SME No Waste Republic wins Trends Impact Award 2025 for circular economy

What exactly is circular economy and how can you put it into practice? How do you protect the innovations your company has developed?

Prioritising digitalisation greatly facilitates circular working. But how can small and medium-sized enterprises implement such practices?

Maximising the life of your product is one of the basic principles of the circular economy. It’s time to zoom in on the different phases of that cycle because each one offers a host of opportunities for you as an entrepreneur.

Plastic is a versatile raw material that is suitable for many applications. But it also creates a lot of waste and pollutes the environment. Fortunately, it is possible and even necessary to do something about it.

Circular entrepreneurship means not being afraid to think outside the box. Not just in terms of raw materials and design but also about how you put your products on the market. For instance, have you ever stopped to consider that selling your products as a service can be a win-win? Let’s introduce you to the functionality economy!

Construction and renovation doesn’t have to be synonymous with major demolition works and piles of construction waste. The Belgian company JUUNOO proves that other options are possible. Indeed they are creating interior walls that are easy to demount and reuse.

The clothes we wear have their own story. Unfortunately for most clothing items that story ends on top of the waste pile. West-Flanders based Purfi is the first company to develop technology capable of recycling those clothing fibres up to 17 times. Also important: they offer high quality at an affordable price.

A circular economy is not something you build alone, it’s a puzzle we can only solve together.

In March of 2024 the Federation of Belgian Enterprises (FBE) published its biennial Circular Economy Progress Report. Our country is doing well and in terms of recycling and circular material use we are even among the world’s leaders. But we can’t lean back just yet because we still have a long way to go.