Full Name: Jonathan Nichols

Designation: Security Consultant

Company: Prescient Security

Country: Taiwan

Jonathan’s Learning Journey That Inspires

Which 101 Blockchains courses or certifications did you complete?

My portfolio now includes the Certified Web 3.0 Professional (CW3P) and Certified Blockchain Security Expert (CBSE) certifications by 101 Blockchains. I have also completed the “Smart Contracts Security” course by 101 Blockchains with a professional certification.

What was the reason to choose 101 Blockchains and how was your learning experience with the platform?

I conducted deep research on professional blockchain security training platforms and discovered that the 101 Blockchains platform had highest ratings. That was the biggest reason to choose the platform, and I also had a productive learning experience with them. 

At 101 Blockchains, you don’t just earn certifications — you gain real-world skills that shape you into a confident blockchain professional.

Did you gain any skills or knowledge that helped you?

I learned about the primary concepts of blockchain technology and its working mechanism. On top of it, I gained some valuable insights on the basics of blockchain security alongside the more advanced techniques. The platform also helped me learn the best practices to find vulnerabilities in blockchain and crypto-based applications.

Can you tell how 101 Blockchains helped you with professional growth?

101 Blockchains helped me grow professionally with hands-on understanding of blockchain technology and its utility in various fields. As a Certified Blockchain Security Expert, I can explain blockchain security concepts in simple terms through presentations, which made me a better asset for my employers.

What do you have to say to people who want a career in blockchain?

The first thing that you should know is that understanding blockchain technology is a difficult challenge. You must have genuine interest in learning about the technology if you want a career in blockchain as it would take a lot of time and efforts to become an expert. The landscape of blockchain and blockchain security is going to grow, and diving in early will give you a promising advantage.

From learners to leaders — explore the success stories of 100,000+ professionals with 101 Blockchains.

Why will you recommend 101 Blockchains to others?

I will recommend the 101 Blockchains platform to others because it offers a comprehensive collection of credible courses and certification programs on blockchain technology, blockchain/crypto security, AI, and many other emerging technologies.

The post Success Story: Jonathan Nichols’ Learning Journey with 101 Blockchains appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

New $27 million funding will be used to scale Greyparrot’s AI waste intelligence platform.

AI waste intelligence company Greyparrot has raised $27 million (£20M/€23M) in Series B funding led by technology investor Omar Mir.

Greyparrot’s AI camera systems, known as Analyzers, are installed above sorting belts in recycling facilities across more than 20 countries.

Analyzers identify materials, products and brands in real time, giving operators continuous data on the composition and movement of waste through their facilities.

Waste and recycling companies Veolia, Biffa, and FCC are amongst the organisations utilising Greyparrot’s technology.

Facilities using Greyparrot’s real-time AI data have reported efficiency gains of 10% to 30%, with one site saying it saves them more than £1.5 million in a year.

With the new funding, Greyparrot says its aiming to scale its technology to help abate over one million tonnes of waste by 2030. 

Commenting on the funding, Mikela Druckman, co-founder and CEO of Greyparrot, said: “Waste is one of the planet’s largest untapped resources, and data is the infrastructure that unlocks it.”

“This funding lets us scale rapidly across North America and Europe and grow our AI, data science and product teams. The technology, market demand, urgency and momentum are all here, and we are ready to scale our impact.”

Consumer goods companies, including Unilever, L’Oréal and Kenvue, use Greyparrot’s Deepnest platform to inform redesign, compliance and exposure to fees under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes and the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).

The same verified data supports regulators, national waste audits and statutory reporting. Earlier this year, Biffa and FCC were among the ‘first’ waste management companies globally to use AI for compliance reporting.

Greyparrot says that less than 0.1% of the world’s estimated 2.3 billion tonnes of annual solid waste is currently audited, which means operators, brands and policymakers have limited visibility into where valuable materials are lost.

Pew and Systemiq estimate that between $80 billion and $120 billion of plastic value is lost through linear systems each year.

Waste intelligence aims to turn these material flows into measurable data. Greyparrot says that across its network, the materials identified by its Analyzers represent an estimated £1.87 billion in recoverable value.

This includes 17.4 billion PET bottles and 4.2 billion aluminium items, a metal that can be recycled using up to 95% less energy than producing it new.

Ambarish Mitra, co-founder of Greyparrot, said that waste intelligence will ‘do for materials what satellite data did for navigation’.

“For decades, waste has been a blind spot. Nations compete for resources while burying and burning existing resources. What’s been missing is the ability to measure what they’re losing,” Mitra commented.

“Once you can measure a material, you can trade it and invest in it. That is when the circular economy stops being an ambition and becomes infrastructure.”

The post Greyparrot secures $27M in funding to scale AI recycling system appeared first on Circular Online.

Jack Cartwright, Director at Innovent Recycling, explains what the 2025 WEEE compliance changes mean for how UK businesses dispose of IT and electricals.

For the best part of two years, WEEE reform lived in consultation documents and call-for-evidence PDFs, but, in 2025, it stopped being a conversation and became law.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2025 came into force on 12 August 2025, and for the first time in a long time the producer-responsibility framework was altered in ways that change behaviour rather than just paperwork.

