Helen White, Associate Director of Waste and Resource Management at Tetra Tech, explains why, if we want people to waste less food or recycle more, we need to stop relying on awareness and start designing systems that make the right choice the easy choice.

If you work in the resources and waste sector, you’ll know that changing people’s behaviour is rarely straightforward. Whether we are talking about citizens, customers, or colleagues, the challenge is the same: how do we shift everyday habits in a way that is practical, affordable, and long-lasting?

I have spent a lot of time during the last 20 years encouraging people to waste less food. And whilst household food waste in 2021/22 was 22% lower than in 2007, WRAP found that between 2018 and 2021/22, it was 4.3kg per person higher, a 6.5% increase. Recycling rates in England have flat-lined too, hovering around 44% to 45% for years.

Policies such as Simpler Recycling, alongside Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging and the Deposit Return Scheme, are now tasked with driving us towards recycling 65% of municipal waste by 2035; but with our tendency to ‘campaign and explain’, are we still at risk of relying too heavily on communication to influence sustainable behaviours at scale?

Why communication by itself is not enough

It is a real issue for our sector. ‘Behaviour change’ is often used as shorthand for communication, but information, by itself, is rarely enough. Most people already know they should waste less food and recycle more. The problem is not always knowledge. More often, it is convenience, cost, habit, confusion, and a lack of motivation.

Providing information still matters, of course. But if we keep asking people to act differently without changing the conditions around them, we should not be surprised when progress is slow. The good news is that there are other ways to influence behaviour.

That is why the Behaviour Change Hierarchy is so useful. It helps us to think more clearly about the kind of intervention we are actually using.

At the top sits REMOVE: taking away the opportunity to do the wrong thing altogether. Below that are approaches such as NEUTRALITY, where the preferred behaviour does not cost more than the alternative, and EASE, where the desired behaviour is simpler to do than the wrong one. At the bottom is ASK, the approach we still use far too often because it is familiar, relatively cheap, and politically comfortable.

But if we’re being honest, asking people nicely has not delivered the results we need.

The strongest interventions are often the least glamorous. Sometimes the answer is not another leaflet, poster, or campaign. Sometimes it is better design. If the wrong behaviour is easier, cheaper, or more convenient, that is the behaviour people will likely choose. If we want different outcomes, we need to make the right action the default.

I experienced this at a conference where, despite recycling bins and clear signage, nobody seemed to know which container the compostable coffee cups should go in. In practice, the system had created confusion rather than clarity, and the result was contamination everywhere.

That problem could have been avoided entirely by using proper cups in the first place. In other words, the solution was not better sorting – it was removing the need to sort at all…

Education alone will not solve these problems, and neither will endless public campaigning. We do not have unlimited time, and we certainly do not have unlimited budgets! We need interventions that do more than ask people to change. We need interventions that make change happen.

Regulation absolutely has a role, but it needs to be designed with acceptability, practicality, and enforceability in mind. Likewise, with financial mechanisms that reprimand or reward, are you charging or incentivising those whose behaviour you want to change or placing the cost somewhere else in the system?

Behaviour is personal, complex, and deeply rooted in context. Whenever the desired action feels harder, more expensive, or less convenient, it will struggle to compete with the status quo.

If we are serious about reducing food waste and improving recycling, we need to be more ambitious about the way we design interventions. That means thinking beyond information and asking ourselves a more important question: what would it take for the right choice to be the obvious choice?

Sometimes that will mean removal. Sometimes neutrality. Sometimes ease. But it will always mean being honest that ‘asking’ by itself is not enough.

Our sector has spent years talking about behaviour change. Now we need to deliver.

Why should we take away the drum?

Why have I called this article Taking Away the Drum? This is how REMOVE is illustrated in the Behaviour Change Hierarchy – with thanks to lead author Stephen Bates.

“If a toddler is banging away on a toy drum, a parent might ask them to stop. When requests, demands, and threats still yield no response, the ultimate sanction is to take the drum away. The opportunity to behave contrary to the requirement has been removed,” he explains.

If you work in the Resources & Waste Sector, the chances are your role will involve trying to change how people behave.

In 2025, CIWM introduced a new training course to support its members tasked with encouraging pro-environmental behaviours and the delivery of a more resource-efficient society in line with CIWM’s strategic purpose.

Behaviour Change for the Resources and Waste Sector explores why behaviour can be difficult to influence, how to identify what might be needed to shift it, and introduces the strategies and tools that can be used – often in combination – to influence change.

Developed and tutored by myself, the overall aim is to give those working in the world of waste a better understanding of our behaviour and improve the efficacy of efforts to drive change and support the circular economy.

The post Taking away the drum: Why communication alone can’t change behaviour appeared first on Circular Online.

