Green Enterprise: Innovation for a Circular Economy is an annual funding call under the Circular Economy Programme and aims to develop innovative practical applications and solutions that stimulate the circular economy in Ireland. Green Enterprise projects which completed since 2020 include:
| Lead Organisation | Project Title | Description | Completed Year |
| Central Solutions | Community of Practice for Innovation for a Circular Economy | Creation of a Waste and Circularity Community of Practice (COP) that will serve as a platform to establish consensus for the industrial sector. | 2024 |
| Food Cloud | Carbon Footprint Calculator for Food Cloud | This project will estimate FoodCloud’s annual carbon balance to accurately quantify the GHG emissions of surplus food redistribution. | 2024 |
| The Rediscovery Centre | Food Rescue and Research Cafe | Evaluate the potential of Food Rescue Cafes to contribute to reducing food waste at a national level. Operational and Training Guide will be produced that can be drawn upon by other food establishments seeking to incorporate surplus food into their business. | 2024 |
| Allied Recycling | Gypsum Recycling Facility | Allied Recycling started a waste plasterboard recycling facility at their existing authorised facility. | 2023 |
| Beacon Glass Limited | Environmental impact analysis of an urban mushroom farm model | The project identified, measure and analysed the key inputs and outputs of an urban coffee-based mushroom farm, investigate the composting/vermicomposting potential of a coffee-based mushroom substrate and analysed other urban waste products that can be used to grow high value mushrooms. | 2023 |
| Community Reuse Network Ireland | Developing a Circular Textiles System for Ireland | Delivering a controlled pilot programme comparing different textile collection systems, supported by a communications campaign. Final report | 2023 |
| ÉireComposites Teoranta | Developing recyclable wind turbine blades | Developing an innovative manufacturing process using recyclable reinforced plastic for producing wind turbine blades. | 2023 |
| Furniture Recycling | Upcycling end of life mattresses to insulation material and other product | The objective of this project was to create a functioning recycling facility that uses waste textile and foam material from end of life mattresses in the manufacture of insulation material and soft filling. | 2023 |
| Hexafly | Hexafly Insect Farming Revolution | This project identified suitable waste streams for conversion to protein by Black Soldier Flies; and demonstrated the conversion of waste to raw materials for producing animal and aquaculture feeds. | 2023 |
| Irish Green Building Council | Closing the loop on construction Life Cycle Analysis | Delivering training on Level(s), the European framework for sustainable buildings. An early design stage carbon design tool was developed. Final Report | 2023 |
| Positive Carbon | The use of food waste insights to reduce food waste in commercial kitchens | The aim of this project was to use food waste insights to reduce food waste in commercial kitchens. A database of the most wasted foods in commercial kitchens was created along with innovative insights on how to reduce food waste. | 2023 |
| Sea Synergy | Marine Plastic Waste - Closing the Loop (MARplas) | MarPlas was led by the Sea Synergy research team, the project worked on the full aspect of the fishing net re-use process, | 2023 |
| Sensi | Shrinking the Circularity Loop for Plastics Recycling and Reuse | Sensi built a Smart Reverse Vending Machine (SRVM) utilising Visual AI (Object recognition) and IoT technologies. This project built upon existing prototypes for pilot trials. | 2023 |
| John Gannon Concrete Ltd T/A Gannon Eco | Replacement Aggregate for Cement Products | Identifying and testing suitable construction & demolition waste streams for use in concrete production. | 2022 |
| Polymer Alloy Technology Teo | Recycling Waste Farm Plastics into On-Farm Livestock Drinkers | This project aimed to recycle waste farm plastics into on-farm livestock drinkers. | 2022 |
| Roscommon Women's Network | Environmental Community Activation Network | Demonstration of local circular economy potential by providing training to recover, repurpose and upcycle textiles. This project also raised awareness and empowered women to generate employment opportunities while protecting the environment. | 2022 |
| Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) | Symbiobeer | SymbioBeer is a project which aimed to promote innovative waste prevention solutions across the food production and food processing sectors. It investigated the re-use of bread production residues as a secondary raw material for beer production and the utilisation of by-products from beer production to create new bread products. | 2021 |
| Polymer Alloy Technology Teo | Single Use Plastic Packaging Remoulded into Pallets | This project will showcase the potential of plastics pallet production in a circular economy using mixed plastic waste and demonstrating a prototype, mould and manufacture test. See final report. | 2021 |
| Rediscovery Centre | Methods for expansion of paint reuse programme | This project Investigated methods for the optimisation and expansion of the Rediscovery Centre’s Rediscover Paint operations. Informed by a comprehensive literature review, the report draws on experiences of paint reuse in the UK. Changes were made to Rediscover Paint’s operations which resulted in increased paint throughput, operational efficiency, reduced administration and improved work practice. The learnings from this exercise are being applied by the Rediscovery Centre to develop regional paint reuse through mentoring social enterprises in their Circular Economy Academy. | 2021 |
| Zero Waste | Rezero: Research & Implementation of deposit-return system | This project aimed to demonstrate national potential of deposit-return scheme for reusable food containers. | 2021 |
| Community Resources Network Ireland | Reuse Quality Mark | Reuse Quality Mark was a formalised accreditation process for reuse stores. The pilot increased consumer confidence in the quality and safety of reused goods and continues to highlight the potential for establishing a nationwide reuse quality mark in Ireland. Benefits include increased support and consumer confidence as well as increased revenue and employee. | 2020 |