Most of the coverage so far has, understandably, been written for producers and retailers – who now pays what, who registers where. That is the front end of the system.

But for those of us working at the disposal and recovery end, the more interesting question is what these changes mean for the millions of laptops, monitors, servers and small electricals that UK organisations retire every year.

The reforms close some long-standing loopholes at the point of sale. They do far less to change the duties that fall on the business using the equipment when it reaches end of life – and that gap is worth talking about.

What actually changed in 2025

Three changes matter most:

Online marketplaces are finally in scope.

Operators of online marketplaces that place electrical and electronic equipment on the UK market on behalf of non-UK-based sellers now carry producer obligations.

For years, an overseas seller could ship electricals into the UK through a marketplace and contribute nothing toward the eventual cost of collecting and treating them. UK-based producers, who did pay, were effectively subsidising their overseas competitors.

The 2025 regulations begin to correct that, with marketplace contributions phasing in from 2026 and intended to be fully operational by 2027. It’s a structural fix to an unfairness the sector has complained about for the better part of a decade.

Vapes get their own treatment.

Disposable and rechargeable vaping devices have been one of the fastest-growing – and most badly handled – electrical waste streams in the country. They combine lithium cells, circuitry and plastics in a sealed unit that is, by design, awkward to dismantle and dangerous to crush.

The 2025 framework brings vape producers and the retailers who sell them into specific collection and recycling obligations, with reporting requirements introduced now and collection targets following from 2026.

Notably, vape retailers are excluded from the Distributor Takeback Scheme, which signals that the government wants this stream handled deliberately rather than absorbed into general takeback.

The Distributor Takeback Scheme has been widened.

From 12 August 2025, the eligibility criteria changed so that smaller businesses – those selling under £100,000 of EEE a year – and solely online retailers can participate. That brings a long tail of smaller sellers into a recognised takeback route rather than leaving them with no compliant option.

None of this is cosmetic. Taken together, the 2025 package is the most meaningful redistribution of WEEE cost and responsibility since the regime began.

The part that did not change

Here is the catch for anyone advising businesses on disposal. These reforms reshape obligations at the point equipment is placed on the market. They do comparatively little to change what happens when an organisation decides to retire that equipment three, five or seven years later.

A company replacing 200 laptops still has the same core duties it had in 2024. It must ensure its WEEE is handled by an approved authorised treatment facility, retain evidence, and – for anything that ever held data – discharge an entirely separate set of obligations under data protection law before the device leaves the building. The producer-side reform does not touch any of that. If anything, the growing public attention on WEEE makes the business-user end more exposed, not less.

This is where the circular-economy conversation and the compliance conversation tend to drift apart. Reform has concentrated on financing collection and treatment. But the single biggest environmental and security win at end of life is still made before a device becomes ‘waste’ at all – by deciding whether it can be securely wiped and reused rather than shredded.

Reuse first, but only with the data handled properly. A three-year-old corporate laptop is rarely waste in any meaningful sense. It is a functioning machine whose highest-value, lowest-carbon outcome is another working life.

Refurbishment displaces the manufacture of a new unit, which is where the overwhelming majority of a device’s lifetime carbon sits. For the resource-management sector, every machine kept in use is worth more than the same machine recovered for materials.

The blocker is rarely the hardware. It is the data. An organisation cannot responsibly send a device for reuse unless it can prove the data on it was destroyed to a recognised standard – and that proof has to be auditable, not assumed. Get that wrong, and you have not made a circular-economy decision; you have made a data breach with a delivery note.

This is the practical intersection the 2025 reforms leave untouched and that businesses most often get wrong. Secure data erasure to a recognised standard, with a serial-numbered certificate of destruction or erasure for every asset, is what makes reuse defensible. Done well, it lets an organisation choose reuse with confidence. Done badly – or skipped – it pushes everything toward destruction by default, which is a worse environmental outcome.

What businesses should take from 2025

For organisations retiring IT and electricals, the message of the 2025 changes is less ‘you have new obligations’, and more ‘the system around you is tightening, and scrutiny is rising’. A few practical points:

• Separate the two duties: Producer-responsibility compliance and your own end-of-life disposal duties are different things. The 2025 reforms address the former. The latter – proper treatment, data destruction, auditable evidence – is still on you.
• Default to reuse where data allows: Insist on secure, certified data erasure so that reuse is a safe option, not a risk. Reserve physical destruction for drives that genuinely cannot be cleared.
• Keep the paper trail: A waste transfer note proves the device left. A certificate of data destruction proves the data did. You need both, per asset, retained.
• Choose downstream partners who can evidence both: As marketplace and vape reforms pull more attention onto WEEE flows, the ability to demonstrate a compliant, traceable chain becomes a commercial asset, not just a legal one.

The 2025 reforms are a genuine and overdue step toward fairness in who pays for electrical waste. But the most important decision in the life of a retired laptop is still made in an office, not in a regulation – and it is the decision to reuse it safely rather than destroy it by default. That is where the sector can still add the most value.

The post What the WEEE 2025 compliance changes mean for businesses appeared first on Circular Online.

Mary Creagh has confirmed that she is being replaced as the Minister responsible for Waste and the Circular Economy.

