biofuels International, 2026 ). Celtic Renewables illustrates how a business built on circular principles can become more competitive, build resilience, and unlock entirely new markets - turning industrial waste into sustainable value. Climate Impact During the delegation's visit to the Grangemouth plant, Celtic Renewables CEO Mark Simmers told CIRCULÉIRE: "Renewables has been mostly about energy to date, but we must as a society really start to think about materials and the way we live our lives and the inputs we need for that." Celtic Renewables is showing what that shift looks like in practice. Celtic Renewables reports that its green chemicals generate up to 65% less carbon emissions than their fossil-based petrochemical counterparts ( Celtic Renewables, 2025 ). For every tonne of bioacetone or biobutanol produced, almost 3 tonnes of carbon are saved ( Celtic Renewables, 2025 ). The company has plans to build several larger facilities directly adjacent to distilleries, allowing waste streams to be piped directly across the boundary. They also plan to make better use of process byproducts - capturing CO₂ and hydrogen and producing biogas from the leftover liquid effluent - which will close the loop further, increase their positive climate impact, and create additional revenue streams. The potential at scale is transformative. Around 13% of all fossil fuels are used not for energy but as the raw material for chemicals - a share that current decarbonisation strategies largely overlook ( Zanon-Zotin et al., 2024 ). Biorefineries like Celtic Renewables' demonstrator in Grangemouth point the way forward - showing that it is possible to produce the chemicals our economy depends on from sustainable, above-ground resources rather than fossil fuels extracted from below. Replicability The green chemicals and biorefinery space is growing, with a number of organisations developing comparable approaches: Niskus Biotec (Ireland), a CIRCULÉIRE member established in 2022, uses fermentation and enzymatic processes to upcycle spent grains from breweries and distilleries into high-value bioproducts - demonstrating that the circular valorisation of drinks industry waste streams is replicable in an Irish context. RipCell (Scotland), was founded in 2021 and uses a compact purification process to convert biomass fermentation byproducts into high-purity bio-lactic acid and bio-acetic acid - serving markets including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, bioplastics, and EV battery recycling. POET LLC (USA) is the world's largest producer of bioethanol, operating 35 bioprocessing facilities across nine US states with an annual production capacity of 3.1 billion gallons - demonstrating the commercial scale that bio-based fermentation processes can reach when built around abundant agricultural feedstocks. Green Generation (Ireland) was the first company in Ireland to inject biomethane into the national gas network, fermenting food waste and animal slurry at its anaerobic digestion plant in Co. Kildare. The company went into receivership in early 2025, with its shareholders citing competition from fraudulently labelled cheap biofuel imports as a key factor - a cautionary illustration of the commercial pressures facing early-stage bio-based producers in Ireland ( Irish Times, 2025 ). ALL CASE STUDIES

f4128287-c8f8-408b-aff4-a8e3615f0fb2 Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE NON-MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: SOTENÄS SYMBIOSCENTRUM WEBSITE: SYMBIOSCENTRUM.SE SECTOR : ENERGY, AQUACULTURE, FOOD PUBLISHED: 03 SEPTEMBER 2025 TAGS: SUSTAINABLEFISHING, INDUSTRIALSYMBIOSIS, MARINESUSTAINABILITY, FISHWASTEMANAGEMENT, RENEWABLEENERGY, SUSTAINABLEAQUACULTURE The Challenge Sotenäs is a small coastal municipality in Sweden with around 9,000 inhabitants. Fishing is its economic backbone, home to the country’s second largest fish auction as well as three of Sweden’s major seafood processing plants ( Marthinson, 2022 ). By 2010, decades of rapid expansion had created serious sustainability challenges. Environmental regulations prohibited companies from increasing their discharges of processed water into the sea, and each year more than 15,000 tonnes of sludge and fish trimmings had to be transported to distant biogas plants in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. These long and costly transports resulted in substantial CO₂ emissions entering the atmosphere. Under pressure, some businesses considered relocating, a move that would have put the local economy at risk ( Marthinson, 2022 ). The Circular Solution In response, the Sotenäs municipality launched the Sotenäs Centre for Symbiosis (Symbioscentrum) in 2015. The centre functions as a hub for industrial symbiosis (IS), bringing together the municipality, a local college, a Swedish state-owned venture capital company Fouriertransform, and six other partner organisations ( Charter & Whitehead, 2023 ). The vision of Symbioscentrum is both economic and environmental: to create jobs, develop value-added products, and achieve greater efficiency by linking industries and upcycling local waste streams. Its collaborations extend across sectors such as food production, aquaculture, renewable energy, algae production, and marine technology ( Charter & Whitehead, 2023 ). At the outset, three core projects anchored the system: · a biogas facility to process fish trimmings, · a wastewater treatment plant, and · the recycling of ocean plastics and fishing gear. Today, fishing companies send their waste to the Renahav biogas plant, which produces renewable energy and hot water that are supplied back to those same companies. The facility also generates digestate — a nutrient-rich by-product of anaerobic digestion — which local farms use as organic fertiliser. Over time, new businesses joined the loop. For instance, the microbrewery Smögen Ale AB delivers spent malt to the biogas plant, further demonstrating how waste streams can be repurposed into resources ( Giacometti et al., 2023 ; Trokanas et al., 2014 ). The flow of resources through the Municipality (Sotenäs Symbioscentrum, 2024) Climate Impact This model has yielded both business and environmental gains. An environmental impact assessment in 2018 estimated: · reductions of approximately 60,000 tonnes of CO₂-eq emissions, · a decrease of 388 tonnes of phosphate-equivalent eutrophication impacts, · avoidance of more than 19 million tonne-kms of waste transport, and · the creation of local green jobs. Additionally, by extracting nutrients from wastewater, the initiative helps improve aquatic conditions and enhances the quality of marine resources, especially fish. Streamlined operations also reduce energy and logistics costs, making participation economically attractive for local companies ( Martin & Carlsson, 2018 ). Replicability The Sotenäs case shows how municipalities can use industrial symbiosis principles to manage environmental pressures while strengthening the local economy. The European Union hosts more than 6,600 industrial facilities and up to 43 million potential synergies for IS — meaning there is vast untapped potential across Europe ( Quintana, Chamkhi, & Bredimas, 2020 ). Drawing on this experience, Symbioscentrum recommends five enablers for successful symbiosis: Networking – the human element is key Innovation – Access to funding, knowledge and testing are highly beneficial Smart adaptation – the business model needs to be viable Physical proximity – can be crucial for communication and resource exchange Storytelling – A powerful tool to communicate your vision and attract new participants ( Giacometti et al., 2023 ). The initiative also looked to the well-known Kalundborg Symbiosis in Denmark as inspiration, the world’s first IS network, which now involves 17 public and private organisations and more than 30 different resource flows ( Giacometti et al., 2023 ). ALL CASE STUDIES

