Circular Economy

Circular economy: Sectors and Projects

Anticipating future shortages and price increases, the use of natural primary resources will become increasingly costly for railway companies and potentially disruptive to traditional business models. Developing capacity in Circular economy is essential for a sustainable future of rail transport.

Circular economy Sector

The Circular Economy Sector has been set up to help find ways to integrate the principles of the circular economy into the way railways are designed, built, maintained and operated.
The Sector aims to share information and foster collaborative knowledge exchanges on how to improve material and resource management and reduce the environmental impact of industrial railway activities by reducing waste and pollution.

Chair: Katy Beardsworth, Environmental Strategy Manager at Network Rail
Co-Chair: Ilse de Vos van Eekeren, Programme Manager, Circular Business at Dutch Railways (NS)
UIC Coordinator: Isabelle De Keyzer

Circular economy projects

REUSE project (Sustainable Use of Resources in Railways)
The UIC Sustainability work programme for 2022 will include the opt-in project ZERO WASTE Railways. This project will offer new sector members the possibility to take part in best practice workshops to be held once or twice a year from January 2022. The aim of the workshops will be to share circular economy best practices and forge new partnerships with the entire supply chain. Content and knowledge will be used to build a digital Circular economy toolkit to be made available to members.