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Project title

JUSt Transition in Ireland’s Circular Economy: Scaling and Supporting Irish Food and Fashion Resource Recovery

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

University College Dublin (UCD)

Lead Applicant

Enrico Secchi

Project Abstract

Circularity is declining worldwide and Ireland has one of the lowest circular material use rates in Europe. At the production end of the supply chain, reliance on virgin materials for production has enormous environmental impacts. At the consumer end of the supply chain, food waste is responsible for 8-10% of global GHG emissions and 92 million tonnes of textile waste is produced every year. In the face of the threat posed by climate change, the urgency of transitioning to a low-carbon circular economy is increasing. However, this transition needs to take into account the lack of social justice across communities and supply chains, where people are being excluded from, or made to pay for, decarbonization initiatives, and where the impact on employees and their jobs is routinely ignored. The JUSTICE project focuses on the management of waste in the food and fashion sector with the goal of building a solid evidence base to develop effective policies, incentives, and practices to increase circularity. The project focuses on scaling up the resource recovery sector of the circular economy, the industrial sector after primary production and use, where products are kept in circulation at their highest value, through collection, sorting, reuse, repair, extraction of materials, transformation and other circularity methods. The JUSTICE project brings together a team with complementary skills and uses a unique, circular, mixed methodology, beginning with desk-based research to map the sector and the policy landscape both in Ireland and internationally. Multiple workshops, developed with CIRCULÉIRE, will include government, business, social enterprises, unions and employees, to investigate how to scale and support the sector. An event study will analyse the impact of current policy initiatives. Two multi-level case studies will identify obstacles and opportunities for just transition in the food and fashion industries and also examine job quality and conditions in these industries. This will be followed by behavioural experiments to test policy and financial incentives ensuring a just transition to a circular economy. Finally, JUSTICE principles will be developed and disseminated with the public, future leaders in under- and postgraduate modules and with the resource recovery sector. Through engagement with multiple stakeholders, the development of a Policy Brief for regulators and a Best Practice Guide for businesses and social enterprises, along with the educational material for HEIs, the JUSTICE project is set to build on existing initiatives and make a significant impact on scaling up the resource recovery sector in food and fashion industries in Ireland, therefore offering a major contribution to ensuring a just transition to a circular economy.

Grant Approved

€658,411.97

Research Hub

Facilitating a Green and Circular Economy

Research Theme

Supporting and scaling up the just transition to the Circular Economy

Start Date

03/03/2025

Initial Projected Completion Date

02/03/2029