| CyberColloids | Scoping the Irish fruit & vegetable supply chain for valuable biomass resources for upgrade | This project evaluated the potential to recover and use the biomass generated in fruit and vegetable supply chains to produce new food fibre ingredients. The project demonstrated that Ireland generates sufficient fruit and vegetable waste that could feed into one (or a few) central processing facilities to produce new food ingredients. | 2020 |
| Irish Manufacturing Research | Producing a composite from plastic bottles | The PROBOT project is research that was undertaken by Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) and Irish Composites Centre (IComp). The aim of this research was to investigate the potential uptake of a new composite created by IComp using Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) to create a Self-Reinforced Polymer, as opposed to the Polypropylene Self Reinforced Polymers which are currently utilised on the market in various industries. | 2020 |
| Proiseail (An Clochan Liath) Teoranta | Minimising fish waste in the supply chain | The primarily objective of this project was to reduce fish waste at Irish Fish Canners. The project used Design of Experiments (DOE) to put a structure on its work. DOE changed the previous haphazard approach to improvements and helped the company to focus on the most important activities that could save waste. In order to quantify the overall benefits from the improvement projects, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was carried out. | 2020 |
| Carey Building Contractors | Exploring cradle to cradle opportunities in the Irish construction sector | This project aimed to explore cradle-to-cradle and material loop opportunities during the tendering, procurement, pre-construction planning and construction phases on a number of suitable case studies. | 2019 |
| Central Solutions Ltd | The EPA Lean Water Community of Practice | The EPA Lean Water Community of Practice continued to grow membership to 200 in 2019. The national certification scheme provides a new five step guidance for large water users which, since 2013, have reduced their water use by an average of 20%. | 2019 |
| Community Resources Network Ireland | Service models for bulky item reuse | This project designed a service model to improve bulky item reuse in the public sector. The main output from this project is a 'How to guide for reuse in the public sector'. Outcomes of the project have extended beyond completion including engagement with key public procurement groups and informing the development of national policy and targets relating to reuse. | 2019 |
| Art and Education Resource Store Ireland Ltd t/a | All Heads Together | In this project All heads together created a handbook as a resource for artists and teachers. In partnership with Trinity College this evidence-based handbook provided insight from the literature on pedagogy and educational theory to offer practical guidance to teaching artists and teachers working with reuse materials in inclusive educational settings. | 2018 |
| Macroom E | NetMap project | The NetMap project provided a resource of mapping the management of waste fishing nets and rope (FNRs) in Ireland. The project demonstrated the potential for using this waste as a resource which could have societal, environmental and economic benefits. The project demonstrated reusing wasted fishing nets in concrete as a material for the construction industry. | 2018 |
| Midlands Simon Community | Green Jobs in the Simon Community | This project supported the Midlands Simon Community to expand the range of material sold in their charity shops and increase the reusability of materials donated. Raising awareness on re-using, up-cycling and prevention of waste was one of the key elements of the project. This was achieved through training, workshops, up-cycle events and the engagement of Green Schools. | 2018 |
| University of Limerick | Green IT at the University of Limerick | This project was a campus-wide strategy identifying key areas for improvement in three life cycle stages in IT (manufacture, use and end of life) and presented solutions on both staff and student levels, for resource and energy efficiency, carbon reduction and waste prevention through reuse and repair. | 2018 |
| Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment (VOICE) | Cashel, Towards Zero Waste | Zero Waste Cashel was a community pilot and toolkit for implementing and measuring waste prevention, reuse, repair and awareness raising in communities. Since completion businesses in Cashel continue to offer incentives to prevent waste such as discounts for reusable coffee cups. Other communities who visited Cashel to learn about implementing zero waste initiatives, such as Belturbet, Co. Cavan are now on the journey of becoming a ‘Zero waste town’. | 2018 |
| Wheely Environmental Refuse Service (WERS Waste) | Development of a Sustainable rHDPE Automotive Grade Commercialisation Strategy | The project found that the critical success factors for the development of a sustainable automotive grade HDPE are the control of contaminants in the Melt Flow Index. | 2018 |
| Your Local Food Network | Your Local Food Network & the Simple Food Pledge | The mission of this project is to promote sustainable production, trading and consumption of seasonal, wholesome and local food. Likeminded producers were encouraged to sign the SIMPLE FOOD PLEDGE. An online hub was created to host SIMPLE FOOD PLEDGE membership. | 2018 |
| Consulteco | Green Teams Recognition Scheme | This project delivered a training and support programme for green teams and environmental champions in fifteen organisations. The course content and training material were piloted before the training was fully rolled-out. A website is available to promote the course www.greenteams.ie | 2017 |
| Food Cloud | Food for Ireland Campaign | FoodCloud developed five case study videos which capture their full service for the food supply chain and showcase best practice examples of surplus redistribution with four donors. Each video presents a key theme around food surplus redistribution and address common misconceptions and perceived barriers. The videos were shared with stakeholders, including the European Food Banks Federation and FoodCloud’s retail partners to demonstrate the positive impact surplus redistribution has had in communities across Ireland. | 2017 |
