A new report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation urges policymakers to integrate bio-based materials into circular economy strategies. The analysis finds that renewable materials such as cotton, wood, and rubber have largely been overlooked, missing opportunities worth trillions of dollars and significant climate benefits.
The report, titled Circular by Nature and released on June 22, examined 13 national circular-economy strategies and 18 bioeconomy frameworks. It concludes that treating grown materials merely as substitutes for fossil inputs wastes their potential for repeated use and safe return to soil.
Examples of existing efforts include Gucci’s partnership with NATIVA to source regenerative wool across 115,000 hectares and Lojas Renner’s Repassa resale platform in Brazil, which diverted 600,000 items from landfills in 2023. In India, MYNUSCo converts crop waste into bio-composite pellets while paying farmers two to three times the biofuel market rate.
The report estimates that aligning the two policy areas could unlock up to $10 trillion in annual opportunities by 2030 and deliver up to one-third of needed emissions cuts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. It recommends five design rules for materials, including regenerative growing practices, toxin-free production, durability, cross-industry reuse, and end-of-life recovery, supported by fair value chains.
More than 100 countries now maintain circular-economy roadmaps, an increase of about one-third since 2024. The foundation argues these plans will fall short unless bio-based systems are redesigned for circulation rather than linear consumption.