627efed7-ef6a-4a14-ba3c-f06944ff4f80 Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE NON-MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: ASBETER WEBSITE: ASBETER.COM SECTOR : BUILT ENVIRONMENT PUBLISHED: 26 NOVEMBER 2025 TAGS: CIRCULARECONOMY, ASBESTOS, SUSTAINABLECONSTRUCTION, HAZARDOUSWASTE, CIRCULARMANUFACTURING, BUILTENVIRONMENT, GREENBUILDING, WASTEMANAGEMENT, CLEANTECH, INNOVATION, CONSTRUCTION, MATERIALRECOVERY The Challenge Asbestos-cement products are one of the most persistent legacy hazards in the built environment, combining high health risks with difficult end‑of‑life management. Asbestos refers to a group of naturally occurring mineral fibres formerly prized for their durability and heat resistance. Throughout the twentieth century, these qualities led to the widespread use of asbestos in building materials for the likes of roofing, cladding, and pipes. ( World Health Organization, 2024 ). Exposure to airborne asbestos fibres causes fatal diseases, including lung and larynx cancer and mesothelioma, leading to over 200,000 deaths annually worldwide ( World Health Organization, 2024 ). Despite bans in many countries, global asbestos mining continues, with around 1.3 million tonnes produced in 2023 ( UNEP, 2024 ). Many countries still rely on landfilling asbestos-containing materials, which locks future liability into the ground and occupies scarce disposal capacity. Asbestos-cement products remain a persistent legacy issue in Ireland’s built environment, where many pre-2000 buildings still contain asbestos materials posing serious public health risks ( Health and Safety Authority, 2017 ). Despite being banned since 2004, asbestos fibres continue to threaten workers and residents during refurbishment or demolition activities unless tightly controlled ( OHSS, 2025 ). Ireland’s asbestos waste is classified as hazardous and requires special handling and disposal at EPA-licensed facilities. However, domestic landfill capacity for asbestos is limited, often requiring export or transfer to facilities overseas ( EPA, 2021 ). Ireland is currently preparing for the EU Asbestos Directive’s implementation in Dec 2025, which will further strengthen exposure limits, monitoring, and training requirements to improve worker safety ( EHS International, 2025 ) A Circular Solution Founded in 2018 in the Netherlands, Asbeter developed its AC Minerals process and commercialized it in 2022 to safely treat asbestos cement by alkaline dissolution ( Asbeter, 2024 ). The AC Minerals process involves breaking down asbestos cement waste by shredding and milling it into small fragments inside a sealed environment with water. The resulting slurry is then heated below 100C which creates a chemical reaction in which the asbestos fibres chemically transform until they are completely neutralized and no longer pose a hazard ( BBC Future, 2024 ). The process recovers valuable raw materials such as calcium silicate and calcium carbonate from the treated waste, which can then be reused in industries like cement and concrete manufacturing. This innovative technique aims to safely and effectively transform hazardous asbestos waste into reusable materials, addressing a major challenge in global asbestos disposal ( Asbeter, 2025 ). This approach offers a promising alternative to hazardous asbestos landfill, enabling recycling into circular construction inputs, reducing landfill reliance and health risks. Climate Impact Asbeter was issued an end-of-waste certificate by the Dutch Environment Agency ( DCMR, 2023 ) and the independent testing agency, Det Norske Veritas, also issued a verification statement confirming that their process completely dissolves asbestos fibres from asbestos-containing materials, resulting in an asbestos-free residue ( DNV, 2023 ). Asbeter plans to build a plant capable of processing 25,000 tonnes a year, growing to 75,000 tonnes a year ( BBC Future, 2024 ). By safely neutralizing asbestos fibres and producing a non-hazardous residue, the AC Minerals process eliminates the need for hazardous asbestos waste landfilling. If implemented in Ireland, a similar solution could significantly reduce the environmental risks associated with asbestos disposal while keeping valuable mineral materials in circulation. Moreover, by making the waste safe, it could substantially lower the high shipping and remediation costs currently required to transport hazardous asbestos waste off-island for disposal, leading to economic and environmental benefits through more local processing and circular reuse. Replicability The green building materials market was valued at USD 285.89 billion in 2024, projected to grow by 8.5% annually through 2030 ( Grand View Research, 2025 ). Asbeter’s method illustrates a replicable circular economy solution to manage legacy asbestos waste while producing low-carbon construction feedstock for the built environment’s transition ( Asbeter, 2024 ). Addressing asbestos is critical: asbestos exposure accounted for 78% of occupational cancers in the EU in 2019, with approximately 70,000 workers still exposed today ( European Commission, 2022 ). This underscores the urgent need for safe and scalable asbestos waste management solutions. Another company working on a circular solution for asbestos is Thermal Recycling in the UK. The company uses high-temperature processing to convert asbestos cement into inert mineral materials, achieving end-of-waste status and enabling reuse. ALL CASE STUDIES

94036eb7-0636-4468-96f2-31cf79a845fc Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE NON-MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: HOLCIM WEBSITE: HOLCIM.COM SECTOR : BUILT ENVIRONMENT PUBLISHED: 05 NOVEMBER 2025 TAGS: SUSTAINABLECONSTRUCTION, GREENCONCRETE, RECYCLEDCONCRETE, BUILTENVIRONMENT, EMBODIEDCARBON, CEMENT, CONSTRUCTIONWASTE, WASTETORESOURCE The Challenge Buildings account for 39% of global carbon emissions, with operational emissions related to heating, cooling, and power use contributing 28%, and embodied carbon—emissions from materials and construction—making up 11% ( World Green Building Council, 2025 ). Concrete alone is estimated to be responsible for approximately 6 to 8% of global CO 2 emissions ( World Economic Forum, 2024 ). This high carbon footprint arises mainly from the energy-intensive process of heating limestone at extreme temperatures during cement production, to make clinker, which is a primary ingredient in concrete. The built environment consumes about 50% of all extracted raw materials globally, emphasizing its significant resource demands ( European Commission, 2018 ). Concrete is the second most used material on earth, following only water in volume of use ( World Cement Association, n.d. ). Without the adoption of sustainable practices, the global consumption of raw materials for construction is projected to double by 2060, causing further environmental degradation and resource depletion ( OECD, 2019 ). A Circular Solution Holcim, a worldwide leader in building materials, partnered with Seqens - a major social housing organization in France - to give birth to Recygénie, the world's first building fully made from recycled concrete. This 220-unit social housing complex utilised Holcim's ECOCycle technology, which turns construction and demolition waste into new building materials (Holcim, n.d.). In 2021, a group of 1960s apartment buildings were torn down just outside of Paris, France. On the same site, construction began on the Recygénie complex, one year utilising demolition waste from the very buildings that once stood on the site ( Fast Company, 2024 ). This project demonstrated Holcim's ECOCycle technology platform, which enables the production of concrete from 100% recycled construction and demolition materials. The platform includes advanced crushing and processing systems that transform demolition waste into high-quality recycled aggregates, sand, and cement components. By reusing these recycled materials, ECOCycle reduces reliance on virgin raw inputs, conserves natural resources, and contributes to lowering the carbon footprint of new buildings ( Holcim, 2025 ; Holcim, 2023 ). A key collaborator on the project was the CSTB (Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment), the French national organization for R&D in construction. The CSTB’s partnership was essential to monitor and validate the performance of the recycled material, as the project went beyond existing French building standards. By working with the CSTB to validate the material, the project helped create a pathway for future circular projects and challenged existing regulations that limit the use of recycled content. The circular opportunity presented by Recygénie shows that big buildings can be constructed using only recycled materials, without a compromise on quality and