More than 430 tonnes of food waste have been diverted from black bins during the first month of household food waste collections in Derby.

All local authorities in England were required to introduce weekly food waste collections from 31 March as part of the government’s Simpler Recycling reforms.

Derby City Council said the collected food waste is processed at Severn Trent Green Power in Spondon, where it is used to generate renewable energy.

Diverting waste to anaerobic digestion allows it to be transformed into biogas for green energy and nutrient-rich fertiliser, rather than being sent to landfill.

Councillor Ndukwe Onuoha , Cabinet Member for Streetpride, Parks and Leisure, said the start was ‘very encouraging’.

“Like many councils across the country, Derby has faced challenges linked to a nationwide shortage of specialist food waste collection vehicles, meaning temporary hired, non-specialist vehicles had to be used,” Onuoha said.

“Seeing such a significant amount of waste diverted so early on shows that these small changes at home are already making a real difference.”

According to a BBC News investigation, more than 70 councils in England were set to miss the government’s deadline to introduce weekly food waste collections to all households.

The post 430 tonnes of food waste collected in Derby in rollout’s first month appeared first on Circular Online.

With flexible plastic recycling still lagging across Europe and North America, Jean-Loup Masson, Circular Solutions Director, Alliance to End Plastic Waste, speaks to Circular Online about concrete actions that could finally move the needle.

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s report, ‘The Challenges and Solutions for Flexible Plastic Packaging Waste’, analysed actionable steps that could help to solve the flexible plastic waste challenge in Europe and North America.

The report identified segregated waste collection and advanced secondary sorting as essential to improving flexible film recycling and quality of recyclates.

It also found that Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) targets are critical for developing end markets and de-risking investment necessary for recycling infrastructure upgrades.

To understand more about the report’s recommendations, Circular Online spoke to Jean-Loup Masson, Circular Solutions Director at Alliance to End Plastic Waste.

Why is segregated waste collection essential for improving flexible plastic recycling?

Modern plastic film production requires very high-quality and consistent feedstock, which mechanically recycled outputs often fail to provide.

Segregated waste collection plays a critical role in helping to meet these requirements, reducing contamination by keeping different plastic types and grades separate at source, resulting in cleaner and more uniform material streams.

Advanced secondary sorting technologies, such as AI object recognition and digital watermarking, also have a crucial part to play in ensuring these quality requirements are met.

For post-household waste, the first stage of sorting typically occurs at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), but these are often overloaded and tend to prioritise higher-value materials rather than flexibles. Consequently, the granular sorting of flexibles which is required for mechanical recycling typically occurs as a secondary step at the recycler.

However, such technologies are expensive and difficult for individual recyclers to adopt. This points to the need for secondary sorting in dedicated Plastics Recovery Facilities (PRF) that can deploy these technologies at scale.

Why are EPR and PCR content targets crucial policy tools for improving flexible plastic recycling?

Without reliable, high value end markets for recycled film, there is little incentive to invest in the collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure needed to handle these materials.

PCR content targets help address this by creating clear, sustained demand for recycled material, giving recyclers greater confidence that their outputs will be absorbed by the market.

EPR systems help ensure waste management is efficiently delivered, adequately funded, and supported by the right technical expertise.

Additionally, they can help boost demand for recycled materials by rewarding recycled content use – through mechanisms like reduced EPR fees – and improving the competitiveness of recyclates versus virgin materials.

EPR and PCR targets, though essential, are not enough. Brands and consumers will prioritise safety, design, and performance when in doubt about quality. The quality and cost‑to‑quality of recyclates is therefore central to achieving true circularity in packaging.

For policies, such as EPR, will the cost always be passed onto the consumer?

The assumption that EPR costs are automatically passed on to consumers oversimplifies how these systems are designed to function.

EPR costs are primarily intended to finance system change and all costs are not meant to be passed onto the customer. Well-designed EPR schemes are intended to internalise the end-of-life costs of packaging and place stronger responsibility on producers, while also creating incentives to change behaviour.

By encouraging better packaging design, reduced material use, and investment in more efficient collection, sorting and recycling systems, EPR can help lower overall system costs over time. Many EPR frameworks also use eco modulation to reward materials and designs that are cheaper to manage, helping to offset initial investments.

The objective of EPR is therefore not simply to shift costs, but to build more efficient and financially sustainable waste management systems that reduce leakage, improve recycling outcomes and deliver better value across the system.

How does the design of flexible plastics need to change to increase recycling rates?

Reducing the complexity of flexible plastic packaging is critical to improving recycling outcomes. While packaging often has legitimate functional needs, unnecessary design complexity remains common and undermines recycling quality.

