Textiles are an important issue for cities, as people generate more and more textile waste. City authorities are required to provide for separate collection of used textiles but have limited ways of putting the waste generated to good use.
Eurocities’ paper on circular textiles is published ahead of the Commission's new Strategy for Sustainable Textiles, planned for autumn 2021, to help the EU shift to a climate-neutral, circular economy (CE) where products are designed to be more durable, reusable, repairable, recyclable and energy-efficient. It focuses on a sustainable recovery of the textile sector from the Covid-19 crisis by:
making it more competitive,
applying CE principles to production, waste management, etc.
and directing investment, research and innovation.
As part of the EU's Bioregio project, the Slovakian city of Nitra has developed a project for community composting by 50 households. The system produces compost, which can be used as a fertiliser by the community. The project aims to lower technical barriers to the reduction of bio-waste.
The COVID-19 may have hit the pause button on tourism, but it also highlighted the need to switch to the circular economy.
This report summarises the findings of a two-year policy dialogue with the city of Granada in Spain, and provides recommendations and a vision to transition to a circular economy. It draws on Granada’s own experience with the transformation of a wastewater treatment plant into a bio factory in 2015, which contributed to increased water reuse and the production of new material from waste. The report argues that the city of Granada can play a role as a promoter, facilitator and enabler of the circular economy. This will require a collective and coordinated approach across all stakeholders and levels of government.
The URBAN WASTE project focuses on urban strategies for waste management in tourist cities. It involved stakeholders from 11 pilot areas and studied the challenges inherent in waste management so that appropriate strategies responding to real-world needs can be devised and implemented.
Tabor is a marketplace initiative introduced in the city of Maribor, Slovenia. Tabor was designed as a second-hand market, where people can participate by selling their goods to others.
The Danish company GHform produces outdoor furniture and inventory, such as benches, waste bins and street lights. The company is now also offering municipalities the chance to lease its cast iron lamp posts.
EtMoi@Work is a Belgium-based circular, social, economy project. It consists of the production of a collection of office articles: badge holders, card holders, cushions for office chairs and new masks in silk by local prisoners. It is a circular economy project, since all its productions use recycled conference lanyards, silk ties and scarves that are no longer worn and, if possible, old jewelry.
In May 2019, the Belgium-based fruit and vegetable cutting business Allgro set up its own water plant. The facility turns wastewater into drinking water, thereby slashing the food company’s mains water consumption.