safety. This helps keep waste out of landfills and encourages better use of resources. It sets an example in the field of sustainable building practices that can be used around the world ( Holcim, 2023 ). Climate Impact Recygénie has significantly reduced its environmental impact. The project's primary CO 2 savings come from using recycled materials to create new clinker, a process that avoids the high-temperature calcination of virgin limestone—the main source of cement's emissions. The project also diverted over 6,000 tons of construction and demolition waste from landfills and saved an equivalent amount of natural resources by recycling materials such as cement, aggregates, and water. These efforts demonstrate the potential of circular construction practices to lower carbon emissions, reduce waste, and conserve resources ( Holcim, 2023 ). Replicability The success of Recygénie proves that fully recycled concrete buildings are feasible and scalable. Holcim is replicating this model across the markets where it operates, adapting the solution to local building norms and material availability. In 2023, Holcim has recycled nearly 8.4 million tons of construction demolition materials ( Holcim, 2023 ). Several Irish companies are making great strides in the use of recycled cement and sustainable construction practices: Ecocem Ireland is a leading sustainable cement producer specializing in Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS), a byproduct of the steel industry used as a low-carbon substitute for Portland cement. Their product significantly reduces embodied carbon in concrete while maintaining high performance. Techrete are Ireland’s largest architectural precast concrete façade specialist, Techrete has launched a sustainable concrete range with a 50% reduction in embodied carbon, driven by incorporating cement replacement materials and high-performance mixes. Trinity College Dublin & FLI Precast Solutions developed a groundbreaking low-carbon concrete using biomass ash, an industrial byproduct from Edenderry Power Station, reducing carbon emissions by over 50%. Kilsaran , a longstanding Irish concrete products producer, implemented CarbonCure technology, which injects recycled CO 2 into concrete to permanently mineralize it for a reduced carbon footprint. ALL CASE STUDIES

19feae94-bf87-492b-9672-8eea545fb81b Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE NON-MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: RUBI LABORATORIES WEBSITE: RUBI.EARTH SECTOR: TEXTILES & APPAREL MANUFACTURING / INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY PUBLISHED: 11 th SEPTEMBER 2026 TAGS: CIRCULAR MANUFACTURING, BIO-BASED MATERIALS, CELLULOSIC FIBRES, ENZYMATIC BIOCATALYSIS, RAW MATERIAL SUBSTITUTION, DECARBONISATION, TEXTILE INNOVATION, RESOURCE EFFICIENCY, SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE The Challenge The textile industry is one of the most resource-intensive sectors globally, contributing to environmental degradation and labour rights violations across its supply chain ( Brown and Börkey, 2024 ; Keßler, Matlin and Kümmerer, 2021 ). Within the EU, textile consumption ranks as the fifth largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and the fourth largest in raw materials use from a global life-cycle perspective ( European Commission, 2020 ), placing it among the highest-impact product categories assessed ( Long, Lee-Simion and Connock, 2022 ). This impact is a function of scale. Global fibre production reached a record 124 million tonnes in 2023, more than double the volume produced in 2000, and is projected to reach 160 million tonnes by 2030 on current trends ( Textile Exchange, 2024 ). Synthetic fibres, now the dominant feedstock, carry a disproportionate emissions burden due to their fossil origin and energy-intensive production ( Duhoux et al., 2025 ). Natural fibres present a related constraint: cotton alone is cultivated on 2.5% of the world's arable land ( FAO, 2023 ), and producing a single cotton t-shirt requires 2,700 litres of fresh water ( EU Parliament, 2025 ). Regardless of feedstock, the raw materials stage carries the heaviest footprint: land conversion, deforestation, chemical use and irrigation energy make fibre production one of the most environmentally significant points in the value chain ( OECD, 2022 ), and manufacturing alone involves more than 15,000 different chemicals ( Niinimäki et al., 2020 ). Processing compounds this further, with dyeing accounting for roughly 20% of global industrial water pollution ( EU Parliament, 2025 ). Global manmade cellulosic fibre (MMCF) production rose from 7.4 million tonnes in 2022 to 7.9 million tonnes in 2023 ( Textile Exchange, 2024 ). These pressures culminate at the point of consumption, EU textile use generated 355 kg of CO 2 per capita in 2022 ( EU Parliament, 2025 ), underscoring that any credible circular solution must intervene furthest upstream, at fibre production itself. A Circular Solution Founded in 2021, Rubi Laboratories addresses the raw-materials bottleneck identified above by removing agricultural cultivation from fibre production altogether. Rather than growing and pulping trees or plants for cellulose, Rubi's process begins with flue gas, the CO 2 -laden waste stream from manufacturing facilities. This gas is diverted into a bioreactor system before it can reach the atmosphere, where cell-free enzymes convert the captured CO 2 directly into pure cellulose pulp, driving the same chemical transformation plants use to build cellulose, only without cultivating a single plant. Rubi calls this "symbiotic manufacturing", a cyclical rather than linear process, built on capturing existing waste streams rather than extracting new resources ( Rubi Laboratories, n.d.a. ). Crucially, the resulting cellulose is chemically the same material used in viscose and lyocell, so it doesn't require textile manufacturers to change their equipment, it can be dissolved, extruded into fibre, spun into yarn, and woven or knitted through the industry's existing production lines ( Rubi Laboratories, n.d.a. ). This directly answers the land- and water-intensity problem raised, with the company reporting virtually zero water and zero land use compared with cultivated fibres ( Rubi Laboratories, n.d.b. ). At end of life, the pure cellulosic textile is fully biodegradable, returning captured carbon to the natural cycle rather than persisting as waste. Rubi also describes its production units as modular and deployable at or near existing manufacturing sites rather than requiring large, centralised, land-intensive facilities ( World Economic Forum, n.d. ). Environmental, Social and Economic Impact Each garment made with Rubi's cellulose is estimated by the company to avoid and capture the equivalent of around 20 bathtubs of CO 2 per pair of jeans, roughly 18 avoided and 2 directly captured from industrial flue gas, alongside virtually zero water and zero land use compared with cultivated fibres, and full biodegradability at end of life ( Rubi Laboratories, n.d.b. ). The technology offers a renewable, forest-free alternative to wood pulp. According to Rubi's NSF Phase II award abstract, at pilot scale and measured against wood-pulp cellulose, their technology delivers around 50% lower CO₂e emissions, 60% less water use and 98% less land use ( America’s Seed Fund by NSF, n.d. ). Conventional cellulose and cotton processing exposes workers to heavy agrochemical and industrial chemical use, links to respiratory illness and other health effects ( Niinimäki et al., 2020 ); replacing field cultivation and chemical pulping with enzymatic conversion would, by removing those inputs, plausibly reduce this category of occupational exposure. Beyond the factory floor, the platform is expected to generate new employment and strengthen domestic manufacturing capacity, tapping into a serviceable obtainable market estimated at $2 billion in the United States ( America’s Seed Fund by NSF, n.d. ). [PW1] Economically, the technology has drawn both public and private validation. Rubi was awarded a $969,961 Small Business Innovation Research Phase II grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to scale its carbon-to-cellulose platform, following a completed Phase I award ( America’s Seed Fund by NSF, n.d. ). It was also named to Forbes' Under 30 list for Manufacturing & Industry, with reporting noting $4.5 million raised and pilot agreements underway with clothing brands ( Feldman, Ohnsman and Brier, 2022 ). Commercially, cell-free enzymatic conversion is reported to cut energy and capital costs by up to a factor of ten, moving cellulose toward cost parity with conventional fibres and drawing engagement from Walmart, H&M, Patagonia and Stella McCartney ( World Economic Forum, n.d. ). Replicability Rubi is not alone in treating carbon emissions as a feedstock rather than a waste. A handful of companies are converting captured or waste carbon into usable materials, by different routes: Fairbrics (France) - has built a chemical process, pairing catalysis with electrochemistry, that captures CO 2 from industrial sources and turns it into the organic building blocks used in plastics manufacturing. Its first commercial application replaces fossil-derived inputs in polyester production with this captured carbon, and the company is working toward a version of the material that is fully carbon-negative. LanzaTech (USA) - captures waste industrial gases and converts them into usable raw materials through a recycling process. One commercial result of this is CO2Renu , a fleece line developed with outdoor brand Craghoppers that is built from carbon LanzaTech has diverted from industrial emissions rather than drawn from virgin fossil sources. Newlight (USA) - operates Eagle 3, the world's first fully integrated commercial-scale production system converting air and greenhouse gas into a biomaterial called AirCarbon. Using naturally occurring microorganisms discovered in California that convert air and dissolved greenhouse gas into PHB, the technology produces decarbonised, compostable materials now used in foodware and packaging. ALL CASE STUDIES

2c9a9b59-6fa0-4656-b9d2-b832a7784dcc Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: ST. LOARN GROUP WEBSITE: STLOARNGROUP.IE SECTOR: BUILT ENVIRONMENT PUBLISHED: 14 th AUGUST 2026 TAGS: CIRCULAR MANUFACTURING, GEOPOLYMER CEMENT, VALORISATION, BAUXITE RESIDUE, INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS, LOW CARBON CONSTRUCTION, WASTE VALORISATION, ALUMINIUM INDUSTRY, DECARBONISATION, MATERIAL SUBSTITUTION The Challenge Cement is a major contributor to global carbon emissions. It accounts for roughly 7.1% of global CO₂ emissions and around 4% of the EU's ( Marmier, 2023 ). Most of this comes from producing clinker, cement's key ingredient, which requires heating limestone to extreme temperatures. About 65% of the resulting emissions come directly from that chemical reaction, calcination; the rest from the fossil fuels burned to drive it ( Nikolakopoulos et al., 2024 ). Cement production has also been linked to elevated health risks in nearby communities, including respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, associated with the release of particulate matter and heavy metals ( Bărbulescu & Hosen, 2025 ). Aluminium production presents a related but distinct waste challenge. Extracting alumin a from bauxite ore through the Bayer process produces a hazardous industrial by-product known as bauxite residue, red mud, or processed bauxite ( da Silva et al., 2025 ). The EU generates an estimated 7 million tonnes of this residue annually, of which less than 100,000 tonnes are recycled. The remainder is stored indefinitely, as large-scale reuse options remain limited ( European Commission, 2020 ). Due to its alkalinity and heavy metal content, bauxite residue is costly and hazardous to store, handle, and transport ( Evans, 2016 ). These risks materialised in October 2010, when a storage reservoir failure at an alumina refinery in Ajka, Hungary, flooded nearby villages and caused fatalities and chemical burns ( European Parliament, 2010 ). The scale of the challenge continues to grow. Global bauxite residue inventories are projected to reach 10 billion tonnes by 2050 ( International Aluminium, 2022 ), underscoring the urgent need for viable, large-scale approaches to reuse rather than storage, a need that spans both the cement and aluminium sectors. The Circular Solution St Loarn Group , a CIRCULÉIRE member, has developed a geopolymer cement (GPC), currently patent pending, that replaces Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) entirely, using bauxite residue, a major by-product of aluminium production, as its primary raw material, although composition varies by application. Bauxite residue contains high concentrations of silica and alumina. When activated with an alkaline solution, these dissolve and reconnect into a gel that hardens and binds the material together ( da Silva et al., 2025 ). St Loarn Groups technology differs from this conventional route, in its specific blend of constituents requires only water to initiate the geopolymer reaction and produce a strong binder. More broadly, geopolymer materials of this type have been shown to perform effectively in structural applications, with strength comparable to standard cement concrete ( Saeed et al., 2022 ). St Loarn Group reports that the bauxite residue it uses is sourced with a lower pH than material straight from processing and is classified as inert by the EPA and equivalent EU bodies. By using a material that would otherwise require costly and environmentally damaging disposal, St Loarn Group addresses two problems with a single product: valorising potentially hazardous industrial waste from the aluminium industry and eliminating the need for carbon-intensive Portland cement. The product has achieved certification to ASTM C1157, a US international performance specification for hydraulic cement ( St Loarn Group, 2025 ). Structural testing confirmed that St Loarn Group's geopolymer beam exceeded the structural performance of standard Portland cement. It reaches full compressive strength within 28 days and has minimal shrinkage ( St Loarn Group, 2025 ). The company has also completed demonstrator pours, including concrete beams and cattle slats, in partnership with Harrington Concrete and Quarries. St Loarn Group is also working with the International Aluminium Institute, the global body representing the aluminium industry, and the Jamaican Bauxite Institute. Environmental, Social and Economic Impact Geopolymer cements deliver substantial climate and environmental advantages compared to Portland cement. The production of OPC is energy-intensive and generates significant carbon dioxide emissions ( Zaland et al., 2026 ). GPC can cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 80% relative to OPC, while also being more cost-effective and making use of industrial waste streams ( Singh et al., 2020 ). St Loarn Group reports that their geopolymer cement's carbon footprint reduction could be as high as 93%. The company is targeting the global cement industry, valued at $394.82 billion in 2026 and projected to reach $500.3 billion by 2034 ( Fortune Business Insights, 2026 ), underlining the scale of the market this technology could reach. Cement is among the EU's largest-emitting energy-intensive industries, while aluminium, highly electro-intensive and recognised as a strategic raw material, has demand projected to rise 33% by 2050. Across these industries, decarbonisation has lagged EU climate targets ( European Commission, 2026 ). The Industrial Accelerator Act, proposed by the European Commission in March 2026, aims to build EU demand for low-carbon industrial products through faster permitting and Single Market measures, naming both cement and aluminium specifically among its target sectors, the same market St Loarn Group's technology is positioned to serve. St Loarn Group's geopolymer cement not only mitigates harmful pollutants by utilising industry waste streams, but also significantly lowers the waste treatment burden for producers. Replicability St Loarn Group's approach reflects a wider shift toward low-carbon construction materials in Ireland and internationally, with organisations pursuing this goal through different routes. Ecocem (Ireland) - produces GGBS (Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag), a by-product of iron manufacturing, as a low-carbon substitute for a portion of Portland cement in concrete. Replacement rates of up to 70% are permitted under EU concrete standards, giving GGBS concrete a lower carbon footprint alongside improved chemical resistance and finish. Techrete (Ireland) - developed a new range of lower-carbon concrete products, targeting a 50% reduction in embodied carbon by 2025. The R&D programme, supported by Enterprise Ireland, incorporates lower-carbon materials such as GGBS, fly ash, and limestone filler. Trinity College Dublin & FLI Precast Solutions (Ireland) - developed methods for incorporating biomass ash, a by-product of Bord na Móna's Edenderry Power Station, into low-carbon concrete. Edenderry, Ireland's largest dispatchable renewable energy facility, moved to 100% biomass generation in late 2024, giving this waste stream a productive use rather than disposal. Kilsaran (Ireland) - adopted CarbonCure technology, which injects captured CO₂ into concrete during mixing. The CO₂ mineralises permanently within the concrete, reducing both the cement required and the product's overall carbon footprint. Holcim ’s (Switzerland) - Recygénie project demonstrated that social housing can be built using 100% recycled demolition concrete, diverting over 6,000 tonnes of construction waste from landfill while reducing reliance on virgin cement. Read the CIRCULÉIRE case study on Holcim here . ALL CASE STUDIES