For example, reverse (laminated) printing embeds inks between polymer layers, making them difficult to remove during standard washing and de-inking. Simplifying material structures, including reducing multi-material combinations and barrier layers, can improve recyclability.

Design decisions should also reflect end-of-life pathways, with different recycling technologies needing different bale qualities. Mechanical recycling, for example, prefers single polymer, low ink streams, while pyrolysis accepts polyolefin blends and printed films if halides and oxygen contaminants (for example, PVC, PET) are limited.

Finally, harmonised design guidelines (for example, CEFLEX, APR, RecyClass) are essential to improve consistency, reduce complexity, and enable scalable recycling systems.

EN 18120, a series of standards providing harmonised criteria for packaging compatibility with collection, sorting, and recycling processes, should emerge as the technical backbone of design for recyclability in the EU, underpinning future PPWR linked recyclability requirements.

Why are advanced detection technologies so important to increasing flexible plastic recycling rates?

AI-based object recognition uses cameras and machine learning algorithms to classify packaging based on visual features like shape and colour. There is also digital watermarking, which works by embedding invisible codes into packaging during manufacturing.

These codes can then be later detected by specialised optical scanners on sorting lines. This makes it easier to accurately identify packaging and access product-level data, leading to more precise sorting and higher quality recyclate.

Scaling these technologies does require some enabling conditions. Upfront investment, interoperability across technology providers, and sufficient participation from brands and converters all matter to ensure enough packaging is ‘visible’ to the system.

With coordinated action across brands, converters, and technology providers, these conditions can be met and adoption can expand effectively.

Improving circularity in Europe and North America

The Alliance is developing a ‘Flexibles Thematic Program’ that aims to improve the circularity of flexible films in Europe and North America.

The Alliance’s Flexibles Program adopts a three-part approach aligned with the report’s findings:

1. Market mapping and system design that quantifies end-market opportunities and quality requirements.
2. Showcasing demonstration projects to build confidence in systems solutions with government, industry, and community stakeholders.
3. Enabling replicationby mobilising brands, recyclers, and governments to understand what it takes to create and proliferate effective systems solutions across geographies.

We spoke to Jean-Loup Masson to understand more about this three-part approach and how it could work practically.

What is market mapping and how would it work in practice?

Market mapping is about identifying end-market opportunities for recycled flexible plastics and the material quality needed to serve those applications.

We do so by first assessing which applications can absorb recyclates at scale, the waste streams that are available for feedstock, and the infrastructure and technologies needed to connect supply and demand.

These findings then shape practical action plans that connect waste sources to recycling technologies and buyers in ways that make sense from a technical and financial perspective.

This market-back approach is essential because it ensures that any investments made in collection, sorting, and recycling infrastructure match up with real demand from the outset.

Rather than building capacity and hoping buyers will emerge, we believe effective market mapping involves working backwards from what the market actually needs and can absorb.

Circularity cannot be driven by what technological innovation makes possible. Demand, regulation, and brand strategies must actively pull circular solutions into the market.

What are some examples of demonstration projects?

In collaboration with the European Brands Association (AIM), our HolyGrail 2.0 initiative demonstrated the technical viability and business benefit of digital watermarking. Trials carried out in late 2023 and early 2024 showed that digital watermarks can reliably identify and sort flexible plastics, even when materials are aged, baled or heavily contaminated.

Detection rates of 95% and sorting rates of 85% were achieved on the first pass. The technology is now being tested in real-world conditions in Belgium and Germany to prove it is ready for commercial deployment.

We also support Nextek’s COtooCLEAN project, which uses supercritical CO₂ purifying technology to remove embedded contaminants from post-consumer plastic films. The technology thoroughly decontaminates plastics, removing absorbed contaminants without dissolving the plastic.

This makes it well suited to producing high purity recyclates, with the potential to meet stringent food contact requirements. If successfully scaled, the technology could play a significant role in advancing the circularity of flexible films.

The Alliance supported the launch of a demonstration plant in Lincolnshire, UK, in April – a critical step in validating the technology and supporting its path to wider deployment.

What are the key market differences between North America and Europe? How can systems be replicated across geographies?

The challenges of building scalable circular systems vary significantly across different markets, and a tailored approach is needed. Progress in Europe, for example, is primarily being held back by an unfavourable cost‑quality ratio of recycled materials compared to virgin plastics.

Although the region generally has well‑established collection and recycling infrastructure, the recyclates produced often fail to meet the consistency and performance standards required by end‑use markets. Low virgin‑plastic prices further constrain market expansion for recycled material.

By contrast, the United States faces an infrastructure gap – a consequence of limited EPR regulations and the absence of proven, viable end‑markets, thereby slowing down investment. The limited availability of collection and sorting systems, particularly for flexible plastics, hampers the supply of feedstock necessary to scale recycling efforts.

