Even though people increasingly recognise the plastic pollution threat, we have used more plastic since the covid-19 pandemic began .

In the southern Belgian province of Namur, concrete and bricks from demolished buildings are being turned into eco-friendly road surfaces.

Flash floods in Central Europe in 2002 damaged hundreds of roads, caused electricity failures, contaminated clean water and cost an estimated €150 billion in damage .

Urban mining is increasingly being taken seriously by industry because it gives access to materials—such as expensive metals used in electronics—that are buried in waste tips and landfills.

Twenty five years ago, the German chemist Michael Braungart developed a new approach to recycling, now called "Cradle to Cradle" or "C2C" after the book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, which he and the American architect William McDonough published in 2002.

Storm water is a critical consideration in managing urban water , as it influences the risks of flooding. Unfortunately, a global rise in urban population means that water management in urban areas is now under strain.

Making decision that may affect the environment is not that simple. For example, if a EU policy maker believes that biofuels can reduce CO 2 emissions.

Coastal areas offer great challenges when balancing the need to protect natural habitats, with the requirement of human and economic activities . Dikes, for example, may not constitute the solutions of the future.

How can policymakers change the way people think? This is what the InContext project, funded by the EU, hopes to answer. Leading European research institutions in the fields of transition, behaviour and sustainable development are trying to create a manual for change.

The process was developed by the Water Research Institute (WRI) of the Italian National Research Council and tested and scaled-up as part the EU-funded Innowatech project We know that biological processes offer the cheapest way to treat industrial wastewater.