Creagh was appointed Minister for Nature in 2024 when Steve Reed was the Environment Secretary and retained the position when then Prime Minister Keir Starmer reshuffled his cabinet and appointed Emma Reynolds to the role.

However, Creagh has confirmed that she is being replaced and said she was ‘very sorry’ to be leaving government.  

In a statement, Creagh said she was proud to have served as the UK’s first Nature Minister.

“From releasing beavers, three new national forests, progress on circular economy, food waste, and fly tippers, I’m grateful to have served with (sic) brilliant Defra team,” she said.

“I’m very sorry to be leaving government, but that’s politics. I will be supporting our new prime minister from the back benches.”

She previously congratulated Dame Angela Eagle on her appointment as Environment Secretary, calling her a friend.

A spokesperson for the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) thanked Mary Creagh for her work as Minister.

“She has played an important role in pushing the transition to a more circular economy, including progress on key reforms across resources and waste. We wish her every success in her next role,” the spokesperson continued.

“We look forward to working with the incoming Minister to help deliver the government’s circular economy ambitions, supporting the development of the policies, infrastructure and skills needed to accelerate the UK’s transition to a more resource-efficient future.”

“The first step towards achieving these goals must be for the government to release the long-delayed Circular Economy Growth Plan, which will provide much-needed clarity on policy for business, local authorities, and the wider sector.”

The UK government has said it intends to publish its delayed Circular Economy Growth Plan ‘soon’, but has not given a firm publication date.

The Plan was originally expected to be published in October last year but has been delayed.

Creagh was elected MP for Coventry East in July, having previously served as MP for Wakefield from 2005 until 2019, when she lost her re-election bid to Conservative Candidate Imran Ahmad-Khan.

She served as Shadow Environment Secretary between 2010 and 2013 when Ed Miliband, the newly appointed Foreign Secretary, was Labour leader. She also chaired the Environmental Audit Committee between 2016 and 2019.

The post Creagh to be replaced as Minister for waste and circular economy appeared first on Circular Online.

Full Name: Daniel Mondragon

Designation: SR. Product Manager

Company: Walmart

Country: Mexico

Daniel’s Learning Journey That Inspires

Can you name the courses and certifications offered by 101 Blockchains that you have completed?

I have earned the Certified Fintech Expert (CFTE) certification from 101 Blockchains and have also completed their “AI for Everyone” professional training course.

What was on your mind while choosing this program, and how would you describe the learning experience with 101 Blockchains?

My professional experience in the domain of finance and technology largely revolves around overseeing projects and initiatives on risk management. I joined the programs by 101 Blockchains to boost my knowledge and experience with hands-on skills. 

The learning journey with the platform introduced me to updated trends on the use of technology in the financial services industry. The programs by 101 Blockchains also helped me discover the relationship between new innovative technology solutions and their implications for risk management in financial services.

At 101 Blockchains, you don’t just earn certifications — you gain real-world skills that shape you into a confident blockchain professional.

Which skills or knowledge were the most helpful for you?

I have gained a holistic set of skills in technology, finance, risk management, and compliance from the 101 Blockchains platform. Most important of all, I found a new perspective on how these four areas have evolved to support the development and delivery of new financial solutions.

How did this program contribute to your professional growth?

The program played a vital role in staying updated with new challenges and helped me acquire the skills required to become an active participant in holistic product and risk management. 

From learners to leaders — explore the success stories of 100,000+ professionals with 101 Blockchains.

What will you recommend to someone who wants a career in blockchain?

Your best shot at building a career in blockchain is through learning from experts. I will recommend choosing specialized resources like the one you will find on 101 Blockchains. They will help you learn new concepts and connect them with real-life scenarios through hands-on practice, thereby creating a strong foundation for your career.   

The post Success Story: Daniel Mondragon’s Learning Journey with 101 Blockchains appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

The Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirms it has delayed the mandatory collection of plastic films and flexible packaging until April 2030.

As part of information released to local authorities, Defra announced that the mandatory kerbside collection of plastic films and flexible packaging from workplaces and households has been delayed until 1 April 2030.

A Defra spokesperson told Circular Online that the government will work with businesses and local authorities to give them time to prepare for the collection requirements.

“Alongside this, we will work with local authorities to explore additional drop-off options at household waste recycling centres, so people can continue to recycle their plastic film,” the spokesperson said.

Simpler Recycling rules require local authorities in England to collect food and garden waste, paper and card, all other dry recyclable materials, such as glass, metal and plastic, including cartons, and residual waste.

The kerbside collection of plastic film and flexibles was originally expected to become mandatory by 31 March 2027. 

Local authorities have repeatedly raised concerns about the implications of introducing collections for these materials.

LARAC (Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee) said a lack of established domestic end markets and the readiness of sorting and reprocessing infrastructure were key reasons why the policy should be delayed.

Gareth Rollings, Chair of LARAC, said the delay reflects concerns that local authorities have raised about the readiness of the wider recycling system and the financial and operational consequences for local authorities.

“Councils remain committed to delivering effective recycling services, but they need a system that is properly funded and supported by viable sorting, reprocessing and end-market capacity,” Rollings commented.

“The additional three years must now be used constructively by government and industry to build that infrastructure and provide local authorities with the clarity they need to plan.”

