The European Union is set for a critical year in its mission to achieve a truly circular economy. With new regulations coming into force in 2025, we’re witnessing the start of a transformative era.
These changes promise to deliver immediate benefits while laying the groundwork for sustainable practices that will shape the years to come.
And it couldn’t come at a better time.
The Circularity Gap Report 2025 revealed that the global circularity rate has plummeted to a record low of just 6.9%, down from 7.2% the previous year, primarily due to outdated legislation that continues to support the linear economy. Only 6.9% of the roughly 106 billion tonnes of materials entering the global economy are reused or recycled, with skyrocketing consumption and resource extraction outpacing efforts to implement a circular economy.
However, the tide is turning, and for businesses like Axil, these regulatory shifts represent an exciting opportunity to help customers rethink waste and embrace smarter, more circular solutions.
While these regulations don’t apply directly in the UK, their impact will still resonate. Many of Axil’s customers operate across both the UK and EU markets, meaning these shifts influence the way we think about waste and resource management on a broader scale. By staying attuned to regulatory developments in the EU, Axil ensures that we can support our customers, no matter where they operate, to achieve their sustainability goals.
Here at home, momentum for a circular economy is also building. In November 2024, the UK government launched its Circular Economy Taskforce, tasked with creating England’s first strategy to transition towards circularity. This initiative focuses on generating green jobs, supporting economic growth, and promoting the productive use of resources, all while driving investment into technologies and infrastructure that enable resource circularity.
These developments, both at home and abroad, highlight the urgent need for businesses to embrace innovative solutions like industrial symbiosis.
Industrial Symbiosis: Rethinking Waste for a Circular Economy
Industrial symbiosis is much more than just recycling or energy recovery. It’s about creating interconnected ecosystems where one company’s waste becomes another’s raw material, keeping resources in productive use for longer and reducing waste at the source. It’s an essential element in building a truly regenerative economy.
At Axil, we see firsthand how industrial symbiosis transforms industries. In manufacturing, for example, surplus materials from food production that don’t meet quality standards for human consumption can be redirected to other industries, such as animal feed, turning potential waste into valuable resources.
Another powerful example of industrial symbiosis is our work with a world leading aerospace, defence and energy customer, where carbon dust. Once sent to landfill it is now recycled. The material passed all pre-acceptance checks, enabling a shift from landfill disposal (D1) to recycling (R3), validating the strength of our collaborative approach. This single material stream accounted for 63% of their total waste, meaning the impact was immediate and substantial. It’s a clear demonstration of how cross-sector innovation can unlock circular outcomes.
Gina Rudkin Axils Head of Sustainability comments
“The essence of industrial symbiosis lies in rethinking waste, not as a burden to dispose of but as an untapped opportunity for value creation. The real challenge is identifying these opportunities and making the right value chain connections, which is exactly where Axil steps in.
I hope that one of the outcomes of the new Circular Economy Taskforce will be the removal of some of the barriers to keeping products and materials in use longer, that have been a consequence of the long-standing definition of waste.”
With our extensive network across UK manufacturing, Axil helps businesses find innovative ways to repurpose post-production materials. These efforts deliver tangible environmental benefits while unlocking economic value for our customers.
Your Waste, Someone Else’s Resource
Do you have a waste stream you’re unsure what to do with? As the saying goes, one person’s waste is another person’s treasure. At Axil, we can connect you with partners across the UK who are looking for the very resources you’re discarding.
With our industry expertise and network of partners, we help ensure your waste becomes part of the solution, not the problem.
A Vision for the Future
As the Ellen MacArthur Foundation emphasises, industrial symbiosis is a critical component of a truly circular economy. At Axil, we’re already working to make this vision a reality. By forging partnerships that eliminate waste and keep materials in circulation, we’re not just contributing to sustainability. We’re helping businesses thrive.
Industrial symbiosis isn’t just the future of waste management; it’s the smart way to do business in a world transitioning to circularity. With initiatives like the EU’s regulatory overhaul and the UK’s Circular Economy Taskforce, the time for action is now.
If your business is ready to embrace a circular economy and turn waste into opportunity, Axil is here to lead the way.