ab85e4a6-f838-4371-b1cb-0cee6b3a87ef Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE NON-MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: THE NATIONAL MANUFACTURING INSTITUTE SCOTLAND (NMIS) WEBSITE: NMIS.SCOT SECTOR: RESEARCH SERVICES PUBLISHED : 29 JANUARY 2026 TAGS: CIRCULARMANUFACTURING, REMANUFACTURING, MATERIALEFFICIENCY, NETZERO, INDUSTRIALINNOVATION, DIGITALPRODUCTPASSPORT, SERVITISATION, MANUFACTURINGSKILLS, VALUERETENTION, SUPPLYCHAINRESILIENCE In the second week of September 2025, a delegation of CIRCULÉIRE members and staff was invited to Glasgow, Scotland, by Zero Waste Scotland to meet Circular Economy Industry Pioneers and Stakeholders from the Scottish Ecosystem. On Tuesday, September 9 th , our delegation visited the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, a publicly funded initiative that champions and derisks innovation in the manufacturing industry. This case study is part of a special series to transfer knowledge and learnings to Circular Economy Pioneers in the Irish Ecosystem. The Challenge Scotland’s economy runs almost entirely on virgin materials; 98% of the materials it uses come from freshly extracted resources. In 2018, this added up to 21.7 tonnes per person, nearly twice the global average (Circle Economy et al., 2022) . This “take, make, dispose” approach is costing the planet. Worldwide, the extraction and processing of materials account for half of all greenhouse gas emissions and over 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress ( UNEP, 2019 ). The situation is getting worse; in 2018, 9.1% of materials were recirculated globally ( Circle Economy, 2018 ), but this figure has since fallen to just 6.9% in 2025 ( Circle Economy, 2025 ). Scotland contributes to this impact; it imports significant quantities of materials and goods while also extracting fossil fuels domestically, which makes the country’s true carbon footprint 42% larger than what occurs within its geographic borders (Circle Economy et al., 2022) . If Scotland wants to cut its environmental impact meaningfully, it needs to rethink how materials are used. Moving towards a circular economy offers a clear path forward. Circle Economy’s 2022 Circularity Gap Report Scotland estimates that adopting circular practices in the manufacturing sector alone could cut the country’s material footprint by roughly 11% and lower emissions by nearly 5%. The Circular Solution The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) is key to reshaping how Scotland makes and uses materials. By helping manufacturers embrace new technologies and innovate with less risk, NMIS is guiding the industry towards a more circular future. The UK government aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2045 to 2050, and NMIS is crucial to this effort. NMIS’s state-of-the-art facility in Renfrewshire is home to their Digital Factory, Manufacturing Skills Academy and Collaboration Hub. They also operate a second site in Renfrewshire and have a presence in Sheffield and North Ayrshire. Operated by the University of Strathclyde and supported by the Scottish Government and other public partners, it serves as a meeting point where innovation and sustainability are combined. The ReMake Value Retention Centre is NMIS’s spearhead project on developing remanufacturing solutions across industries. This £10+ million project focuses on sectors critical to national infrastructure, such as aerospace and power generation, and aims to keep products at their highest value instead of sending them to landfill. Since its opening, NMIS has supported over 700 research and development projects and engaged with more than 2,000 small and medium-sized enterprises. They have also delivered over 365 free training opportunities to help businesses build the skills needed to decarbonise the economy ( HVM Catapult, n.d. ). The CIRCULÉIRE team visits NMIS, the National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland, to explore how remanufacturing, digital product passports, and circular business models are helping manufacturers transition to net zero Climate Impact Around 70% of direct industrial emissions come from the extraction and processing of the basic raw materials ( Bashmakov et al., 2022 ). By remanufacturing parts to their original, or even improved, performance, these emissions stay locked in, cutting environmental impact dramatically. A circular supply chain also reduces costs and lead times while strengthening industrial resilience in critical sectors. NMIS’s ReMake Value Retention Centre is helping companies make this shift to remanufacturing by addressing challenges across technology, business models, policies, standards, culture, skills, and investment. Momentum is building with new EU rules requiring nearly all products sold in the EU to carry a Digital Product Passport (DPP) . A DPP contains detailed data on materials, processes, and emissions. ReMake helps firms not only collect and manage this data but also turn it into value. With a DPP, businesses can interact more effectively with customers, sell approved spare parts, and share repair manuals or service records. ReMake is shifting the DPP from a compliance burden to a tool for monetisation and stronger customer relationships (Munawar, 2025) . ReMake also supports firms in developing new business models. Instead of one-off product sales, companies can move towards servitisation. This allows them to build long-term service relationships backed by remanufacturing and data-driven insights. This business model innovation, backed by technology, can extend product lifecycles, generate recurring revenue, and keep customers engaged (Fitzpatrick, 2025) . The National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland, through ReMake, is helping redesign the future of manufacturing in Scotland and beyond. Replicability Irish Manufacturing Research partners with industry to demystify emerging technologies, de-risk adoption, and deliver real-world impact. They bridge the gap between technology and business, ensuring companies can harness the latest advancements to drive efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. They lead CIRCULÉIRE , a dynamic, cross-sectoral public-private network dedicated to advancing circularity and developing circular business models in Ireland. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany is one of the world’s leading applied research organisations. It comprises a network of 75 institutes with an annual budget of €3.6 billion, two-thirds of which is directly funded by industry. They drive the shift to a sustainable, circular economy by developing innovative technologies, strategies, and collaborative solutions that transform industrial practices and support environmental and economic resilience. RISE Research Institutes of Sweden is a major applied research centre for manufacturing competitiveness, sustainability, and digital innovation. ALL CASE STUDIES