However, Robbie Staniforth, Chief Policy and Impact Officer at Ecosurety, was critical of the delay and called it a ‘sad day for recycling’.

“Further delaying mandated collections will not in itself create end-markets,” Staniforth said. “The markets have had four years of advanced warning and throughout that period investor confidence in flexible plastic recycling remained low.”

“Today, that investor position has been justified. Delaying for a further three years is unlikely to improve their confidence.”

“Looking back at the 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy now, a pattern has emerged. The bold ambitions outlined have not been followed up with quick enough action, causing almost all of the policies to be delayed or abandoned. Against such a backdrop, it is no surprise that private enterprise has not delivered new infrastructure.”

Executive Director of the Environmental Services Association (ESA), Jacob Hayler, called the delay the ‘correct decision’, citing a ‘lack of market capacity’ for the materials and ‘demand-side drivers’.

“It is essential that government uses the next three years to create investor confidence; deliver domestic reprocessing capacity and ensure that sufficient end-market demand exists to allow these materials to be effectively returned to the circular economy,” Hayler said.

Stuart Hayward-Higham, Chief Technical Development & Innovation Officer for SUEZ in the UK, said there is a lack of homegrown reprocessing infrastructure to meet the demand of mandatory flexible plastic and film collections.

However, he warned that further delay risks undermining confidence in the UK market and the pace of infrastructure development.

“We hope that authorities rolling out collections from now can continue to do so with the full support of EPR payments as significant recycling capacity is in place or is in development,” Hayward-Higham commented.

He concluded by saying that as flexible plastics represent a major source of fossil carbon in residual waste, the delay must also be considered when deciding the timeline for the expansion of the Emissions Trading Scheme to include Energy-from-Waste.

Last year, the FlexCollect project concluded that flexible plastic collections at kerbside are popular with the public and easy to implement.

The Flexible Plastic Fund’s (FPF) project found that flexible plastic packaging can be incorporated into all collection service types with ‘relative ease’ through the use of collection bags, or loose in dry mixed recycling collections when appropriate sorting infrastructure is available.

The FPF FlexCollect report consolidates over three years of learning from trials across 10 UK local authorities. Over 400 tonnes of flexible plastic packaging were collected from 160,000 households as part of the trials, making it the largest project of its kind in the UK.

David Gudgeon, Head of External Affairs at Reconomy, said the delay was disappointing while not ‘entirely surprising’ given the lack of infrastructure for flexible plastic recycling in the UK.

“It does little to support investor and business confidence and also raises questions over whether Scotland and Wales will follow suit and whether we will see further policy divergence across the UK,” Gudgeon said.

“The key now is for the government to provide policy certainty, giving operators like us the confidence to continue investing in the infrastructure needed to recycle this material domestically and build a truly circular economy.”

The post Defra confirms delay to mandatory collections of flexible plastics appeared first on Circular Online.

• Analysts have pointed out that the RWA market will grow up to almost $19 trillion by 2033 (Source).  
• The number of users in the digital assets market is likely to reach around 994 million in 2026 (Source). 

You can clearly notice that digital asset adoption is growing along with exposure of institutions to digital assets. With the evolution of new regulatory frameworks and rising investor scrutiny, businesses in the digital asset space have to validate their records and prevent errors or possibilities of fraud. You should understand the importance of digital asset audits and the notable tools used by auditors to manage digital asset records. 

Understanding the Significance of Digital Asset Audits

The definition of digital assets for businesses is no longer limited to images and documents. The term “digital assets” immediately brings thoughts of cryptocurrencies, CBDCs, and stablecoins. You must have also heard of the tokenization of real-world assets with RWA tokens that allow users to represent ownership of almost any physical asset on blockchain. The growing use of digital assets has shifted the limelight towards digital asset audits in a way no one had thought of before. 

The need for clear accounting guidelines for digital assets has become a prominent highlight for businesses embracing these assets. At the same time, you must also know that digital asset audits are crucial requirements to achieve effective compliance. Businesses can not only maintain accurate financial records with digital asset audits but also build trust with customers, investors, and stakeholders. Most important of all, proper audits help organizations manage the risks associated with their digital asset holdings. 

Step into the future of finance—become a Certified Digital Asset Compliance Expert (CDACE) and lead with confidence in crypto compliance, auditing, and governance.

Unraveling Prominent Challenges in Digital Asset Audits

The search for digital asset tools might also create doubts in your mind about reasons to rely on specialized tools. It is important to know that auditing digital assets is completely different from traditional audits in financial services. The challenges in digital asset audits reveal exactly why you need specialized tools for the same.

• Complexity in Determining Value of Digital Assets

The volatility in the value of digital assets presents a significant complexity for auditors. It is difficult to assign a precise value for digital assets, which is an essential requirement for comprehensive audits.

• Verification of Ownership and Transaction Authenticity

Verifying the ownership of digital assets can be a challenging task with digital assets existing on blockchain networks. Auditors have to face the challenge of checking the legitimacy of digital asset transactions with traditional tools.

• Difficulties in Classification and Reporting 

Classification of digital assets and reporting digital asset transactions also qualify as prominent challenges for auditors. It is important to know about the complexities in ensuring compliance with emerging standards and frameworks tailored for digital asset reporting.