Regardless of geography, circular systems can only be replicated if they are supported by a functional end-market. Efforts to replicate and scale solutions to plastic waste across different regions must be underpinned by market-driven strategies that ensure recyclate outputs meet end-market requirements before investments are made in infrastructure and technology.

The post Solving the challenge of flexible plastics: Alliance to End Plastic Waste appeared first on Circular Online.

Over 50 businesses and trade associations, including IKEA and Virgin Media O2, are urging the UK Government to publish the long-delayed Circular Economy Growth Plan.

As part of the joint letter, the businesses said the plan would end uncertainty, provide ‘the confidence to invest’ and accelerate a circular economy transition across their operations.

The Circular Economy Growth Plan was originally expected to be published in October last year and has been held back for over six months.

Circular Online learned that the Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) expected to publish the plan for consultation in early 2026. However, it has yet to be published, and there is no indication of when it could arrive.

The businesses have said they are worried the ongoing delay ‘will harm momentum towards a more resilient, resource efficient economy’.

The plan has been developed by the Circular Economy Taskforce, an independent advisory group comprising experts and leaders from various sectors.

The letter has been signed by businesses including IKEA and Virgin Media O2, as well as the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM).

Rachel Solomon Williams, Executive Director at Aldersgate Group, a signatory of the letter, commented: “The continued delay to the Circular Economy Growth Plan is creating real uncertainty for business.”

“We need a clear, cross‑government, long‑term approach that provides policy certainty, supports resilience, and enables investment.”

“This is particularly important as the UK seeks to reset its relationship with the EU: policy divergence can cause substantial practical and economic challenges for business.”

The joint letter was sent to Emma Reynolds, Secretary of State for Defra, as well as the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Department for Transport, Treasury, and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Last week, a separate letter coordinated by The Restart Project and signed by Green Alliance, Back Market, and the CIWM also called on the Prime Minister to release the Circular Economy Growth Plan.

The post Over 50 businesses urge government to publish Circular Economy Growth Plan appeared first on Circular Online.

Trewin Restorick, Founder of Sizzle Innovation, explores the behavioural challenges at the heart of UK recycling reform and how they can be overcome.

We all rely on routines to get through our daily lives. These habits are deeply ingrained and largely unquestioned. They operate on autopilot, freeing up mental capacity, allowing us to focus on more complex or unfamiliar decisions.

It is almost certain that some of these embedded habits relate to how we manage waste and recycling. We know when to put the bins out, and we instinctively separate materials without giving it much thought.

Changing these ingrained behaviours is notoriously difficult. It typically requires a significant disruption, such as moving home, having a child, changing jobs, or experiencing illness, before people reassess their routines.

This presents a clear challenge for the recycling sector. With the introduction of Simpler Recycling reforms and the forthcoming Deposit Return Scheme (DRS), there is a need to shift established behaviours at scale across the UK.

Research suggests that public support for DRS is strong and relatively stable, with low levels of opposition. Whilst willingness to use the scheme seems to be high, there is a drop off to around 50% when people are asked whether they are likely to use the scheme regularly.

Awareness is also significantly higher among environmentally engaged individuals and those over 55, but significantly lower among people under 35.

So how can the sector successfully influence daily routines to ensure the effectiveness of this new recycling infrastructure?

Academic research is clear: simple awareness-raising campaigns are rarely enough to disrupt established habits or embed new ones. Instead, a more sophisticated, multi-faceted approach is required, drawing on behavioural insights and practical interventions. These approaches often include the following elements:

Nudge

A key challenge is prompting people to reconsider behaviours that are automatic and largely unconscious. This can be achieved through timely prompts or ‘nudges’ at the point of action. Simple interventions such as stickers on bins encouraging people to pause and reconsider can be effective.

Retailers will also play a crucial role in reinforcing behaviours linked to DRS. Messaging at key touchpoints, such as store exits, car parks, or even printed on receipts and carrier bags, can serve as reminders to return containers.

There is also scope for more creative approaches. For example, visual cues like green footprints leading to DRS return points can make the desired behaviour both visible and intuitive.

Social norms

People are strongly influenced by what they perceive others around them to be doing. Establishing recycling behaviours as the ‘norm’ can significantly increase participation.

This can be achieved through messaging such as: ‘80% of shoppers at this store return their containers’. Social media, local press and in-store communications can reinforce the idea that returning containers is not just encouraged, it is expected.

Over time, this normalisation helps shift behaviour from being a conscious choice to an automatic habit.

Validation

Participation increases when people believe their actions have a meaningful impact. It is therefore essential to demonstrate clearly how individual contributions add up to wider environmental and economic benefits.

