CIRCLE 2025 to take place this October in Brussels.
Populations are growing and resources are depleting. We’re building bigger and we’re building faster than ever before in history, edging ever closer to the precipice. Yet a brighter future is possible. It is essential to balance the need to develop vital infrastructure to support urbanisation and essential products and services without costing the earth. This is the overriding message from CDE as the wet processing experts reveal plans to assemble a collective of industry front-runners to help redefine waste.
This October in Brussels, the beating heart of policymaking in the EU, CDE will host CIRCLE 2025, a waste recycling symposium where like-minded and forward-thinking leaders from across the industry – including materials processors, technology experts, legislators, and more – will gather to share insights, analyse trends, and discuss opportunities to rethink the industry’s waste burden.
The event comes as an evolution of CDE’s Circular Driven Economy Symposium which was last hosted in London pre-covid and attended by delegates from around the world, including research bodies, academic institutions, representatives from the European Commission, and multinational construction and manufacturing firms.
“Natural resources are rapidly depleting. This is widely known and accepted,” explains CDE’s head of business development for Europe, Mr Eunan Kelly. “A conscious effort is absolutely needed to manage these resources wisely. CDE is leading the charge in this field, particularly in Europe where the legislative landscape is swiftly evolving, but rising to an industry-wide challenge requires a collective effort to close the gap.”
While also reducing carbon emissions, CDE wet processing plants have helped recover and channel back into the construction industry over 230 million tonnes of material over the last decade, equivalent to building the Great Wall of China twice. CDE’s sustainable solutions really are closing the gap in circularity and can be found in operations around the world and are used for a range of applications, such as construction & demolition waste, excavation waste, contaminated soils, road sweepings, hydro excavation waste, and trommel fines, playing an essential role in the road to net zero.
“Our solutions are already an essential part of the waste recycling ecosystem throughout Europe, which is driving the industry forward, but there’s still work to be done, knowledge to be shared, and benefits to be had for both the public and private sectors globally. The symposium will provide a collaborative space to co-author a sustainable way forward for waste management and accelerate the pace of change in Europe and further afield.” Mr Kelly says pursuing a more circular economy is not necessarily about replacing every grain of raw material.
“Recycled and recovered materials won’t ever offset all of the demand, but, where we can, we should be supplementing raw materials with recycled products that can achieve the same end results. For years, overburden, scalpings, and crushed rock fines – by-products of the quarrying process often miscategorised as waste – have been stockpiled, meanwhile construction, demolition and excavation wastes have been landfilled. There’s millions of tonnes of it readily available.”
The time to process that material, he says, is now. “The market needs solutions that can drive down operational costs while creating new and sustainable revenue streams. Right now, many countries across Europe rely on imports of critical raw materials. The extraction and processing of these materials can be costly, both in economic and environmental terms. Factor into this broader climate commitments and we have a real confluence of challenges.
“Circle 2025 will bring together the best minds to help unravel the complexities of these competing priorities to rewrite the narrative around waste and shape the future of mineral waste recycling.”
More details and speakers will be revealed over the coming months. Be the first to learn more by registering today.
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