• Issues with Regulatory Compliance 

You must have noticed how new regulations for digital assets emerge every day and create new goals for digital asset compliance. Auditors have to stay updated with new regulatory challenges to maintain compliance, thereby implying the need for continuous learning.

Build your identity as a certified blockchain expert with 101 Blockchains’ Blockchain Certifications designed to provide enhanced career prospects.

How Can Top Digital Asset Auditor Tools Help?

The only way to address the challenges in digital asset audits is through the use of specialized audit tools. Your search for answers to “What are digital asset management tools?” will help you discover how they make digital asset audits easier. Digital asset audit tools have specific features for assessment and verification of digital asset transactions with comprehensive documentation and reporting.

Digital asset auditors can use specialized tools to ensure accurate reconciliation of on-chain data for digital assets. These tools also ensure alignment with established financial standards and regulatory frameworks, meant specifically for digital assets. Most important of all, auditors can prepare comprehensive audit reports with detailed audit trails with digital asset auditing tools. The list of features in specialized digital asset audit tools also includes accurate digital asset valuation, real-time transaction tracing and on-chain data analysis.

What are the Top Digital Asset Auditor Tools in 2026?

New tools for digital asset auditing are significantly better than traditional audit tools and focus on more than verifying ledger balances. Learning about the top digital asset audit tools can give you a significant advantage in ensuring digital asset compliance.

• Cryptio

Digital asset auditors choose Cryptio as a reliable option for streamlining financial reporting in digital asset businesses. The most noticeable highlight of Cryptio is the capability to generate transparent financial records for institutional investors. It is a mandatory addition to any digital asset management tools list with its extended set of features. With the assurance of deep integration in existing financial systems, Cryptio stands out as an excellent tool for transaction matching and verifying data quality.

The next promising advantage of using Cryptio is the support for US IFRS and GAAP compliance. You can leverage the audit-ready reporting abilities in Cryptio for maintaining transparency in financial records of institutional investors. Cryptio offers granular audit trails that offer insights into the most intricate details of digital asset transactions. Therefore, it has become one of the most effective audit tools for ensuring regulatory compliance and internal reviews. At the same time, you cannot ignore the fact that using Cryptio requires specialized technical and accounting expertise.  

• Bitwave

Your search for a comprehensive enterprise-grade digital asset accounting and compliance platform ends at Bitwave. It is one of the popular tools that help businesses in reconciliation, reporting and auditing of digital asset transactions at scale. The key strengths of Bitwave revolve around workflow automation and in-built support for common regulatory standards adopted for digital assets. Bitwave supports more than 50 different blockchain networks and allows integration with popular accounting systems.

Bitwave is an ideal tool for digital asset auditing with the automatic record matching feature that not only saves time but also reduces errors. You will also get the assurance of the highest security standards in Bitwave with the SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications. Bitwave is also an effective auditing tool for versatile reporting in different regulatory environments. The biggest limitation of Bitwave is the complexity of the tool, which can be a huge challenge for new teams.  

• Lukka

The next big addition among popular tools for digital asset audits is Lukka, another enterprise-grade digital asset audit solution. The primary focus of Lukka is on digital asset reporting and stands out for offering alignment with global financial standards. Lukka is one of the best digital asset auditor tools for institutional clients with the facility of deep integration for complex transaction environments. It is a trusted digital asset audit tool with features that guarantee data management quality of the highest standards. The prominent features of Lukka point at the support for more than 100 blockchain networks and automatic matching systems.

It includes complete pricing data for 27 exchanges and over 10,000 trading pairs, making it useful for accurate digital asset valuation. On top of it, Lukka has more than 90 billion trading records, which improve accuracy of digital asset value calculations. Lukka is also a distinctive digital asset auditing tool with facility for mapping digital asset symbols to official identifiers, thereby avoiding confusion between exchanges. You should also know that the pricing of Lukka creates an entry barrier for startups or new firms in the digital asset space.  

Final Thoughts 

The overview of the top digital asset auditor tools reveals how they are crucial requirements for digital asset compliance. As the institutional adoption of digital assets continues gaining momentum, compliance is no longer an afterthought. Effective digital asset audits can help businesses validate their digital asset transactions and holdings and build trust with customers and stakeholders. Most important of all, audits will ensure that organizations use digital assets within the law to achieve their strategic goals. Learn more about digital asset audits and how to use the best audit tools now.

The post Top Tools Used by Digital Asset Auditors appeared first on 101 Blockchains.

Sam Perry, Ecosurety Head of Circular Packaging, analyses the impact of the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulations and explores how businesses can unlock its benefits.

The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is one of the most significant interventions in packaging policy in decades – and it’s exactly the kind of forward-thinking framework that the packaging sector needs.

By shifting the focus from managing packaging end-of-life outcomes to packaging design and material choices, it has the potential to create a more consistent and effective packaging system across the EU, and by proximity, the UK.

But while the direction of travel is clear, businesses are still being asked to make significant decisions without the practical details needed to confidently plan for compliance.

The real test for PPWR is no longer its ambition, but whether it provides the level of clarity needed for businesses to make early, confident decisions on packaging design and investment.

A fundamental reset in how packaging is regulated

PPWR is not just another regulatory update – it is a structural shift in how packaging placed on the EU market will be designed, assessed and regulated across its lifecycle.

