On July 3, 2025, the European Circular Composites Alliance (ECCA) was officially launched during a well-attended webinar, with the European Commission present. This alliance – an initiative led by EuCIA – aims to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy for composite materials across Europe. It aligns with EU regulations and strategies, such as the Green Deal and the Circular Economy Act.
The first meetings of the ECCA working groups took place at the end of August 2025. With more than 140 participating organisations from across Europe, ECCA has become the central platform where industry, research institutions and policymakers collaborate to build a sustainable and circular value chain for composites. The mission: to demonstrate that composites are essential to a circular economy, to remove barriers to high-quality recycling, and to jointly develop guidelines for design, processing, and reuse.
The Netherlands plays a prominent role in this initiative. Various Dutch organisations are actively involved in working groups on topics such as recycling strategies, market development for secondary raw materials, and improving collection and sorting systems. These groups are working towards concrete deliverables such as circular design principles, harmonised LCA methodologies, and policy recommendations to the European Commission.
ECCA’s activities are closely aligned with broader European objectives. In the “Clean Industrial Deal” report by Mario Draghi, it is stated that by 2030, Europe must become the global leader in circularity. A key performance indicator is increasing the circular material use rate from the current 11.8% to 24% by 2030.
In several European countries, the economic significance of lightweight construction is now being quantified as a share of GDP. This development highlights the strategic value of composites as a transformative technology: enabling lighter structures, improving functional performance, and reducing CO₂ emissions. Recent studies from Germany, Sweden, and Austria show that the economic potential of this technology is now statistically substantiated and quantifiable.
CompositesNL actively supports these developments. In collaboration with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), a proposal is currently being developed. Additionally, the association contributes to knowledge exchange, policy coordination, and representing the Dutch sector within ECCA.
The first ECCA General Assembly will take place in December 2025 in Brussels, with CompositesNL in attendance.