Plateforme des acteurs européens de l'économie circulaire

In the framework of the CIRCWASTE project, Southwest Finland developed a circular economy roadmap in late 2018 to help implementation of the national waste plan and define regional objectives with concrete measures to achieve these.

The Finnish Environment Institute formed an expert network on circular economy, and began identifying regional strengths and special characteristics to start with.

In 2018, the Central Finland region produced approximately 1,8 million tonnes of different kinds of waste. Stakeholders thus sought to focus on waste management during the drafting process, and received training on, for example, plastic lifespan and creativity in the circular economy alongside many networking opportunities.

While the overarching theme is public procurement, the regional strategy focuses on the following sectors in particular:

1. construction and demolition waste (62% of all waste in the region)
2. biodegradable waste, biogas and the nutrient reuse (approximately 30% of non-recycled waste is biodegradable waste)
3. plastics (in 2018 households generated approximately 6,000 tonnes of such waste)
4. electric and electronic wreckage (in 2018 citizens generated approximately 6,000 tonnes of such waste)

This roadmap seeks to reduce the amount of construction and demolition waste and increase reuse of such waste to 70%. The partial activities helping to reach the targets are listed in the roadmap.

Different stakeholders, ranging from municipal or regional authorities, to national institutes, educational establishments, and private companies will take responsibility for implementation.

In 2018, Finland's easternmost region of North Karelia adopted a circular economy roadmap as part of the CIRCWASTE project. Its objectives are to:

1. enhance material and energy efficiency and improve natural resource use
2. make circular economy inherent to industrial production in priority sectors and strengthen the regional cooperation network in the field of circular economy
3. strengthen and stimluate new circular business models while developing new technological solutions and know-how in the region.

Regarding waste management overall, this strategy aims to increase knowledge and change overall consumer attitudes.

A system to recycle construction waste is set for development, and will focus on logistics, demolition methods and supervision. This strategy aims to improve training concerning waste management in particular, and motivate companies to consider waste already in the planning stage.

As for municipal waste management, the strategy hopes to improve the collection network and logistics by creating incentives and introducing monitoring systems.

The objectives are to be reached in different timeframes by 2030. For each partial target, responsibilities have been shared among various actors: municipalities, the Regional Council of North Karelia, private companies, educational establishments, organisations etc.

The circular economy roadmap of the South Karelia region in Finland, along the Russian border, was drawn up at the end of 2018 in the framework of the CIRCWASTE project. The Finnish Environment Institute formed an expert network on circular economy, and began by identifying regional strengths and specific characteristics.

In South Karelia, stakeholders set the objectives of circular economy as

1. Sustainable wellbeing, no emissions, no waste, or excessive consumption
2. More jobs and business activity in the field of environment
3. Strengthening of knowledge and training in environmental and circular economy issues.

Stakeholders at different levels are responsible for achieving specific targets, and range from the regional development council to municipalities, private companies, networks, universities and other educational establishments, etc.

For manufacturing, this strategy focuses on construction and mining, energy efficiency, renewable energies, reducing CO₂ emissions, increasing recycling and improving waste management.

Regarding bio-based industries such as forestry in particular, this strategy focuses on by-products, nutrient recycling, and developing new products and materials.

To develop intelligent public services, the region is hoping to stimulate the sharing economy and improve digital services.

This strategy perceives the factors enabling circular economy as citizen engagement, research cooperation, developing educational curricula, and the role of government procurement. 

South Karelia's performance will be monitored using the following indicators:

• ​the amount and level of recycled municipal waste
• the amount and level of recycled construction and demolition waste
• the amount of biodegradable municipal waste and the amounts of composted or decomposed biodegradable municipal waste
• the amount and level of electrical or electronics waste.

The region has also set itself goals to:

• create 500 new jobs in environmental businesses by 2030
• increase by 20% the number of businesses in waste management and recycling within the region.

In the framework of the CIRCWASTE project, Southwest Finland developed a circular economy roadmap to implement the national waste plan and define regional objectives with concrete measures to achieve these.

