“12 to 14 hrs of Circular Economy conversations was not overwhelming but truly enriching, optimistic and reinforcing.The voices across the global north and south reiterated the importance of collaborations and commitment towards CE, resource efficiency and social cohesion.
The venue was the auditorium at Ibirapuera Parque, midst of Sao Paulo, comprising of 158 acres of lush greenery,slopes, joggers and expresso coffees nothing less than namma Cubbon park almost spanning 300 acres and made feel at home.
The event started with a traditional classical music with almost 50 violinists playing in synchrony enhanced by local dance moves and directed by a young autistic boy of 7 yrs.
Even better was that the event did not have any goodies distributed to the participants in the name of product promotions. And the icing on the cake was it was almost a zero waste event with all reusable cutlery used and an unavoidable usage of paper cups for coffee and juices that were available all through the day for hydration. The event clearly reminded all to bring their own water bottles with water dispensers kept for refill,” says Shobha Raghavan,CEO, SZW.
Moving on the core of the sessions attended at the forum main event :
Unlocking a sustainable economy with circular innovations
Redefining a circular built environment
Circular Gap Report 2025: We can’t recycle our way out of this
Tropical solutions for accelerating circularity
Connecting global and regional efforts for circular trade systems
Financing the shift to circular value chains
Empowering informal workers: Pathways for inclusive circularity
The circular economy as a tool for global development
Key areas to go deep and act more:
Is the market having a risk appetite to take up CE projects
Do we have clear guidance on circular activities
Is the market ready for transparency and consistency
Do we have clear kpis to assess circular buisness models
Do we have scalable and bankable circular buisness models
What is the different lens investors use to assess the circular Business models
National CE plans, 80 of them globally . How can we make them competitive
Reinforcing narratives wrt adoption of CE at scale:
Collaboration , partnerships , networking, data sharing and analysis are key to advance CE
CE is not just a solution for an environmental problem but a tool for social equity and justice
Democracy ,inclusion and traceability are key to circularity
It’s time to redefine success and wellbeing
Circular economy solutions need to integrate strategy , process and quality
Building narratives around CE finances
Tax incentives on recycled , refurbished materials
Circular trade can ensure local manufacturing
Milestone based financing for circularity for MRFs, recycling hubs, refurbishing
Classification and common protocols for definition of waste and recycled materials
Circular solutions are currently small and for scale collaboration becomes key
Capex required for CE solutions might not have ROI and opex may not have proportionate revenues
Industry expectations of a right recipe for CE business models needs to be set right
Accurate valuation of resources to give CE it’s relevance
There is no circularity without informality
Not only recognize the waste picker organisations also integrate them into the supply chain
Design EPR to ensure fair wages
Investment in informal to formal economy should include social cohesion and environmental value
Make secondary materials more attractive compared to primary virgin materials through tax sops
