According to the European Commission, circular procurement is "the purchase of works, goods or services that seek to contribute to the closed energy and material loops within supply chains, whilst minimising, and in the best case avoiding, negative environmental impacts and waste creation across the whole life cycle".

Circular Public Procurement (CircularPP) is a 3-year project (2017–2020) supported by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme. CircularPP has published Recommendations to national policy-makers on circular public procurement. For example, local pilots of procurement of circular products and solutions should be encouraged, as municipalities play an important role in implementing circular economy activities and can promote the use of circular criteria.