5d2f185c-5482-4e4a-846f-d64c4ffe141b Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: FINLINE FURNITURE WEBSITE: FINLINEFURNITURE.IE SECTOR : BUILT ENVIRONMENT PUBLISHED: 30 JULY 2025 TAGS: BUILT ENVIRONMENT, FURNITURE, CIRCULAR BUSINESS MODELS, REFURBISH, REUSE, RECYCLING About Finline Furniture Established in 1979, Finline Furniture is one of Ireland's leading manufacturers of high-end furniture. Every piece of Finline furniture is handcrafted in their headquarters in Emo, County Laois, and since their inception Finline have garnered an excellent reputation for designing and making high-quality, long-lasting sofas, chairs, and footstools both for residential customers and commercial projects. The company exports worldwide and has developed its network to include showrooms in Dublin, Cork, and Galway. The Challenge Ireland generates a substantial amount of municipal waste each year. Municipal waste is waste from households and other locations such as schools, shops, small businesses and commercial premises ( EPA, 2024 ). In 2022, Ireland generated 3.19 million tonnes of municipal waste ( CSO, 2024 ). That’s equivalent to the weight of more than 40 million adults, which is nearly eight times the entire population of Ireland, and only 41% of it was recycled ( EPA, 2024 ). Although exact figures are not isolated for furniture waste alone, it is part of the broader category of bulky waste, including but not limited to furniture, and mattresses. More than 1.2 million potentially reusable bulky items are going to landfill or incineration in Ireland every year ( EPA, 2020 ). The EUs Circular Material Use Rate (CMUR) measures how much of the consumed material (in tonnes) in a given country, is reused. Ireland recorded a CMUR rate of 2.8% in 2023 ( Eurostat, 2024 ). The average CMUR in Europe is 11.8% ( EEA, 2025 ). A key objective in Ireland’s Whole of Government Circular Economy Strategy 2022 – 2023 is to raise Ireland’s CMUR so that the national rate is above the EU average by the end of this decade ( DCEE, 2021 ) that will require consumers and businesses alike to get much more comfortable with the concept of reuse. The Circular Opportunity Finline Furniture estimates that there are more than 500,000 pieces of their furniture in circulation and they don’t want to see them end up in landfill. To encourage customers not to throw away any worn-out sofas, Finline have partnered with the ‘Loved Back to Life’ team in Aiseiri to launch their REVIVE product line. Aiseiri provide community and residential services to help young people, adults and families overcome addiction and lead meaningful lives in recovery. Finline customers are incentivized with €100 vouchers to return their old sofas which are subsequently stripped back to their core frame by members of the ‘Loved Back to Life’ program. The quality sofa frames are then reupholstered by the Finline team and sold at more affordable prices - typically 20 per cent lower than the lowest price point in store. These re-manufactured pieces then come with a 20-year guarantee demonstrating to customers the confidence Finline have in their frames and workmanship. Finline and Aiseiri not only prevent sofas from ending up in landfill, thereby reducing waste and keeping valuable materials in circulation, but they also train people in recovery adding a valuable social element to the initiative. Climate Impact Finline Furniture aim to reduce waste and save resources by refurbishing 20 suites in the first year, with a target of 80 by year three. This will prevent the furniture from reaching landfills and save the need for new raw materials by using end-of-line and recycled fabrics. In contrast to manufacturing new furniture, refurbishment requires less processing and therefore generates lower greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, Finline uses FSC-certified timber and 100% recyclable packaging, further supporting sustainability ( Finline Furniture, 2023 ). These efforts put together enhance resource efficiency, extend the life cycle of materials, and show a strong commitment to environmental responsibility. Replicability REVIVE by Finline Furniture is a replicable model which other companies could adopt to promote sustainability, support local economies, and generate social value. The initiative's concentration on quality assurance, resource efficiency, and scalable processes promotes long-term success and market acceptance. This approach enables a company to realize several benefits that extend beyond environmental concerns: improved brand reputation and customer loyalty. Other examples of the circular economy in the furniture industry include: Ahrend who manufactures office furniture products with modularity, disassembly, and life extension as core design principles. They offer Furniture-As-A-Service (FAAS) models where customers pay a monthly fee and return the furniture when they no longer need it. Goldfinger is another example of a social enterprise using reclaimed materials to craft sustainable high-quality furniture for residential and business clients. They reinvest their profits into their Goldfinger Academy which teaches skills to marginalised young people and isolated community members plus their People’s Kitchen, where they make community meals from surplus food. ALL CASE STUDIES

6f24cee5-48ec-4528-b0e7-ea9f266619b1 Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE NON-MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: BE-ST WEBSITE: BE-ST.BUILD SECTOR : BUILT-ENVIRONMENT PUBLISHED: 05TH JUNE 2026 TAGS: CIRCULARCONSTRUCTION, SUSTAINABLEBUILDING, MASSTIMBER, BUILDINGRETROFIT, CIRCULARMATERIALS, GREENBUILDING, GREENSKILLS, CONSTRUCTIONSKILLS, SUSTAINABLESKILLS, JUSTTRANSITION In the second week of September 2025, a delegation of CIRCULÉIRE members and staff was invited to Glasgow, Scotland, by Zero Waste Scotland to meet Circular Economy Industry Pioneers and Stakeholders from the Scottish Ecosystem. On Wednesday, September 10th, our delegation visited BE-ST (Built Environment - Smarter Transformation), Scotland's national innovation centre for construction and the built environment. This case study is part of a special series to transfer knowledge and learnings to Circular Economy Pioneers in the Irish Ecosystem. The Challenge The world is building more than ever. With population and wealth continuing to rise, an estimated 300 million new homes will need to be constructed before 2030 ( UNEP, 2023 ). But this comes at a cost - the built environment is responsible for 37% of all energy-related global greenhouse gas emissions ( UNEP, 2023 ). Much of this comes from carbon-intensive materials such as steel and concrete. The construction sector also requires huge amounts of resources and accounts for about half of all extracted materials (EEA, 2026) . Until the mid-twentieth century, buildings were made from locally sourced, bio-based, low-carbon materials such as timber ( UNEP, 2023 ). Homes and workplaces were specifically designed to suit the local climate, minimising the need for heating and cooling ( UNEP, 2023 ). By the late twentieth century this had transformed, with concrete, steel, and aluminium becoming the dominant materials. The construction industry needs to rethink its approach to material use. Heating, cooling, and electricity in buildings account for 33% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions across the EU ( EEA, 2025 ). Progress is being made: between 2005 and 2023, emissions from buildings fell by 43% in the EU, driven by higher energy efficiency standards, electrification of heating, and decarbonisation of electricity supply ( EEA, 2025 ). Yet more still needs to be done. The European Commission reports that three-quarters of EU buildings still have poor energy performance ( European Commission, 2024 ). This affects the people living within them directly - cold and damp housing damages wellbeing and causes illnesses including asthma and bronchitis ( Eurofound, 2016 ). The future of construction is as much about retrofitting what we already have as it is about how we build the next generation of homes and workplaces. A Circular Solution BE-ST (Built Environment - Smarter Transformation) is Scotland's national innovation centre for construction and the built environment. It helps organisations transform the industry through net-zero, circular economy, social value, and digital innovation - working across three interconnected areas: developing better materials and methods, improving the energy efficiency of buildings, and equipping people with the skills needed for a greener future. In practice, this means supporting