Cities
The municipality of Almere aspires to become a waste-free and energy-neutral city by 2022. The administration wants to bring the business community and knowledge institutes’ innovative power together to enable co-creation in the field of waste management and upcycling in the urban context.
The Brussels Regional Programme for Circular Economy (BRPCE) is an integrated strategy involving 111 measures aimed at delivering circular patterns at the city level. The main objectives of the BPRCE are:
London is among one the world’s most cosmopolitan and oldest cities, and one of the most cosmopolitan. As Britain’s largest city and country’s economic, transportation and cultural capital, over 8 million people live in London. A more flexible and sustainable approach to products, housing, office space and critical infrastructure is crucial to London’s ability to adapt and grow.
Genoa set itself an objective to close the loop on waste materials by taking advantage of treatment plants in the city's immediate vicinity. By adopting a long-term and territorially integrated approach, the city intends to achieve higher recycling rates within five years and strengthen the circular economy locally.
With half a million inhabitants, the ‘Eurométropole’ of Strasbourg is a collection of 33 municipalities and represents a centre of activity in the east of France. Deeply committed to energy transition, the Eurométropole adopted a climate plan in 2009 aimed at energy savings, the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and the development of renewable energies.
Ljubljana is faced with significant overgrowth of Japanese knotweed, a plant on the list of 100 most invasive non-native species worldwide. Ljubljana teamed up with the Re-generacija collective of young designers and architects focused on issues connected to social and environmental well-being, as well as some other stakeholders, to prevent excessive overgrowth of the plant and reuse it.
Utrecht, one of the four biggest cities in the Netherlands, aims to be climate neutral in 2030 and to reach a fully circular economy by 2050. In a shorter term, Utrecht is committed to increasing its share of circular procurement from 4% of the annual spend in 2016 to 10% by 2020. Utrecht’s sustainable vision is also reflected in its aspiration to become the most bike-friendly city in the world.
Lyon Métropole, which includes 59 municipalities and 1 300 000 inhabitants, wants to build a sustainable future for its citizens. The Métropole relies on green investments to face environmental challenges. Lyon is also committed to building circular solutions for the region and has been recognised as a ‘zero waste territory’ (territoire zéro déchet, zéro gaspillage) since 2015.
Oslo has been developing a waste management system based on circular principles to ensure separate waste collection is maximised and transform waste into secondary raw materials. To do so it has actively engaged with citizens, farmers as well as with its city’s public transportation company.
Facing dramatic deindustrialisation and an uncertain future, the city of Turin implemented processes that paired physical redevelopment with strategic planning to promote citywide revitalisation and economic restructuring in the 1990s. While the transformation has been profound, current challenges call for more circular strategies and an inclusive approach.
Munich has taken its ambitious waste reduction strategy to the next level by developing an innovative reuse lab and shop concept. Its Halle 2 municipal secondhand store not only enables citizens to take responsibility for living more sustainably, it also provides opportunities for job creation, educational programmes and voluntary activities.
As a densely populated and economically powerful urban area, the city of Dusseldorf recognised the challenge of climate change early on and initiated a process of low carbon and zero waste strategy development.
In 2015, Amsterdam commissioned an in-depth study on the potential of a circular economy. The project was the first large-scale research study in the world that uses the ‘city circle scan’ methodology. The scan identifies the areas in which the most significant, tangible progress in realising a circular economy can be achieved.
Birmingham is Britain’s youngest and fastest growing city having also the strongest economy outside the capital and being one of the first cities to adopt a proactive industrial symbiosis approach to develop a medium and long-term strategy for sustainable economic development. The projects born from the industrial symbiosis approach are part of Birmingham’s circular economy strategy.
The present guidelines have been developed by ACR+ in the framework of its Circular Europe Network initiative (CEN: www.circular-europe-network.eu).
It aims at explaining the potential role of local and regional authorities, and at developing guidelines to help them draw up integrated and efficient circular economy plans. Even though acknowledging the broader concept, these guidelines focus mainly on materials, considering that it is difficult for local and regional authorities to encompass all topics at once and since material resources represent the core element of circular economy.