It introduces new requirements on recyclability performance, minimum recycled content thresholds, harmonised labelling, and expanded technical documentation.

Taken together, these measures significantly raise the bar for what ‘compliant packaging’ means and place new burdens on organisations operating across multiple markets with diverse packaging portfolios. 

One of the most immediate challenges facing producers is the need to act in the absence of complete regulatory certainty. Key elements of PPWR are still being defined through secondary legislation, delegated acts, and evolving technical standards. As a result, critical definitions, methodologies and compliance expectations remain in development.

This creates a difficult environment for decision-making. Businesses are unsure when to invest in packaging redesign, material substitution and system upgrades while some of the underlying rules are not yet finalised. For long-term investments – particularly those related to design for recyclability or packaging minimisation – this lack of clarity introduces risk.

At the same time, implementation timelines remain relatively compressed. Although PPWR includes phased requirements, several measures, such as the need for Declarations of Conformity and PFAS restrictions, are applicable from August this year. For global and pan-European producers managing complex supply chains, the window to redesign, test and scale compliant packaging solutions is limited.

Businesses are already managing broader economic pressures and competing sustainability priorities. For some, the pressure of these regulations may result in difficult trade-offs between regulatory compliance and other environmental or commercial objectives.

However, focusing solely on cost risks overlooks the broader intention behind the regulation.

A necessary shift towards design-led regulation

Despite these challenges, PPWR represents a critical opportunity to create a more consistent and effective packaging system across the EU, and by proximity, the UK. By establishing harmonised, legally binding requirements at a regional level, the regulation responds to long-standing industry calls for greater alignment.

Fragmentation across national systems has historically created inefficiencies and slowed progress towards circularity. A harmonised framework has the potential to provide clearer market signals and enable greater standardisation in packaging formats and materials.

What makes PPWR fundamentally different is its recognition that the biggest packaging challenges are often created at the design stage. By prioritising design for recyclability, material reduction and the integration of recycled content, the regulation targets the point in a product’s lifecycle where the greatest impact can be achieved.

For businesses, this represents a compliance challenge but also a strategic opportunity. Those able to adapt early by embedding circular design principles into product development processes will be better positioned to meet requirements and respond to future regulatory developments.

In this context, compliance should not be viewed as a standalone exercise. With the onset of EPR in the UK, we’ve seen that compliance has increasingly become a broader, cross-functional effort within businesses. The scope of PPWR indicates this will only become more important as environmental performance and commercial decision-making become increasingly intertwined.

Preparation for PPWR starts now

Despite ongoing uncertainty in parts of the regulatory detail, businesses cannot afford to wait. To navigate the regulation effectively, obligated organisations should take a structured and proactive approach:

1. Begin detailed portfolio assessments now: Map existing packaging formats against known and anticipated PPWR requirements to identify high-risk materials and formats.
2. Build internal alignment early: Ensure that all relevant teams including design, procurement, compliance and finance – are working towards a shared understanding of PPWR obligations and timelines.
3. Develop robust data and evidence systems: Invest in systems capable of supporting technical documentation, traceability and reporting requirements, recognising that data will underpin compliance.
4. Engage with evolving guidance and standards: Monitor the development of secondary legislation and technical methodologies to ensure that decisions remain aligned with emerging requirements.
5. Adopt a strategic, not reactive, approach: Treat PPWR as an opportunity to future-proof packaging portfolios, rather than solely as a compliance exercise.

The direction is set – businesses can’t afford to wait

PPWR is not without its challenges. The combination of regulatory complexity, evolving detail and compressed timelines creates genuine pressure for obligated businesses. However, it also represents a decisive step towards a more circular packaging system, with the potential for significant environmental gains in a large market area. 

For businesses, investing time now to understand the requirements and build the capabilities needed for compliance will help them compete in a packaging system that is being rapidly reshaped by circular economy principles. 

Having worked with businesses through successive waves of packaging regulation, one thing is clear – organisations that wait for complete certainty often find themselves under the greatest pressure. While important details of PPWR are still emerging, the direction of travel is established. The businesses that begin preparing now will be better placed to navigate whatever comes next.

The post PPWR has the right ambition – now producers need clarity appeared first on Circular Online.

Clemence Schmid, Director of the Global Plastic Action Partnership, shares how local action around the world is inspiring real change when it comes to addressing plastic pollution.

More than 460 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year, with around 19 million tonnes leaking into the environment, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, harming biodiversity, and affecting livelihoods and public health. If current trends continue, global plastic use could triple by 2060.

That’s why the transition to a circular economy for plastics is becoming an economic, environmental and strategic imperative.

From the recent gathering at London Climate Action Week to the upcoming UN climate change conference in Turkey and the next phase of Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, there is growing recognition that building a circular plastic economy will require transformation, not incremental change. 

This is not just a waste issue. Plastic pollution is a systems failure, driven by inefficiencies across the full material lifecycle, from production and design to use and recovery.

Treating plastic solely as waste overlooks its broader economic dimension: lost material value, increased system costs and growing pressure on natural resources. Together, these challenges represent a $4.5 trillion economic opportunity missed.