businesses and innovators rethinking how we build. One example is Kenoteq , an Edinburgh-based company producing bricks made from nearly 100% construction waste. Kenoteq’s K-BRIQ’s are compacted under very high pressure at room temperature, achieving 95% lower embodied carbon compared to conventional bricks and are certified for use in the UK and the US ( Kenoteq, n.d. ). BE-ST is also home to the Mass Timber Centre of Excellence , the UK's most advanced mass timber production facility. Mass timber is engineered wood created by compressing and bonding layers of wood into structurally strong panels, beams, and columns. It uses bio-based renewable materials, is scalable, and offers high structural strength - allowing it to be used in place of concrete or steel with a significantly lower carbon footprint. The Mass Timber Centre of Excellence manufactures both structural timber elements and modular buildings, enabling scalable off-site production and rapid deployment. This approach allows for the delivery of housing quickly using prebuilt modular homes, making a tangible difference in local communities. In partnership with the homeless charity Social Bite , BE-ST is helping to provide sustainable housing for people experiencing homelessness in South Lanarkshire , demonstrating how innovative construction methods can deliver meaningful social impact alongside environmental benefits. BE-ST is also home to Scotland's National Retrofit Centre , which recently underwent a retrofit of its own. Recycled bricks from Kenoteq and mass timber panels with natural wood fibre insulation were used to transform the fabric of the existing building. A cascaded heat pump and solar panels were installed to support its energy needs. The building now produces more energy than it uses, making it energy positive and a valuable demonstrator for the wider industry. Beyond the building itself, the Retrofit Centre provides hands-on training for construction professionals and students, helping them adapt to new policies, market needs, and sustainability standards. In 2024, BE-ST supported 35 projects in sustainable construction and helped bring 22 products to market. That same year, BE-ST upskilled 1,300 construction professionals, trained 300 young people in sustainable building practices, and funded 20 master's students to work on projects driving the transition to net zero. Over its ten years of operation, the centre has generated £1.8 billion in revenue ( BE-ST, 2024 ). The CIRCULÉIRE team visits BE-ST, Scotland's national construction innovation centre, to explore how circular economy innovation is transforming the built environment. BE-ST is advancing circular construction by shifting the industry towards responsible sourcing of materials and upgrading existing buildings - keeping embedded carbon locked in while reducing operational emissions. Climate Impact BE-ST is championing mass timber as a key material in the transition to lower-carbon construction. Studies suggest that wider adoption of mass timber products could reduce global CO₂ emissions by between 14% and 31%, while also reducing energy use in buildings by around 10% ( UNEP, 2023 ). Trees lock in carbon as they grow, and one cubic metre of wood stores around 700 kg of CO₂ ( Chen et al., 2020 ). This means mass timber structures do not merely avoid emissions - they actively store carbon in the built environment around us. BE-ST's own research supports this. A lifecycle study of a demonstrator two-bedroom mass timber home, displayed at COP26, found its embodied carbon at construction was far below that of conventional buildings and close to an A++ energy rating. More than half of its total lifetime carbon footprint was offset by the carbon stored in the timber itself ( BE-ST, 2024 ). However, challenges remain. Globally, timber is being harvested faster than it is being replaced. Sustainable forestry management is essential to ensure that mass timber can deliver its climate benefits at scale and for future generations ( UNEP, 2023 ). Replicability The circular construction movement is gaining momentum across Ireland, with a number of organisations developing comparable approaches: Construct Innovate is Ireland's National Research Centre for Construction Technology and Innovation, supporting the transition to sustainable construction through research, industry collaboration, and skills development. Its active programmes include mass timber research, low-carbon materials development, and the ENACT programme supporting commercial building retrofit - mirroring many of BE-ST's core activities on the island of Ireland. Glenfort Timber Engineering (Northern Ireland) specialises in the off-site manufacture of mass timber structures, bringing engineered wood construction to the island of Ireland. The Irish Timber Frame Manufacturers Association is the representative body for the timber frame industry on the island of Ireland, advocating for timber construction across policy, planning, and practice. iDomus Construction provides carbon-neutral mass timber structures to the Irish market, supporting the transition to lower-carbon building methods. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) administers Ireland's National Residential Retrofit Plan , which aims to retrofit 500,000 homes and install 400,000 heat pumps by 2030. A record €640 million was allocated to the scheme in Budget 2026, with grants available to support households across the income spectrum including those at risk of energy poverty. Education and Training Boards (ETBs) are playing a vital role in building the workforce needed for Ireland's retrofit ambition, delivering green skills training to workers across the country. ALL CASE STUDIES

b96f2e0f-736a-4b70-ade9-9f23323c8096 Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE NON-MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: SOTENÄS MARINE RECYCLING CENTRE WEBSITE: SYMBIOSCENTRUM.SE SECTOR : ADVANCED MATERIALS PUBLISHED: 19 NOVEMBER 2025 TAGS: MARINEPLASTIC, GHOSTGEAR, OCEANPOLLUTION, FISHINGINDUSTRY, INDUSTRIALSYMBIOSIS, RECYCLING, WASTETORESOURCE, EPR, CLEANSEAS The Challenge Sotenäs is a small coastal municipality in Sweden with around 9,000 inhabitants. Fishing is the primary industry and it is home to the second largest fish auction in the country. The municipality also homes three of Sweden’s major seafood processing plants ( Marthinson, 2022 ). Tourism plays a key role in the local economy, with the population swelling to over 50,000 each summer ( Charter & Whitehead, 2023 ). Both fishing and tourism rely on healthy seas and clean environments. Yet, Sotenäs faces significant challenges from marine litter and waste generated by the fishing industry. This local issue mirrors a global crisis. While plastics have delivered clear benefits - being lightweight, durable, and versatile for many industrial and everyday applications - their widespread use has also created severe environmental challenges. Plastic production has surged in recent years, driving climate change and harming marine ecosystems. Global plastic production now exceeds 450 million tonnes annually ( Ritchie, Samborska & Roser, 2023 ). From extraction to disposal, plastics generate large amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In 2019 alone, plastics accounted for 1.8 billion tonnes of GHG emissions - about 3.4% of global emissions ( OECD, 2024 ) and every minute, the equivalent of a garbage truck’s worth of plastic enters the ocean, threatening marine life ( Tsydenova & Patil, 2021 ). A Circular Solution The Sotenäs Marine Recycling Centre (SMRC) is Sweden’s first facility dedicated to marine recycling. It was established in 2018 through a partnership between Sotenäs municipality and local fishers, as part of Symbioscentrum - an organisation promoting industrial symbiosis in the region ( Charter & Whitehead, 2023 ). SMRC collects, separates, and processes discarded fishing gear and marine litter, including "ghost gear"- fishing equipment such as nets, lines, or traps that has been lost, abandoned, or discarded yet continues to capture and kill fish or other marine animals. SMRC sorts metals and different plastic types such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polyamide, and PET for reuse, recycling, or upcycling. Due to its success, SMRC expanded nationally in 2020 through the Fiskereturen project, creating