Storytelling can be particularly powerful here. Showing what happens to returned materials and how they are transformed into new products helps make the process tangible. Visual installations or real-time counters (for example ‘containers returned this week’) can further reinforce this sense of collective achievement.

At the same time, the sector must be prepared to respond quickly to negative media narratives. Stories highlighting system failures or inefficiencies can quickly erode public confidence if left unchallenged. Transparent communication and rapid rebuttal will be critical.

Hassle-free

Convenience will be one of the most important determinants of success. If new recycling behaviours are perceived as inconvenient, participation will quickly drop. Clear communication will be essential so that people quickly understand what is expected of them.

How the new DRS system fits with existing recycling collections could be an area of confusion and will require a consistent and easy-to-remember set of messaging to ensure it is embedded into people’s understanding.

The system must be designed to fit seamlessly into people’s existing routines. This includes ensuring that return points are easy to access, well-signposted and reliable. Equipment must function consistently, queues should be minimised, and processes should be quick and intuitive.

Where possible, the new system should feel no harder than existing behaviours. Friction is the enemy of habit formation; removing it is essential.

Reward

While environmental motivations are important, tangible incentives can significantly accelerate behaviour change. The financial reward offered through DRS provides a clear and immediate benefit, helping to reinforce the desired behaviour.

There is also an opportunity to broaden the concept of reward. Retailers could link returns to loyalty schemes, discounts, or charitable donations, allowing consumers to choose how they benefit. Non-financial rewards such as recognition, gamification, or community-based challenges can also help sustain engagement over time.

Ultimately, the goal is to move from extrinsic motivation (doing it for the reward) to intrinsic habit (doing it automatically without thinking).

Conclusion

Successfully delivering the next phase of UK recycling will depend not just on what is built, but on what people do every day. Infrastructure and policy can enable change, but only behaviour can deliver it.

Embedding new habits at scale will require sustained collaboration across government, retailers and the waste sector, combining behavioural insight with consistent, frictionless experiences.

Get this right, and new systems will feel effortless. Get it wrong, and even the best-designed schemes will struggle to succeed.

The post The behavioural challenge at the heart of UK recycling reform appeared first on Circular Online.

Clarissa Morawski, CEO and cofounder of circular economy non-profit Reloop, explains why Europe must transition to a circular economy in response to economic shocks caused by the war in the Middle East.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a wider war in the Middle East are causing petrochemical disruptions that are already impacting citizens through higher prices.

While there has been increased focus on enhancing Europe’s energy security in response to this crisis, too little attention has been paid to the pressing issue of our resource security, with many vital supply chains reliant on the region.

Now is the moment to redouble efforts to embed a circular economy across Europe, properly valuing and using the materials we have within our borders.

Petrochemicals, the category of oil refining that includes plastic, now account for 14% of global oil use, and the sector is expected to drive half of oil demand growth between now and 2050.

The Middle East is at the centre of global plastic production, accounting for around 40% of polyethylene exports in 2025, the material used to make items including plastic bags.

The costs of our reliance on the region are becoming clear, with prices for plastics having risen sharply since the conflict began, linked to higher crude and feedstock costs.

One European importer of raw materials told reporters that because of the crisis, for polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which has uses including plastic bottles, ‘instead of $1,500/container, it’s now $3,000/tonne’.

We will all feel the impact as these costs translate into higher prices at the till. It demonstrates the problem of our economies still over-relying on virgin plastic, with just 9.5% of plastic made in 2022 having used recycled material.

Reloop’s mission is that natural resources remain resources; an approach that means we don’t waste the plastics and other materials already extracted from the natural world. At present, the majority of plastic in Europe is not recycled (only 40.7% of plastic packaging was recycled in 2022), with the material instead lost to low-value uses such as incineration or buried in landfill.

Our goal to change this system has never been more important. Policymakers have long had an understanding that protecting resources has positive environmental benefits. Now it is clear that resource security is economic security.

Our work to improve the collection of high-quality materials demonstrates these benefits. For example, Reloop supports the wide roll-out of Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) for drinks bottles and cans. Across the EU, DRS schemes – now 18 in total – result in collection rates of greater than 90% at system maturity.

This represents a huge quantity of good-quality material which is available for recycling into new products. Elsewhere, since DRS was launched in Ireland in 2024, 2.5 billion items have been recycled by the scheme.

Programmes like this, which separate uncontaminated food-grade material from other lower-quality material, allow bottle-to-bottle and can-to-can recycling where old drinks containers become new drinks containers.

In the current context, let’s be clear what this means: a security of domestic material supply which does not depend on the vagaries of international petrochemical markets. Still, even with strong collection systems in place, valuable resources are still being lost.