Reframing the challenge

There is no debate that plastic pollution represents a significant challenge – international ambition has played an important role in elevating the issue on the global agenda. The next challenge is translating that ambition into coordinated action, investment and systems change.

To do this requires looking beyond end-of-life management and rethinking modern consumption models, product design, policy frameworks, and value retention systems to help create a self-sustaining circular economy.

While Global Plastics Treaty negotiations did not conclude in 2025, their continuation presents an opportunity to consider what is already working in practice. Many countries are demonstrating that meaningful progress is possible today while negotiations continue.

These experiences offer valuable lessons for the next phase of the treaty process and show how national efforts can help inform global action.

Innovation is no longer the bottleneck

Proven solutions are already being deployed. Across countries and value chains, governments, businesses and communities are strengthening collection systems, improving recycling infrastructure and redesigning products for circularity.

In Africa, for example, the absence of harmonised regional standards for food-grade recycled plastics has been slowing investment and innovation.

Collaboration between the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), Africa Circular Economy Alliance (ACEA), African Union, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Circularium Africa Advisory led to the creation of the African Standard for Recycled Polyethene Terephthalate (rPET) for Food Contact.

The standard establishes common testing and safety requirements, helping unlock investment, support regional trade and accelerate circularity. 

In the Philippines, which generates 163 million flexible plastic sachets every day and loses an estimated $890 million worth of recyclable materials annually, a new plastics recycling working group brings together government, business, civil society and development partners.

The initiative supports innovative recycling technologies, strengthens collection systems and advances a full value-chain approach, including food-grade recycling. 

Through the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership’s network, 25 countries are developing National Plastic Action Roadmaps tailored to their national contexts.

While countries bring different perspectives to the treaty negotiations, many converge around practical priorities: improving waste management systems and product design, strengthening markets for recycled materials, attracting investment, creating jobs and reducing pollution.

This demonstrates that there is already significant alignment on many of the actions needed to accelerate the transition to a circular economy for plastics.

Nigeria’s roadmap, for example, shows that a package of circular economy measures could increase plastic circularity to 58%, reduce plastic pollution by 67%, lower greenhouse gas emissions by 39% and create nearly 97,000 jobs by 2040 compared with business as usual. 

A window for action

What links these examples is not innovation alone, but coordination across governments, businesses and financial institutions. The countries and organisations making the greatest progress are aligning policy, finance and industry action in ways that create lasting value.

Innovation is not the bottleneck – it is coordinated, multistakeholder models that unlock progress, because even the most ambitious leaders face systemic barriers that no single entity can overcome alone.

Coordinated action is the critical link, enabling policy movement across regions and greater access to much-needed finance, in turn sending clear and consistent market signals that can drive the replication of successful initiatives at speed and scale. 

The treaty process has generated unprecedented global attention and momentum around plastic pollution. The next phase offers an opportunity to build on that momentum by learning from the action already underway across countries and regions.

Piecemeal and siloed approaches remain insufficient to address the plastic pollution challenge at the scale required. Future progress will depend on frameworks that strengthen collaboration, build resilient economies, protect ecosystems and unlock sustainable growth.

As the treaty process resumes, leaders must build on what already works, using proven methods as the foundation for global scale.

Plastic pollution is a systems issue and must be treated as such – no other approach will facilitate the change we urgently need and upon which our environment, economies, health and well-being depend.

The post How local action can inspire the next phase of plastics treaty negotiations appeared first on Circular Online.

• The global smart contracts market may reach almost $1073 billion by 2035, indicating strong growth potential (Source).
• AI usage in professional services across various departments of organizations increased to almost 40% in 2026 (Source).     
• Around 90% of financial services companies have reported actively using blockchain technology, with primary focus on smart contracts (Source).

You can clearly see how the growing adoption of artificial intelligence and smart contracts gives viable reasons to combine them. AI has the power to make machines learn, predict, and automate, and blockchain introduces a revolutionary approach to create trust with transparency, immutability, and cryptographic security. The intersection of AI and blockchain leads to creation of intelligent smart contracts, which represent a new era in automated contract execution.

Understanding the Fundamentals of Smart Contracts

The first thing that you need to understand intelligent smart contracts is awareness of the working mechanism of traditional smart contracts. Smart contracts based on blockchain are pieces of code that have the terms and conditions of an agreement. Upon identifying that certain conditions have been fulfilled, the smart contract executed the relevant terms of the agreement. You can think of a simple example in which smart contracts release payment to service provider on successful service completion.

Blockchain-based smart contracts come with the advantages of transparency, immutability, and security, which are essential traits of blockchain technology. On the other hand, blockchain also introduces the limitations of speed and flexibility. Smart contract transactions on blockchain take a lot of time to execute and are irreversible, thereby leaving little room for modification in event of mistakes. This is where AI can fill the gaps by creating intelligent smart contracts.

Understand the complete smart contract development lifecycle with the Smart Contracts Development Course

How Can Using AI in Blockchain Create Intelligent Smart Contracts?

The adoption of blockchain-based smart contracts is not new in many industries, and they have been delivering exceptional results. However, AI smart contracts can reshape how businesses manage contracts by extending beyond general automation and managing the complete contract lifecycle. As a matter of fact, AI can handle everything from design to development and execution of smart contracts. The traditional smart contracts followed fixed rules while intelligent smart contracts powered by AI will learn from new data and adapt to new situations.

