

Circularity challenges the current economic model towards a sustainable future
Circular processes contributing to circularity can be grouped into 4 categories, from the most impactful to the least:
1. Reduce by design: reducing the amount of material used, particularly raw material, should be applied as an overall guiding principle from the earliest stages of design of products and services
2. From a user-to-user perspective: Refuse, Reduce and Re-use
3. From a user-to-business intermediary perspective: Repair, Refurbish and Remanufacture
4. From business-to-business: Repurpose and Recycle.
Read more about circularity at UNEP's Building Circularity platform.
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has great potential for use and generation, taking into account the technological progress of recent decades, but also the implementation of concepts such as obsolescence.
Angela Pinilla works in the interface of science, business strategy, and safer chemicals.
As we strive towards a better world, we work to ensure chemistry’s contributions are realized. Chemistry can help us to understand, monitor, protect and improve the environment around us.
UNEP's new Eco-innovation Building Materials Supplement was created to respond to the building material sector's need for more guidance in building resilient, competitive, and sustainable business models for SMEs. Designed together with Bioregional, pilot implementation support of the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC) Sri Lanka and to be read alongside UNEP's Eco-innovation Manual, the supplement provides specific examples, learning case studies, and advice on applying the eco-innovation methodology within the building materials value chain.
This case study highlights three main achievements resulting from the EPR pilot that tested potential collection channels, determined local e-waste treatment costs, and promoted environmentally sound e-waste management and gender equality in Nigeria's electronics sector.
The study concludes with a summary of the next steps and key learnings that emphasize the importance of environ-mentally and socially responsible e-waste management with a focus on gender equality in the sector.
The presence of hazardous chemicals in products makes the transformation to circularity more challenging. This report describes UNDP's interventions on Chemicals and Waste Management which aim to achieve circularity across different industries, inluding construction.
This report provides an overview of the current status and conditions of the Circular Economy in the electronics value chain in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region, identifies key areas of concern, provides appropriate recommendations, and proposes priority actions to improve circularity of the sector. The recommendations and roadmap focus on the individual life cycle stages of the electronics value chain, as well as on aspects that cut across the value chain. The transition towards a more circular electronics sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) would require a holistic and coordinated approach to progress toward a more circular electronics value chain in the CEE region.
This publication was prepared under the framework of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) full-sized project 9771: Global best practices on emerging chemical policy issues of concern under the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). This project is funded by the GEF, implemented by UNEP and executed by the SAICM Secretariat.