Mixed Residual Waste Sorting recovers valuable materials like plastics, metals, and paper from residual waste before it’s sent to landfill or incineration. Across our waste systems, recovering materials from mixed waste could reduce waste-sector emissions by up to 21% and reduce reliance on imported material. In Belgium, for example, plastic packaging recycling rates could increase from 53% to 65%.

And more widely, we must look beyond recycling, while recognising it as a foundational element of circular systems, to scaling up reuse systems (for example, coffee cup return schemes) and reducing material use.

To make the case for transformation across Europe, I was recently in Romania for the Resource Recovery Summit 2026, highlighting the investments needed to close gaps in infrastructure, technology, and market incentives.

There was growing excitement for the upcoming Circular Economy Act, expected from the European Commission in September, which will provide an important signal of how Europe intends to link economic renewal with a more robust circular economy.

Investments in this space can build stronger circular systems that can keep valuable materials within Europe, support industrial resilience and protect future generations from price shocks linked to our reliance on petrochemicals.

The post In times of uncertainty, Europe’s economic prosperity requires a more circular economy appeared first on Circular Online.

The European Commission has held talks on the Circular Economy Act ahead of a final stakeholder workshop involving 1000 participants.

The Circular Economy Act is set to be implemented in 2026 and aims to accelerate Europe’s transition to a circular economy, reduce dependencies on critical raw materials, and strengthen economic resilience.

Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, and Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, Jessika Roswall, led the stakeholder dialogue.

During the talks, participants discussed how the Single Market can be unlocked for the circular economy, how to recover critical raw materials from waste to support the EU’s economic security and resilience, and how to build a stronger market for secondary raw materials.

Following this introductory dialogue, a final stakeholder workshop on the new law will take place, where more than 1,000 participants will discuss options to be considered under the law.

They are also set to discuss ways to reduce the EU’s dependence on imports of critical raw materials, simplify the regulatory framework for secondary raw materials, and strengthen access to circular feedstocks across the Single Market.

On 6 May, the College of Commissioners will meet to discuss the Circular Economy Act. The College is composed of Commissioners from the 27 EU-member countries, whose roles are broadly equivalent to ministers at the national level.

The post European Commission holds Circular Economy Act talks appeared first on Circular Online.

About Tirthankar Sundaram

Full Name: Tirthankar Sundaram

Designation: Head – Deposits and Analytics, Treasury ALM

Company: Axis Bank

Country: India

Tirthankar’s Learning Journey That Inspires

Which courses or certifications by 101 Blockchains have you completed?

I have completed the Certified Blockchain Product Manager (CBPM) certification program by 101 Blockchains. 

Why did you choose this certification program, and how was your learning experience with the platform?

I have more than two decades of professional experience in different areas of banking, including treasury, retail, and wholesale functions. Currently, I work in Treasury and ALM, which requires spending most of the time analyzing the balance sheet from the perspective of liquidity, risk, and funding efficiency. 

As digital transformation and emerging technologies become integral components in the financial services industry, I developed the curiosity to understand how new technologies can solve balance sheet problems in the real world.

Blockchain has been a recurring topic in conversations around banking, industry narratives, and strategy meetings. However, I believed that I not only need to understand blockchain technology but also how to apply it in relevant business contexts. 

Thinking about blockchain beyond the hype helped me choose the Certified Blockchain Product Manager certification. I also like to state that I had a productive learning experience with the certification course and 101 Blockchains.

At 101 Blockchains, you don’t just earn certifications — you gain real-world skills that shape you into a confident blockchain professional.

Which skills or knowledge gained from the program helped you the most?

The structured design of content in the certification program is the most appealing highlight for me. I would like to point out that the program does not explain blockchain as a standalone technology. On the contrary, it clearly showcases how blockchain can become an integral aspect of the larger product and ecosystem design problem in banking. The certification course also explained how different concepts like smart contracts, governance, and tokenization can be combined to craft viable solutions for business problems.

I work with treasury functions and balance sheets in my professional role, and the hands-on project in the certification program helped me the most. My project involved creating a design to solve real problems with SME supply chain financing in India with a practical roadmap for implementation.  

The relevance of the hands-on exercise in the certification program with my professional goals turned out to be a huge advantage. Most important of all, the program helped me view the problems from a different perspective. The new perspective enabled me to design a blockchain-based model that treats invoices as digital assets. As a result, it can offer better access to credit, enhance overall capital efficiency, and reduce the risk of double financing. 

You should always view hands-on exercises as something more than just academic requirements. The solution that I designed in the program directly targets real challenges in the SME financing ecosystem. It also offers clear implementation pathways across majority of the existing market structures, thereby delivering desired practical value.

How did 101 Blockchains help your professional growth?

The certification program by 101 Blockchains offered lessons on blockchain architecture, integration layers and consensus mechanisms, which I used in creating my solution. Most important of all, I could develop a system that can work seamlessly with existing infrastructure rather than replacing it. 