The Finnish Environment Institute formed an expert network on circular economy, and began identifying regional strengths and special characteristics to start with. A regional cooperation group of more than 20 members was founded to work the strategy. It was composed of representatives from various towns, education establishments, the Regional Council of Soutwest Finland, private companies etc.

For Southwest Finland, stakeholders set a focus on sustainable food systems, high-tech industry, transport and logistics. Public services and knowledge exchange with industry, academia and civil society are the overarching themes.

The objectives and measures are classified along the priority sectors:

• construction
• biodegradable waste
• nutrient reuse
• municipal waste.

Targeted training and versatile learning materials will advance circular economy in construction, where the strategy aims to generate less waste and increase the use of construction and demolition waste to 70%.

As Southwest Finland is a national frontrunner in making use of agricultural by-products and nutrient reuse, the region wants to build on its strengths and halve food waste by 2030. Another goal in this area is to increase the amount of recycled organic waste to 60%.

Additionally the strategy hopes to decouple municipal waste growth from regional GDP growth, and increase recycling to 55%.

1. voluntary measures by construction businesses by 2025
2. comprehensive regulation for circular public buildings by 2030
3. reforming all relevant local planning regulations to include circular principles by 2040

In this policy note, the City of the Hague outlines why a circular transition is necessary and what benefits it can provide to the city for its sustainable development. Continuing with a state-of-play, the note sketches out the policy framework at European, national and regional level to provide strategic context and introduce analysis of a non-exhaustive list of 143 ongoing circular projects in The Hague area. Links to further research show that making use of the opportunities a circular economy provides in the Construction, Procurement and Retail Trade sectors alone could substantially reduce carbon emissions and deliver 3,500 jobs in The Hague area.

Building on this research, the policy note indicates the city's priorities best lie in biomass, construction material and critical raw materials. To showcase possible next steps, the note provides a list of easily implementable projects and policies in these priority areas, while concluding with a stakeholder engagement strategy that should enable the city's administration to realise its goals for the priority sectors.

After the 2014 elections, the new Roubaix municipality team wanted to change the image of its city and encourage a positive attitude towards both its inhabitants and France as a whole.

The roadmap aims at turning difficulties into advantages, generating a new dynamic. Based on the Sustainable development strategy (since 2003), a zero waste policy is progressively implemented with a focus on cooperation and awareness raising among the stakeholders.

The approach is global, even if some activities are implemented on a micro-scale (budget issue), mostly at the level of a city sub-district (Fresnoy-Mackellerie).

To enable the entire City of Roubaix to experience the transition to a zero waste economy, projects are open and accessible to all categories of population and businesses. This is reflected in the way the projects are designed and co-developed, and how the City communicates about them.

Some concrete solutions are tested on an everyday basis and feedback is already shared with others (zero waste family program, zero waste business label, zero waste festival…).

Generally speaking, the City of Roubaix wants :

1. to have the largest possible audience sharing the zero waste concepts, to match activities that could bring new dynamics into this field and make it happen. The more people share the same values the better;
2. to multiply the interaction at different levels (inhabitants, institutions, businesses) but also to keep a global coherent approach;
3. to minimize the production of waste, by changing consumer’s behaviour, retailer distribution methods and the design and processing used by the companies;
4. to make the remaining and really unavoidable waste enter a circular loop.

Greece's Governmental Economic Policy Council ensorsed a National Action Plan on Circular Economy in early 2018 to set the country on a path towards the long-term adoption of circular economy principles. This further supports Greece's economic strategy in its key quest to “Green” the economy in a way that creates jobs, especially for women and youth, and supports long-term equitable and inclusive growth based on resource efficiency, promotion of SMEs, innovation and investment in new technologies, and strengthening of the “social economy” potential. The long-term (2030) goals of the National Action Plan on Circular Economy can be summarised as follows:

• moving up the waste hierarchy by focusing on preventing waste and improving recycling
• supporting circular entrepreneurship by promoting “industrial symbiosis” and business clusters
• supporting circular consumption patterns of re-using, re-storing and re-pairing rather than buying new products, especially for electrical and electronic devices
• enhancing multi-stakeholder partnerships across industry, academia, and civil society
• monitoring progress towards a circular economic model through SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) indicators.

