The European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing ‘The benefits to biodiversity of a strong circular economy’ explores how circular economy can reduce and, in some cases, reverse the impacts of production and consumption on biodiversity.  

According to the EEA briefing, biodiversity-friendly sourcing of, for example, food, construction materials and textiles, merits more focus as it can amplify the potential of circular economy to reduce or even reverse biodiversity loss. Such practices include using seaweed for animal feed or crop fertiliser, recirculating water from green roofs and using agroforestry production methods for textiles. This type of biodiversity-friendly sourcing needs to be added to the traditional hierarchy of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ in circular economy actions, the EEA briefing states.

Key insights of the briefing will be presented on 13 June, at 10:00-11:30 CET, at the EU Circular Talk “The circular economy in the context of a limited supply of biomass – ways forward to address biodiversity loss and climate change”.