In my opinion, the next promising aspect of the program was that it did not dwell too much on technical complexity. I learned how to explain technical concepts to business stakeholders and gained the skills required to promote blockchain adoption in financial institutions.

With the help of the certification program, I learned blockchain concepts and developed fluency in identifying the right use cases and approaches to implement blockchain technology.

From learners to leaders — explore the success stories of 100,000+ professionals with 101 Blockchains.

Whom will you recommend the CBPM certification to and why?

I believe that the CBPM certification program is the right choice for anyone who is working at the intersection of finance, technology, and strategy. The program played a pivotal role in transforming my curiosity about blockchain into clear understanding of all concepts. Most important of all, the certification refined my capabilities to identify how emerging technologies can support real business outcomes.  

The post Success Story: Tirthankar Sundaram’s Learning Journey with 101 Blockchains appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

Cryptocurrencies have become an integral component of global finance and shattered all assumptions about their potential. You will find many use cases of cryptocurrencies across various sectors that have been driving real change in the world. However, the growing use of cryptocurrencies also draws attention towards concerns of financial and security risks. You must know how crypto audits prevent fraud and financial risks and develop trust in crypto adoption initiatives.

• Monthly transaction volumes of stablecoins stand at an average of $1.1 trillion, calling for increased regulatory scrutiny (Source). 
• Malicious actors stole almost $2.87 billion in 2025 with the ByBit hack taking the lion’s share at $1.46 billion (Source). 
• The Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report indicated that illicit crypto transaction volume reached $154 billion in 2025 (Source).
• Access control vulnerabilities led to loss of more than $1.6 billion while smart contract vulnerabilities inflicted damages worth $263 million in 2025 (Source).  

If there’s anything that you can take away from statistics on crypto crime in 2025, it will be the rising number and complexity of risks. At the same time, the demand for regulatory scrutiny intensifies with growing use of cryptocurrencies in global finance. Crypto audits can help in preventing fraud and addressing financial risks with diverse benefits that push for long-term crypto adoption. Learning about crypto audits can help new crypto protocols, exchanges and enterprise-grade solutions create strong safeguards against financial loss and damage to brand reputation. 

What Will You Find in Crypto Audits?

The best way to learn how crypto audits can prevent financial fraud and risks will involve learning what goes on in a crypto audit. Many people assume that just like traditional finance audits, crypto audits also focus only on the ledger. However, crypto fraud prevention is possible through crypto audits only because they focus on checking the logic, infrastructure security, financial aspect and compliance. Every comprehensive crypto audit process revolves around the following areas.

1. Financial Audit 

The financial audit for crypto businesses involves crafting a systematic evaluation of the crypto infrastructure. Financial audits focus on verifying ownership and valuation of digital assets alongside ensuring accurate documentation of crypto transactions. The scope of a financial audit also revolves around ensuring that all cryptocurrency transactions are accurately represented in financial statements. 

2. Infrastructure Security Audit

The infrastructure security audit focuses on the ecosystem of a specific crypto initiative. Security audits primarily aim to find out how you store your private keys and the level of security in frontend. Crypto infrastructure security audits also evaluate the access controls to ensure that only authorized individuals can access funds. The infrastructure security audit must also evaluate the robustness of API integrations to ensure resiliency against internal and external threats.

3. Smart Contract Audit

You can find out how audits help in crypto financial risk prevention with insights on utility of smart contract audits. Smart contract audits involve review of the code and governance of crypto infrastructure to identify vulnerabilities and implement proper upgrade workflows. Auditing smart contracts not only validates functionality of the contracts but also helps in preventing operational disruptions and financial exploits.

4. Compliance Audit

The next crucial component in every crypto audit workflow is the compliance audit. Crypto projects can leverage compliance audits to verify that the project follows relevant AML regulations and sanctions checks. Compliance audits also help with assessment of reporting requirements in different jurisdictions. Auditors will also evaluate processes to verify counterparties and monitor transactions to identify suspicious activity. 

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How Crypto Audits Prevent Fraud and Financial Risks?

The crypto landscape is almost two decades old and is still haunted by specific vulnerabilities. Crypto audits can provide an effective solution to ensure safeguards against financial risks and fraud. You can notice how effective crypto audits help in proactive mitigation of the following risks.

• Access Control Vulnerabilities

Access control flaws emerged as the biggest attack vector for crypto projects in 2025. It is important to note that the most common reason for crypto fraud or theft is the lack of attention to access controls. If you leave your door open, then thieves will find it easier to steal your funds. Access control vulnerabilities help unauthorized users call privileged functions without any detection. 

