Circularity, 20,000 companies on the network to recycle industrial waste – Corriere.it

Digitizing the circular economy. Networking those who produce, not only manufactured goods but also waste, with those who transport this waste and with those who recycle it, make it a secondary raw material, in short, closes the industrial circle, giving new life to what was destined for the landfill. A very concrete interpretation of an economic model which for many experts is one of the few real possibilities of saving the planet. Yet we are not heading in this direction, if the most recent data indicate a worsening of the global circularity index of the world economy, i.e. the figure that measures the share of materials deriving from recovery on the total amount of materials consumed: in fact, it drops from 9.1% in 2018 to 7.3% in 2022says the 2023 edition of the Circularity Gap Report. This is why listening to Camilla Colucci, born in 1994, the fourth generation of a family of green economy entrepreneurs (father Pietro Colucci, president of the Sostenya holding, reference shareholder of the listed Innovatec, active in technologies for energy efficiency and circular economy, ed. ) presenting Circularity, the innovative SME that he founded and leads, and whose core business is the digitization project of the circular economy, leads us to be optimistic. Circularity was born in 2018, when the circular economy package was published at European level, to help companies in the path of green transition and integration of the principles of the circular economy into their business model – explains Colucci -. It is a geolocated industrial symbiosis platform that connects companies with the aim of helping them recycle their waste rather than disposing of it in landfills. We then built a service portal around this platform, from training to technical-strategic consultancy, to concretely support companies in the transition to a sustainable production model.

Industry awareness

The data from the Environmental Sustainability, Circularity and Energy Efficiency Observatory in SMEs and large companies created by Eumetra with Innovatec and Circularity, on a sample of 450 Italian companies with ten to over 250 employees, it reveals that if 62% of companies are well aware of the issue of circularity — a significant progress compared to 41% in 2022 —, only 16% invest in waste recovery and valorisation processes (it was 9% last year), compared to 68% who preferred to focus resources on efficiency energy, a number that reflects the boost given by bonuses and incentives in the last period. Above all, the survey continues, among those who invest, only 14% do so in industrial symbiosis processes, 37% are committed to the recovery of by-products and 64% in the supply of recycled materials. This is why a project like that of Circularity finds fertile ground and becomes a precious ally for companies. The platform was recently presented in a new updated version compared to the launch four years ago. Today it involves more than 20,000 companies – says Colucci – including manufacturing companies, recycling plants and transporters authorized to manage waste. The platform wants to build a network between these players: companies register and catalog their waste materials, waste, by-products, end-of-waste materials, and get in touch with new potential partners to manage them. The novelty also lies in the fact that companies can measure the environmental impact of their choices, starting from the type of transport up to the chosen treatment.

Barriers and technology

From 2018 to today, much has changed under the sky of sustainability, starting with the fact that it was understood that integrating the principles into business models generates value, for the company and its stakeholders. Is the same true for the circular economy? Colucci says: Circularity was launched when the circular economy was not a trend: it was difficult to grasp the advantage of a system that makes the production of an industry more circular. Today, also thanks to the publication of the national strategy on the circular economy, which pushes digitalisation, the advantages in terms of cost reduction and process efficiency are clearer. We want to influence this aspect, creating a virtuous industrial model for Italy, which has already achieved many recycling and material objectives, a model which can then also be extended abroad, since it is a geo-referenced database.
Eumetra research also focuses on the barriers that block investments in sustainability. For 47% still the lack of skills in the company. For 41%, the legislation is still too complicated, especially on issues of circularity. Technology is no longer a problem however: only 12% of the sample complains about its lack. The road is that of an integrated path to make the industry more circular – concludes Colucci -. This is why we offer all-round training, from more generic topics such as the UN Agenda 2023, to more technical ones such as environmental legislation, which obliges companies to report their performance on ESG issues. We also offer a measurement tool based on the latest standards, to give companies the possibility to assess their circularity rating. Only what is measured can be improved, and even better if the whole supply chain does it together.