Please notice that this is a partial outcome because there are still 27 indicators to be filled in.
Total score: 0 / 100
Circularity level: 1
Policy ( 0 points of 100)
Your city or region is still at the beginning of creating a circular policy framework. Supportive policies and bold leadership are important aspects when moving towards a circular economy. The European Commission has set ambitious targets including targets on landfill, reuse, and recycling, to be met by 2030 and 2035, along with new obligations for separate collection of textiles and biowaste. Therefore, it is crucial to integrate circular policies now, rather than later. The current sector needs to be transformed, which generally takes a profound amount of time. “It takes 25 years (a generation) to transform an industrial sector and all its value chains. To be ready in 2050, decisions and actions need to be taken in the next five years” [11] and new forms of collaboration with industries are to be promoted according to the European Green Deal (2019). Due to the high costs associated with large urban projects, it is therefore vital to obtain investments in strategic value chains. Policies can lay the foundation for such investments and transformations boosting the urban bioeconomy to be made. Recommendations for actions in this domain include:
- Develop a Circular Economy Action Plan that takes into account your cities or regions particularities (economic sectors, geographic and climatic aspects, demography, etc.)
- Integrate circular indicators/ requirements in public procurement processes (material use, emissions indicators, and the total amount of waste produced).
- Call for tenders for public-private partnerships that focus on (bio-)circularity projects. Working together and mutual learning benefits both sides and can accelerate the process since the currently very fragmented nature of the sector is often an obstacle.
- Dedicate business angels for companies, start-ups/ NGOs in the area of the circular (bio-)economy to stimulate those.
- Create a public fund for projects developers in the urban bioeconomy.
- Dedicate an annual planned budget for green and circular expenditure (e.g., sharing services, renewable energy production, urban greenery, waste reduction, energy efficiency, responsible tourism, and commerce).
- Introduce or increase taxes on incineration and/or landfilling. This can be an incentive for ‘polluters’ to look into alternative solutions such as composting and other new bio-products.
- Implement incentives for citizens to participate in the collection of waste and waste prevention (e.g., pay as you throw/ earn as you recycle schemes, sorting obligation for food waste and reduced collection frequency for residual waste). Implementing such incentives can help to reduce waste, but also to obtain high-quality waste streams.
Society ( 0 points of 100)
In the domain ‘society’, your city or region is still at the beginning of its circular journey. Participation of your citizens is still rather low which is reflected in the circular performance of your city. Circular initiatives such as campaigns are important steps towards reaching citizen participation. But also awareness and acceptation of waste-based products and their properties through consumers. While circularity in many value chains is primarily determined by the design and production of goods and products it can be seen as the industrial organisations is mainly responsible. Yet, for urban organic streams the consumer has a substantial influence on closing the cycle. Therefore, increasing environmental consciousness among citizens should be at the forefront of cities’ or regions’ strategic alignment. Recommendations to increase participation and circular city initiatives are:
- Set up an (online) platform to coordinate industry, academia, financiers, and citizens in your city or region to foster a circular bioeconomy accelerating the process through better collaboration and knowledge transfer between the stakeholders.
- Implement (or actively support existing) awareness campaigns on the reduction of waste and consumption (in particular food waste and water consumption) in public spaces (e.g., canteens, public toilets).
- Have initiatives for separate waste collection systems in place e.g., pre-collection equipment, thereby meaning kitchen bins and/or bags for food waste and/or creating convenient drop-off stations for a variety of material streams (e.g., batteries, furniture, textiles, electronics, cooking oil). This way, your city has to spend less time sorting that waste after the collection.
- Support, connect with or call for tenders for innovation and co-creation spaces/platforms such as fab-labs and crowd-sourcing platforms where citizens engage in developing new circular solutions. When citizens are involved they are more likely to help in the process, since they have become more engaged.
- Communicate your efforts to educational institutions and collaborate with local educators on integrating environmental aspects into school subjects, or to raise awareness in school canteens. Improving the awareness and the behaviour of students from an early age with respect to waste management has been proven to be very effective.
Consumption ( 0 points of 100)
Your city is producing an enormous amount of biowaste and/or consumes high amounts of water. While this may be related to your geographic and climatic boundaries (e.g., related to waste from urban greens) reducing the generation of waste and the overall consumption of water in your city or region should be of the highest priority. Water scarcity and droughts are challenging many regions across Europe and around 88 million tons of food waste are generated annually costing the EU around €143 billion (FUSIONS, 2016). Recommendations to reduce waste production and water consumption in your city or region include:
- Start information campaigns for the population on how to save water in public spaces (e.g. in public toilets, drinking fountains etc).
- Incentivize/ fine citizens and businesses for their water consumption (e.g., by increasing the prices per cubic meter of water after a certain tolerable consumption level per person/household is exceeded).
- Support or set up awareness campaigns that deal with food waste prevention e.g., in public spaces (schools, canteens…), create awareness on ‘ugly’ food, promote grocery guides in local markets and supermarkets that inform on correct storage and seasonality of food.
- Incentivize/ fine citizens and businesses for their organic waste creation e.g. by fining according to how much biowaste is actually created per person/household rather than having a standard fee per household.
Management ( 0 points of 100)
The system in your city or region currently still is linear in respect to urban organic materials. On average, yearly 96 million tonnes of municipal biowaste are generated of which only 33% is recycled. The remaining 67% is either just landfilled or incinerated being one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. According to the Circularity Report 2021, the introduction of a circular economy can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 39%. By closing material loops, e.g., through repeatedly reusing materials, cities can avoid environmental and economic burden. A circular system promises to lower emissions, protect and enhance biodiversity and improve resource access all while creating new business opportunities and jobs related to biowaste and wastewater sludge valuation through recycling, reuse, and recovery operations. On the UCBH, your city or region can learn from real-life cases. General recommendations to improve the resource management in your city or region are:
Water
- Pay attention to the implementation rate of wastewater collection and increase subsequently the share of the city population served by wastewater collection. For new residential areas and public infrastructure projects include respective requirements in public tenders that support optimal water and wastewater management.
- Create a supportive legal framework that enables local water companies to increase the share of reuse of water e.g., though projects with local agriculture etc.
- Support project developers in the area of reuse and recycling of sludge (e.g., soil amendment in agriculture, composting, anaerobic digestion) through access to funds, incentives, tax breaks etc.
Biowaste- Pay attention to the implementation rate of biowaste separate collection and increase subsequently the share of households serviced with separate collection of biowaste.
- Support the awareness creation (e.g., through added information with billing, city- or neighbourhood wide campaigns, among others) and/or incentivize citizens to separate waste.
- Implement biowaste collection bins not only in residential areas but also in public spaces to make separate collection accessible anywhere and anytime.
- Implement waste collection systems for different biowaste streams to facilitate the production of high-quality innovative bioproducts. Implement dedicated collection routes or drop-off stations e.g., for used cooking oil, green waste, coffee grounds, fruits and vegetables.
Output
- From the organic materials streams many innovative bioproducts can be generated, examples can be found here on the UCBH (link ). For instance, chemicals used as building blocks in local production, feed for the local fishery, compost sold locally for gardening/agriculture, and fertilizers in green spaces.
- For a clean and renewable energy source, your city can explore the benefits of biogas. This is a simple and low-cost technology that encourages a circular economy. Thereby simultaneously helping to reduce soil and water pollution and generate organic fertilizer.