Crypto audits can verify safeguards for sensitive functions, with multi-signature requirements and role-based access control. As a result, a single point of failure could not leave your protocol at risk of theft.

• Flaws in Business Logic

An overview of cryptocurrency risks and benefits will show that most of them can be attributed to business logic. Crypto audits help in finding invisible errors in the business logic of crypto protocols that run perfectly while failing to achieve the intended goal. Lending protocols can end up miscalculating the value of collateral and allow users to borrow more than they can.

Crypto audits leverage mathematical proofs for formal verification and ensure that the smart contract logic works as intended in different conditions. It helps in preventing financial exploits that seemingly appear as genuine transactions.

• Flash Loan Exploits

Flash loans are an innovative solution in the crypto space that allows everyone to borrow loans with zero collateral. The only condition in a flash loan is that the borrower should repay the loan within the same block. Malicious agents can use certain tools to amplify the impact of small bugs into catastrophic financial losses.

Crypto auditors carry out simulations of black swan events by using flash loans and check whether the internal rules of the protocol remain steady under extreme volatility. 

• Oracle Manipulation Attacks

The use of oracles in the DeFi space has increased, thereby making them an invaluable tool in crypto protocols. If a crypto protocol relies on a single source of information, attackers can pump artificial price estimates to take massive loans against the manipulated assets. 

Audits help in verifying that DeFi protocols utilize decentralized and time-weighted average price oracles. Crypto auditors also establish relevant circuit breakers in place to freeze all transactions when price data appears suspicious.

• Rug Pulls and Exit Scams

You may have assumed that crypto audits prevent fraud and financial risks that are technical in nature. However, all crypto fraud in not technical in nature as you can notice in examples of rug pulls and exit scams. Developers can create hype around specific projects and vanish into thin air with funds of investors and users.

Crypto audits can help in preventing this massive source of financial risk by checking timelocks and liquidity locks. Comprehensive audits ensure that developers cannot move funds instantly without a public warning. Verification of liquidity locks also ensures that the initial liquidity of a crypto project is locked in smart contracts, and founders cannot withdraw it. Furthermore, crypto audits also evaluate governance model of crypto projects to ensure that a small group cannot implement arbitrary changes in protocol rules or allocate more tokens to insiders.

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When Should You Implement Crypto Audits?   

Most of the crypto audits follow a regular schedule and are conducted annually. The primary goal of conducting crypto audits at the end of a fiscal year is to ensure alignment with financial reporting and compliance guidelines. However, the best way to use audits for crypto fraud prevention requires identifying the ideal time to conduct an audit.

The notable trigger events for crypto audits include unexpected regulatory changes or investor requests. On top of it, inquiries from tax authorities can also call for crypto audits. You should also note that significant business events, such as launch of new crypto assets or products can call for crypto audits.

Final Thoughts 

Crypto audits are no longer a nice-to-have addition to the business strategy of any crypto project. You can figure out how crypto audits prevent fraud and financial risks in the fact that audits help in identify notable security flaws. Comprehensive crypto audits provide an effective tool to find access control vulnerabilities, business logic flaws and issues in smart contract code. On top of it, crypto audits ensure that the governance and compliance of crypto protocols are in the right place. Learn more about the significance of crypto audits now.

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A joint letter signed by 19 organisations, including CIWM, Green Alliance, and SUEZ, is calling on the Prime Minister to release the government’s Circular Economy Growth Plan.

The letter is coordinated by The Restart Project and signed by Green Alliance alongside Back Market, CIWM, musicMagpie, SUEZ, Wildlife and Countryside Link, Possible, Reloop, as well as other organisations.

“We are writing as businesses, NGOs and community groups to urge you to release the delayed Circular Economy Growth Plan as soon as possible,” the letter reads.

“This would bring major benefits for people around the UK and the UK economy. There is incredible political and public support for measures to keep our products in use for longer – repair, refurbishment and reuse in particular.”

The Circular Economy Growth Plan was originally planned to be published in October last year, but was delayed.

Circular Online learned that the Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) expected to publish the plan for consultation in early 2026. However, it haas yet to be published, and there is no indication of when it could arrive.

The plan has been developed by the Circular Economy Taskforce, an independent advisory group comprising experts and leaders from various sectors.

The letter concludes: “Since the General Election in July 2024, supported by the external expertise of the Circular Economy Taskforce, a huge and welcome amount of cross-government effort has been committed to the Circular Economy Growth Plan.”

“To now deliver the benefits of this work for businesses and the public, we urge you to publish the plan as soon as possible.”

Last year, the Scottish Government launched a consultation on its draft Circular Economy Strategy that sets out plans to increase reuse, repair and recycling rates.

The post Joint letter calls on PM to release Circular Economy Growth Plan appeared first on Circular Online.