The guidelines clarify the circular economy concept from a local or regional authority's perspective (Part 1) and propose key steps and elements to include in a local or regional circular economy strategy (Part 2).
The present document should serve as a set of first guidelines in the subject, particularly for the members of the Circular Europe Network, and is intended to be completed with examples of best practices to set such strategies, as well as concrete cases of circular economy.
The document is also available in Catalan, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. For more information, please click here.
Program of action for the development of a local circular economy strategy.
The Granada Sur Biorefinery of Emasagra has set up an ambitious environmental strategy in order to become European circular economy reference in the field of sanitation and wastewater treatment.
Dorthe Nielsen, policy director at EUROCITIES, is responsible for the overall coordination and delivery of outcomes of the policy work in EUROCITIES. She focuses on sustainable urban mobility and green and smarter cities. She is also in charge of governance-related matters, including the urban agenda for the EU and creative citizenship. She previously worked for the Greater London Authority (EU office) and at the Secretariat General of the European Commission. She holds a Masters degree from the College of Europe (BE) in European politics and a Masters degree in public administration from the University of Roskilde (DK). A Danish national, she is fluent in English and French.
EUROCITIES is the leading network of more than 140 major European cities, working together to improve the quality of urban life. It strives for a Europe where cities are genuine partners with the EU to create a better future. It puts individuals at the heart of developments to achieve inclusive, prosperous and healthy cities with future-fit local governments. It works to connect EU and local policy developments in areas such as climate, environment, mobility, economic development, social affairs, culture, digital transformation and urban development. The circular economy cuts across all those areas of work.
Increasing the demand for repair services and Networking for repairing companies
The London circular economy route map outlines a vision of a capital city thriving through the adoption of the principles of circular economy: an economy which keeps products, components and materials at their highest use and value at all times.
8 billion plastic bags end up in the environment in Europe every year. They have dramatic impacts on the environment, and especially on marine ecosystems, killing every year thousands of marine animals, and affecting no less than 260 different species.
Laura Cutaia, researcher at ENEA, is an Environmental Engineer (1996) with a PhD in raw materials engineering (2002). Her main research topics are:
Laura Cutaia is responsible for making the most of resources at ENEA , where she is working on the circular economy and resource efficiency, industrial ecology and symbiosis, LCA, environmental certification schemes, the REACH regulation and sustainable industrial areas (more information).
Laura Cutaia is also president of SUN - Symbiosis Users Network (Italian network for industrial symbiosis) and president of UNI CT 057 on the circular economy that works with ISO TC 323 on the circular economy. UNI is the Italian body responsible for standardisation.
Philippe Micheaux Naudet is Director for Network and Members Development of ACR+, and as such is responsible for developing activities with ACR+ members, in particular regarding circular economy strategies and governance, as well as public procurement; bringing new members and partners to ACR+ and strengthening the network; and developing and participating in strategic initiatives and partnerships (European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, Urban Agenda Partnership on Circular Economy, etc.).
Philippe is also a Senior Project Manager at ACR+, specialising in the circular economy, waste prevention and recycling. He is in charge of several projects, including the Circular Europe Network on circular economy guidance and capacity building, the ProCirc project on circular procurement, and the FoodRUs project on food waste prevention.
The city of Almere, working together with local stakeholders and the company Millvision, has developed an innovative circular economy partnership. The aquatic plant is a local and renewable input to the production of the paper but it also "circular" as something that would be discarded as waste is re-valued as a raw material used in production.
Cities of Making addresses the challenge of re-industrialisation in urban areas, where circular economy will have a key role. The project aims at developping a toolkit for policy makers to promote urban manufacturing in a transition economy.
The door to door households organic waste collection plan was first introduced in November 2012 in one quarter of the city of Milan and then was extended to the whole city in June 2014. Collection frequency is twice a week.The aim of the separate collection of food waste is to divert this material from incineration and to send it to AD for production of biogas and good quality compost.
The Farmacie Comunali of the city of Genoa, in partnership with the Associazione Gigi Ghirotti, organises the collection of unused pharmaceuticals to provide for the needs of those who would otherwise struggle to afford them. Through this project, Genoa's eight Farmacie Comunali distribute these "reused" pharmaceutical products.