Artificial intelligence plays a pivotal role in making blockchain-based smart contracts better with power of advanced decision-making, enhanced security, and real-time adaptability. With the integration of artificial intelligence, smart contracts can become smarter and more adaptable. Artificial intelligence helps with creation of intelligent smart contracts in various ways.

• AI helps smart contracts in analyzing past interactions and outcomes to enhance accuracy in making future decisions.
• Smart contracts can improve their execution logic with time to unravel new ways to address errors and adapt to emerging conditions.
• Artificial intelligence also helps with proactive identification of patterns and anomalies in smart contract transactions to improve risk management.
• AI can empower smart contracts with capabilities to process complex conditions and come up with data-driven decisions in real-time.

You can notice that intelligent smart contracts have more potential than other blockchain AI tools that you will come across. Combining artificial intelligence with smart contracts brings the assurance of notable practical benefits, including scalability, efficiency, automation, and security.

Intelligent smart contracts can streamline complex workflows and work with larger datasets while scaling the decision-making processes without sacrificing efficiency. Most important of all, AI helps with better monitoring to identify anomalies and enhances smart contract security.

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How Do AI Smart Contracts Make the Difference?

AI-powered smart contracts will introduce major changes in the technological and business landscape with their diverse functionalities. AI tools can help in managing the contract lifecycle and empower smart contracts with contextual knowledge and efficient automation. As a matter of fact, intelligent smart contracts can create a future-ready framework that offers the perfect balance of speed, legal precision, and adaptability. 

Businesses can use the combination of artificial intelligence and smart contracts to achieve significant improvements across various business operations. 

• Automation of Contracts

Smart contracts offer one of the best examples of automated contract execution on the basis of predefined conditions. Artificial intelligence can enhance automation by helping with management of exceptions and context-specific decisions that don’t fall within the limited scope of smart contracts.

• Better Use of Data

The blockchain artificial intelligence combination will also bring the advantage of AI capabilities to analyze historical and real-time data. It will offer a substantial boost to refining smart contract triggers and ensure that smart contracts can dynamically adapt to emerging situations.

• Automation with Legal Responsibility

One of the notable highlights of smart contracts is that they execute straightforward conditions like releasing payment upon service delivery. AI can enhance smart contracts to deal with complex scenarios like resolving conflicts, achieving compliance, and negotiations for penalties. 

The uses of AI-powered smart contracts in business can serve as a prominent catalyst for increasing efficiency alongside reducing risks. AI systems will have a significant role in changing how smart contracts respond to regulatory changes or market disruptions with real-time monitoring and updates.

Where Do You See Use Cases of AI in Blockchain Smart Contracts?

Many readers may have assumed that using artificial intelligence to enhance smart contracts is a concept on paper. The surprising news for everyone is that AI smart contracts are already transforming various industries with a combination of credibility of blockchain and intelligence of AI. Understanding the use cases of intelligent smart contracts across different industries will help you get a clear glimpse of how the future of smart contracts will look like.

1. Financial Services

Intelligent smart contracts can help in reinventing loan agreements with dynamic terms, thereby introducing a huge change in financial services. AI can help with analysis of credit history and market trends to update interest rates and repayment schedules. The utility of AI-powered smart contracts in financial services will ensure that loan agreements maintain fairness and sustainability throughout their lifecycle.

2. Supply Chain

You cannot think about areas to implement intelligent smart contracts without focusing on supply chain management. Intelligent smart contracts have been streamlining complex logistics operations and ensuring that payment processing and delivery schedules can adapt to delivery updates and disruptions. AI can make supply chain smart contracts more precise and also reduce delays alongside improving coordination across global supply chains.

3. Real Estate 

Artificial intelligence will also bring notable changes in the use of smart contracts in real estate deals. You can see how AI can enhance efficiency of real estate smart contracts with automated verification and compliance checks. Intelligent smart contracts will reduce human errors in high-profile deals while ensuring compliance and preventing delays.

Will AI Smart Contracts Rule the Future?

The concept of intelligent smart contracts can deliver significant advantages to almost every sector. As companies try to discover the value of integrating AI in blockchain smart contracts, it is important to understand their benefits. You can use an outline of the benefits of intelligent smart contracts to see why they will dominate the technology and business landscape in future.

• Intelligent smart contracts eliminate manual processes and ensure automation of routine tasks to improve contract execution times and reducing delays.
• AI-powered smart contracts offer the flexibility to adapt to emerging conditions, thereby making them useful for real-world scenarios.
• Automation of administrative and legal processes with intelligent smart contracts can reduce overhead costs and ensure better ROI.
• The combination of blockchain and artificial intelligence helps in boosting transparency and improving accountability.

Final Thoughts 

The advent of AI-powered smart contracts brings a new era of innovation in the technological and business landscape. You can notice how AI and blockchain complement each other in various ways with their strengths. Intelligent smart contracts blend the best of AI and blockchain to ensure transparency and security in smart contract execution while improving efficiency and reducing errors. Learn more about intelligent smart contracts and how they can transform the world now.

The post Intelligent Smart Contracts: AI Meets Blockchain appeared first on 101 Blockchains.