Dr. Geraldine Brennan:

I thank the Chair and members for the opportunity to present evidence today on behalf of CIRCULÉIRE, the National Platform for Circular Manufacturing. It is the first national, industry-led public-private partnership dedicated to accelerating the transition to the net-zero carbon circular economy and also Ireland’s first dedicated EU circular economy hotspot. We have been in operation since 2020 and have a growing membership base. Starting with 25 founding members, we now have 37 industry partners. Through our network activities, from our innovation fund to our annual thematic working groups and new venture programme, we are currently supporting over 80 businesses and organisations in Ireland to work towards new circular models for their business, supply chain or wider society, and are continuing to grow the network. CIRCULÉIRE’s industry members welcome the placing of the circular economy strategy on a statutory footing through the circular economy Bill and the evolution of the environment fund into a circular economy fund.

The Government’s ambition to transition to a circular economy and become a leader in Europe by 2050 is matched by the willingness of industry to engage in this transformation journey. This is illustrated by CIRCULÉIRE’s network of cross-sectoral manufacturing companies and what we refer to as "second life enablers". These are microenterprise SMEs and multinationals alike ranging throughout the country. They include Novelplast and Gannon Eco in Meath, Automatic Plastics in Wicklow, Farrell Furniture in Louth; pharmaceutical companies like Hovione; ICT asset management companies; household names like Kerry Food and Coca-Cola Ireland; and extended producer responsibility schemes such as WEEE Ireland, the European Recycling Platform and Repak, which represent thousands of Irish businesses

All our members have committed to understanding what the circular economy means for their business and how to overcome key barriers to implementation to deliver significant reductions in both CO₂emissions and waste over the lifespan of this pilot initiative, which currently runs until the end of 2022. The diversity of our network highlights that no company can transition to the circular economy on its own. Embedding circularity in the Irish economy demands a collective effort by Irish society, industry, policymakers, academia, the third sector and citizens alike.

As the secretariat of CIRCULÉIRE, Irish Manufacturing Research, an Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland supported technology centre, commends the cross-departmental dialogues in recent years among the Departments of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which have laid the foundation for placing climate action, circular economy and the bioeconomy at the heart of Ireland’s economic development model. We also commend the Government on driving forward with a green recovery, with circular economy at its heart as we navigate the road out of the Covid-19 pandemic. This positive momentum is illustrated by the centrality of circular economy in the national climate action plan, the waste action plan for a circular economy in 2020, the all-of-government circular economy strategy with a commitment to develop key sectoral roadmaps, and the circular economy Bill that we are here to discuss.

It is notable that the circular economy is explicitly referenced 39 times in the recently published National Development Plan 2021-2030 and that €98 million was allocated to the 2022 budget of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to support this transition. It is an exciting time in circular economy development in Ireland and the CIRCULÉIRE network is a positive example of moving circular economy ideation into reality. For example, we have supported founding members' internal capacity building on their journey from linear to circular business models, through knowledge sharing between our networks and a range of actors throughout the innovation ecosystem, from regional development to academia and third sector, through our annual thematic working groups, which have ranged from topics on circular bioeconomy to circular procurement to circular packaging and by de-risking circular economy models through supporting ideation and proposal development for multipartner innovation pilots funded through our fund.

Some examples we have funded to date are the circular economy skill set initiative, which is an industry-accredited and standards-based repair training programme led by WEEE Ireland in collaboration with IBEC’s White Goods Association and Fast-track into IT, FIT. We have also funded the #CEPowerofMany demonstrator that aims to create a closed-loop system in the construction sector led by Freefoam Plastics in collaboration with Mulligan Guttering, Glenveagh Homes and Shabra Recycling. There are others. Another key area of our work is piloting the first late-stage accelerator dedicated to supporting circular economy ventures to scale in collaboration with Tangent and a recent alumni The ZeroNet, which won the UK's top Circular Economy Project of the Year award in 2021.

CIRCULÉIRE’s members all agree that circular economy needs to be embraced and are committed to implementation, but there is a significant degree of complexity in implementing circularity at scale. This is relates to the vast regulatory landscape; redesigning products and business models without clear marketplaces existing; the need to establish enabling infrastructure both physical and digital; the requirement for internal capacity building to support the culture change and mindset change required to embrace this new model; and the need to expand capabilities and recruitment of new skills. The circular economy does not just sit with compliance and waste management; it is across the entire organisation and value chain. All of these activities require substantial upfront investment with medium- to longer-term returns.

Our members are committed to getting things done but equally fearful in the absence of clarity of what the regulatory environment will look like and what markets will exist in Ireland for circular product-service systems. One member brought this to life by describing the importance of “de-risking the initial toe-in-the water pilots”, stating further “... even if there is an opportunity related to circular economy in the absence of a defined market - particularly for SMEs - any investment is fundamentally a gamble...”. Our members are part of CIRCULÉIRE because it gives them confidence that they are heading in the right direction and this initiative is viewed as enabling and supporting the derisking of this transformation. In this context, CIRCULÉIRE’s members welcome a more hands-on regulatory approach, with flexibility for research and development and greater regulatory certainty via clearer regulatory frameworks, citing the success of extended producer responsibility, EPR, schemes for WEEE Ireland as replicable for other sectors. Members also welcome supports to create marketplaces, the embedding of circularity criteria into existing public funding calls and developing specific capital expenditure funds, and more dialogue between public bodies, third sector organisations, industry, and citizens.

Finally, in this context, it is worth highlighting comparative investment by other EU nation states, for example ZeroWaste Scotland, which has created a £18 million grant fund for SMEs. The Netherlands, which is regarded a leader in the EU for circularity, announced at our launch last year that it was committing €20 million for knowledge and capacity-building initiatives.

To conclude, circular economy is a key tool in the broader climate action, bio-economy and just transition agendas. Scaling up implementation of circularity in Ireland represents a significant economic opportunity, estimated at €2 billion annually. Capitalising on this requires closing the circular economy knowledge, capacity building and implementation gaps. We have started this journey with manufacturers and their supply chains with the objective of demystifying, derisking, and role modelling implementation of circular models, but there is much more work to be done. Our members have expressed the need for regulatory certainty for industry, sectoral roadmaps with clear targets and time lines, as well as a supportive enabling environment with training, guidance and funding supports that can leverage Ireland's ambition to engage in the circular economy and translate this into sustainable industrial action in Ireland.

I thank the committee again for the opportunity to provide evidence of what a public-private partnership pilot can deliver in capacity building and innovation demonstrations towards implementing a more circular economy in Ireland and I look forward to addressing the members' questions.