Priority actions for 2018 include:

1. lifting barriers to a circular economy through 10+ regulatory and legislative interventions, e.g. integrating circular economy considerations and criteria in the Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Impact Assessment requirements for sites and projects as well as in the environmental permitting process or  elaborating new legal definitions for wastes, by-products and re-fuse materials after first use intended for re-use, declassification of waste and quality standards for secondary raw materials
2. earmarking existing funds to implement the aforementioned interventions and fund demonstration projects
3. further enhancing knowledge, understanding, education, awareness and communication
4. improving governance structures by setting up an inter-ministerial Executive Secretariat for the Circular Economy to oversee implementation and related Observatory to monitor progress

Prior to this, Greece has already adopted a new Law on Recycling in November 2017 to fully align existing waste legislation with circular economy principles and taken effective measures to reduce the consumtion of single-use plastic bags with a ministerial decision in August 2017 that introduced merchant responsibility and set fees for consumers. With these measures and the actions set out in the National Circular Economy Action Plan, Greece aims to achieve the following by 2020:

• achieve a radical reduction of the per capita produced waste
• increase reuse and recycling of wastes, with a separate collection of recyclable waste and of bio-waste, to reach 50% of total municipal solid waste produced from a 25% where it stands today
• reach a 74% recovery and less than 30% disposal of total municipal solid waste produced from the current 82% disposal
• create around 15,900 new jobs and the increase of the annual turnover of the waste management related businesses.

The underlying idea of the Strategy for the Transition to the Circular Economy in the Municipality of Maribor, as well as the Wcycle project, is its to have an own innovative model as a system for managing all the resources available in the Municipality of Maribor and the wider urban area.

The model is based on the operation of enterprises that are predominantly publicly-owned and already provide public services for residents. They are thus the city’s bottlenecks that until now have not functioned as a connecting link, which is a fundamental principle in the transition from linear to circular economy.

Only close cooperation between public companies, citizens, industry and local self-government can lead to a successful interconnected system that optimises resources and results - economic, environmental and social. This is a long-term project that provides development-oriented efficient management of resource flows in local and regional environments.

The purpose of the Strategy and Wcycle project discussed is cross-sectoral cooperation in handling, processing, re-use and development of resources, which deals with the circular economy in Maribor in seven selected sectors (i.e pillars or circles).

The positive consequences of these practices are the emergence of new business opportunities for the Municipality of Maribor, the people and the economy, the creation of high-quality, mainly green jobs, new added value and a fresh economic boost.

Luxembourg's new National Waste and Resource Management Plan includes measures and guidelines for the implementation of the amended Waste Management Act of March 21, 2012. It analyzes the situation regarding waste management and lists measures that will be taken to ensure the re-use, recycling, recovery and disposal of waste in the most environmentally friendly conditions while remaining in line with the national and European legislative context. The prevention program is integrated in the text of the national plan and introduces a whole-system approach for waste prevention.

The overall objective of the NWRMP is to protect the environment, cultural property and human health by preventing and reducing the harmful effects of waste. In addition, waste management has long-term goals, including conservation of resources, climate protection and impacts for future generations.

This plan represents a considerable step in the transition towards a circular economy, and builds on the principles of a sober and responsible consumption of natural resources, the optimisation of product life cycles, opportunities for re-use or failing that, waste recycling.

The NWRMP, among others, includes the following ambitious targets for 2022:

• reducing food waste by 50%;
• 65% collection rate of electric and electronic waste;
• less than 10% of all municipal waste going to landfill.

The plan was also drafted in consultation with stakeholders and citizens over a 3-year period. This included thematic workshops on municipal waste, food waste, construction & demolition waste and treatment plant waste. The plan also received input through the May 2017 'National Waste Day' and further public consultations in Spring 2018. Its implementation willl be overseen by the Ministry for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure's environmental agency for the period 2018 - 2022.