The European Ceramic Industry Association, CERAME-UNIE, recently reacted to the Circular Economy Action Plan adopted by the European Commission on 11 March 2020. The European ceramic industry welcomes this Action Plan and highlights that circularity is one of the key drivers to achieve a carbon-neutral  economy. Cerame-Unie  also  underlines  that  this  transition calls  for  new  business  models  and encourages the  development  of innovative  solutions  in  the  industry.

The ceramic industry contributes to the shift towards circular economy, through durability and resource efficiency of ceramic products and ongoing research & innovation. However, the ceramic industry is  still  facing regulatory  and technical obstacles which  hamper the  uptake  and  development  of circular practices.

Resource efficiency is not only about ‘using less’, but about ‘using better’. Ceramic products and in particular ceramic construction products are resource efficient and have a high durability, requiring little or  no  maintenance.

Research  and Innovation in  the  ceramic  industry  has been  deeply  changing  the manufacturing process and the use  of raw  materials,  leading  to an  increased materials  efficiency. These  measures encompass the saving   of   raw   materials   through   innovative   technologies   and   product   developments,   the substitution  of  primary  raw  materials  with recycled  materials,  the  direct  internal reutilization  or recycling of materials, as well as the substitution of conventional fuels.

Although the ceramic industry is showing innovative solutions to add to the circular economy in Europe, regulatory and technical barriers still exist to scale up current initiatives or to start new ones.

RETROFEED project partner TORRECID represents the ceramic sector in the project.

Read the full article published by EEIP here.