Despite progress in some areas, the world is off track to meet the United Nations SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production. Since 1970, material extraction has more than tripled, and roughly one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted. Cooperatives, rooted in member-owned and community-centered models, are increasingly effective partners in bridging these gaps, especially in Europe where they drive resource efficiency and circularity. European examples include Spain’s Camara Arrossera del Montsià with its ORYZITE project turning rice husks into a sustainable bio-based material; Italy’s Caviro with a near-total reuse of by-products; Sweden’s Södra with Once More, the world’s first large-scale textile recycling technology; Germany’s ERDE and PAMIRA programs supporting recycling of agricultural films and packaging; France’s A.D.I.VALOR system recovering agricultural plastics; and the UK’s Co-operative Group reducing plastic in own-brand packaging. The piece highlights benefits of cooperatives, such as resource pooling, traceability, transparency, and democratic governance, and urges governments to integrate cooperatives into national circular economy roadmaps, update legal frameworks to foster cooperative innovation, expand financing through cooperative development funds, and use public procurement to favor sustainable suppliers. The article notes EU co-funding and specifies that the contents reflect Cooperatives Europe rather than the European Union.