around 10 collection hubs in fishing ports across Sweden. Fishing gear from these locations is trucked to SMRC for processing ( Charter & Whitehead, 2023 ). SMRC worked with authorities to prepare for the European Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations for fishing gear , which came into effect in January 2025 ( Charter & Whitehead, 2023 ). The centre also offers testing services and is developing new circular products from waste fishing gear and marine plastics through its innovation testbed, Testbed Ocean Waste (TOW) ( Charter & Whitehead, 2023 ). Climate Impact Previously, most clean polymers collected by SMRC were exported to Plastix Global in Denmark for recycling into pellets for use by European and international industries (Charter & Whitehead, 2023). Today, more polymers are reused locally in Sweden, reducing resource loss from export and increasing the availability of recycled materials. This shift lowers reliance on imported and virgin polymers. In 2022, the SMRC collected 152 tonnes of used fishing gear ( Torbäck, 2023 ). About 60 - 80% of the collected gear was recycled, 5 - 10% reused, and the remainder that was unsuitable for recycling or reuse was sent for energy recovery ( Torbäck, 2023 ). Recycling one tonne of plastic saves approximately 16.3 barrels of oil or 5,774 kilowatt hours of electricity ( UNDP, 2022 ), meaning SMRC’s efforts generate significant environmental savings. SMRC also creates green local jobs through the municipality’s work-training programme ( Charter & Whitehead, 2023 ). Trainees help separate and sort fishing gear and beach plastic, as well as clean municipal beaches and coastal areas ( Charter & Whitehead, 2023 ). Replicability Discarded fishing gear and marine plastic waste are global problems, especially in coastal regions with limited recycling infrastructure. Globally, only about 9% of plastic waste is recycled; the majority is either incinerated (approximately 34%), landfilled (around 40%), or improperly disposed of into the environment ( Wu et al., 2025 ). Replicating the SMRC model successfully requires two critical elements: infrastructure to collect and process the nets, and a market to buy the resulting recycled material. While the infrastructure gap remains significant, a growing number of companies are proving that a robust market for marine plastics exists. By treating waste gear as a valuable feedstock rather than trash, these organizations are driving demand: OceanЯ (Ireland), a Cork-based apparel company, produces garments from marine plastic waste and has diverted over 1.5 million plastic bottles from oceans and landfills. Waterhaul (UK) recovers and recycles marine plastics, including ghost gear, into traceable, purpose-made polymer products used in injection moulding. Bureo (Chile/US) collects discarded fishing nets and recycles them into NetPlus nylon pellets for use in the products of brands such as Nike & Patagonia. Patagonia (USA) are an outdoor clothing pioneer incorporating recycled plastics and collaborating with companies like Bureo to use discarded fishing nets to make high end outdoor clothing. ALL CASE STUDIES

31da2f4e-f753-4082-ad5b-8ecbe46e946f Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Copy link CIRCULÉIRE MEMBER CASE STUDY COMPANY: SHARECLUB WEBSITE: WEARESHARECLUB.COM SECTOR : CLEAN-TECHNOLOGY, PACKAGING PUBLISHED: 29 AUGUST 2025 TAGS: REUSEREVOLUTION, SINGLEUSEPLASTIC , PACKAGINGASASERVICE , ESGDATA , CSRD , ZEROWASTEEVENTS , SUSTAINABLEBUSINESS , WASTEREDUCTION The Challenge In 2021, Ireland produced the most plastic packaging waste in the EU at 73 kg per person ( Research Matters, 2024 ). Within that mix of waste, we discard approximately 22,000 disposable takeaway cups every hour. That’s 528,000 a day or an estimated 200 million annually, translating to 3,700 tonnes of single-use cup waste generated every year ( Recycling List Ireland, 2018 ). Most of these cups are made from paper lined with polyethylene (PE) to make them waterproof ( Repak, 2018 ). PE is the world’s most commonly produced plastic ( Science Direct, n.d ). While it is technically possible to recycle the cups, most paper mills do not have the capability to do so ( Repak, 2018 ). As a result, most cups end up in landfill or are sent to incineration ( Smyth, 2024 ). Disposable cups are also among the top 5 items found as litter along our coastline (Clean Coasts, 2024) where they break down into harmful microplastics that damage marine life, coastal ecosystems and ultimately end up in the human food chain ( Department of Health, Western Australia 2021 ). Microplastics have been found in virtually every part of the human body including the brain, lungs, placenta, bone marrow, as well as in blood, urine and breast milk ( Yale Environment 360, 2024 ). The Circular Opportunity Shareclub is a multi-award winning Irish company, and CIRCULÉIRE member, offering smart reusable solutions to help their clients reduce their environmental impacts. Founded with a mission to embed reuse into everyday operations, Shareclub helps offices, canteens, events and cafes replace disposable cups and bowls with reusable alternatives, supporting organisations to meet their sustainability goals. Shareclub provides businesses with reusable hot drink cups, reusable cold drink pint cups and reusable bowls for regular use in their workplace canteens or cafés, as well as for corporate events, conferences, and festivals. Shareclub offers their clients a borrowing system to suits their needs, such as RFID tags which are ideal for canteens or cafés, or a borrow & return app which is more suited to campuses and workplaces. They also offer branded options for customers who wish to buy their cups outright. Shareclub’s technology tracks borrowed items, providing clients with customised impact dashboards and measurable data—such as CO₂ savings and waste reduction metrics—for their sustainability reporting. Shareclub helps businesses integrate sustainable practices into their day-to-day operations and backs it up with real reportable data. By offering a digital borrowing model for reusable cups at events, workplaces, cafés, and take-away services, Shareclub ensures high return rates and significant waste reduction. Their services include impact dashboards and reporting tools that help businesses manage reusable stock and access sustainability insights. Shareclub’s digital system keeps track of usage and return rates, providing precise data on waste reduction and environmental footprint—all crucial to Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) reporting ( Shareclub, 2025 ). How Shareclub's RFID Technology System Works (Shareclub, 2025) Climate Impact Shareclub has already made a notable impact by saving over 15,000 disposable cups and preventing more than 5,700 kg of CO₂e emissions ( Shareclub, 2025 ). Their digital-enabled reuse system produces 90% less waste and cuts procurement and waste expenses by approximately 65% ( Shareclub, 2025 ). Shareclub intends to expand their network to more than 200 partners within the next four years with a focus on waste reduction, community engagement, and behavioural change through consumer education. Their digital-enabled reuse system has reported a 98% return rate, contributing to a more circular system and a reduction in future plastic production. Client testimonials from the Dublin Coffee Festival, Guinness Enterprise Centre, and Dublin City Council demonstrate the effectiveness and positive reception Shareclub’s solution has received ( Shareclub, 2025 ). Replicability Other examples of reusable system providers include: 2GoCup is an Irish deposit-and-return scheme for reusable cups and food containers, operating across cafes and businesses in Ireland. RECUP is Germany’s largest reusable deposit system for coffee-to-go cups and takeaway bowls, with over 20,000 partner locations. Vytal is a digital, deposit-free reusable packaging system for takeaway meals and drinks, using QR codes and a mobile app to track containers. Again is a UK based company creating a network of cleaning facilities ("CleanCells") to enable the large-scale, cost-effective cleaning and redistribution of reusable packaging for brands. Loop is a global reuse platform that partners with brands to offer products in durable, returnable packaging, which is collected, professionally cleaned, and refilled. ALL CASE STUDIES