May 17 is World Recycling Day, an event established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to raise awareness of the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling. This date also aims to convey to society the need to make a responsible use of raw materials for their transformation into consumer goods or to make a good management in the subsequent treatment of waste to collaborate with the protection of the planet.

Currently, more than 40,000 species are threatened according to the IUCN Red List (2022), and extrapolation from there suggests that one million species could be at risk of extinction(IPBES, 2019). Human activities, especially those linked to the linear economy, seriously threaten biodiversity conservation. According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Resource Panel (2019), 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress are caused by the extraction and processing of natural resources. The report ‘The Nature Imperative: How the circular economy tackles biodiversity loss’ (2021) points out some threats in this regard. In the food sector, for example, the expansion of agriculture on natural land leads to habitat loss, while many conventional farming practices lead to air and water pollution, as well as overexploitation of natural resources. In the case of the industrial sector, the production and processing of raw materials emits large amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. To halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity, the document points out the importance of transforming the way products and foods are produced, used and consumed, otherwise conservation and restoration efforts alone would not be enough. In line with the above, the circular economy is presented as an essential alternative transformation model. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) through the report ‘Towards a circular economy that begins and ends in nature’ (2022) defines the circular economy as an economic system in which the value of the economy’s products, materials and other resources is maintained for as long as possible, enhancing their efficient use in both production and consumption. reducing the environmental impact of their use, minimising waste and the release of hazardous substances at all stages of their life cycle, including through the application of the waste hierarchy. In this way, the document ‘The Nature Imperative’ points out that the circular economy creates opportunities for a new and better growth model, which not only helps to protect and recover biodiversity, but also provides other benefits for society as a whole, such as helping to tackle climate change, improving air and water quality and reducing the cost of access to goods and services. To address the root causes of biodiversity loss, three key principles are identified that can be applied across different industrial sectors, enabling biodiversity benefits across the economy. The first is based on eliminating waste and pollution to reduce direct threats to biodiversity through, for example, the redesign of products that can circulate in the economy without generating waste. The second points to the need to circulate products and materials to make room for biodiversity, for example, by using recycled materials in industries such as electronics, which would lead to less digging in mines, benefiting biodiversity and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. The last principle focuses on regenerating nature, to allow biodiversity to thrive. For example, regenerative agricultural approaches can sequester carbon in the soil and improve its health, increase biodiversity in surrounding ecosystems, and allow agricultural land to continue to be productive rather than degraded over time.

To contribute to the transition to this new model and promote the circular economy in the private sector, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has launched, through the Directorate General for Environmental Quality and Assessment and with the participation of the Biodiversity Foundation as a collaborating entity, a call for grants within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (RTRP) financed by the European Union – Next Generation EU, with a total endowment of 192 million euros.