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Circle Economy and ICLEI have partnered up to initiate the go to knowledge hub of case studies about the circular economy in cities. The Cities Collection is a repository of case studies that demonstrate the role of cities in the circular transition, and includes policies, business cases and research articles. Cases in the Collection flow into an ecosystem of digital products which support users in transitioning cities to circularity, for example [Ganbatte](https://ganbatte.world/cities/) and <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/" target="_blank">ICLEI Circulars</a>, both part of the <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/circle-lab-for-cities/" target = _blank">Circle Lab for Cities Programme.</a>

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Circular Cities

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Circular food systems entail that the food is produced regeneratively and, where appropriate, locally. Food and packaging waste are designed out entirely, while healthy, low-impact diets are promoted and easy to access. 

[Circle Economy](https://www.circle-economy.com/) is a not-for-profit organisation working to accelerate the circular transition. Through the *Circularity Gap Reporting Initiative*, our mission is to deliver an annual global Circularity Metric that measures the state of the world economy and identifies key levers to transition to global circularity. With nature as our guide, we work alongside cross-sector stakeholders from academia, businesses, NGOs and governments to provide a powerful combination of practical and scalable interventions that transform circular opportunities into realities. 

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Circular Food

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Limes and lemons - Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Policy case

Impact on the quantity or quality of jobs, and shifts in the labour market

Jobs

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Producing agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

Work together throughout the supply chain, internally within organisations and with the public sector and communities to increase transparency and create joint value

Team up to create joint value

'Manage' influences the use and function of physical and material elements within the urban environment. 

Manage

Infrastructure

'Mobilise' sets the direction of and builds momentum towards long-term change, while also determining how this direction is determined and governed.

Mobilise

 Convene Towards Action

Voluntary agreements around circular ambitions

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

Eliminate waste by maximizing the recovery of resources at the end of the use phase so that they can be reintroduced into production processes


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Recover

Incorporate extended use in project planning phases; create or update city policies to allow for extended use.


Design and regulate for separation and recovery

Ensure that household and business waste is collected and appropriately sorted (by type, label, etc.) to allow for maximum recovery of value.


Collect and sort waste to facilitate recovery

The circular potential of organic wastes is dependent on the quality and low contamination rate of the residual stream that is collected. Food and organic wastes are difficult to sort and separate post-collection, and as such, collecting organic wastes through a mixed collection are often limited to incineration or landfill. Therefore, collecting organic wastes through a separate collection system is key to unlock potential high-value management practices, for example, composting and anaerobic digestion.

Due to the strong influence over the operation of local waste management systems, local governments have a key role in the provision of separate organic waste collection systems throughout the city. Collections systems can vary to suit the specific characteristics of particular neighbourhoods and areas of a city. For example, areas with detached homes have more space for bins, while for apartments with less space, a communal receptacle may be more appropriate. Communication campaigns can help to raise awareness and encourage participation of residents to separate their organic wastes. 


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🍏  Separate organic waste collection infrastructure

Managing municipal food wastes at scale may require complex and costly infrastructures to collect, transport and process these residual materials. Large-scale composting facilities are challenging to place and zone appropriately in space-scarce cities.

Community-based initiatives, for example, community composting, can provide a localised solution to managing urban food wastes. Community composting initiatives are small(er)-scale solutions that are distributed throughout the city, located close to the sources of food waste, reducing the need for complex logistics and collection systems. Community composting schemes can take a variety of forms, for example, in-vessel composting (IVC), as well as vermicomposting (which utilises insects to break down organic materials). Community composting initiatives can generate valuable by-products for use in (urban) agriculture, in gardens and in parks, as well as support community building. 

Local governments can support the development and implementation of community composting schemes through the provision of equipment and infrastructure, for example,  composting boxes. The formation of public-civic partnerships can help formulate the relationships and validate the valuable role such activities can play in the management of organic waste streams. Awareness raising can be facilitated through collaboration with schools. 


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🍏  Community composting

The food system nourishes populations and employs 50% of the global workforce, but:
- it currently drives a quarter of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its greenhouse gas (GHG) production, 
- animal farming alone uses over one-quarter of all land, equivalent to the size of the Americas,
- nearly a quarter of freshwater resources are lost due to rampant food waste, and
- it is the single largest driver of biodiversity loss.

A circular food system must address the whole value chain, from production to consumption to waste management. The four key solutions for the food system are:
- Put healthier, satiating foods first: Prioritise satiating and healthy foods with a lower environmental impact—ideally shifting calories from meat, fish, and dairy towards cereals, fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
- Go local, seasonal, and organic: Prioritise the production and consumption of local, seasonal, and organic produce (sometimes in combination with GMO to reduce pests and disease loss on crops), which can lead to a significantly reduced need for chemical inputs, fuels, and processing services that contribute to environmental impacts.
- Mainstream regenerative agriculture: Scale up agricultural practices that regenerate ecosystems, recirculate nutrients and sequester carbon by design. 
- End avoidable food waste: Minimise food loss and valorise waste following the food waste hierarchy along the supply chain and at the consumer level through better management of transport and storage, more refrigeration and smart planning, and technology at the consumer and food service levels.



🍏 Food Systems

Communities

Governments

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

Engage with the local community where facilities or offices are located

Community collaboration

Designing products that can easily breakdown and degrade in the environment

Design for bio-degradability

Replace energy sources with less impactful alternatives and enact energy efficiency measures

Regenerative energy

Selling parts of modular products that can be exchanged or replaced

Sale of exchangeable parts

Working together with stakeholders and parties in other unrelated industries to implement circular economy strategies and opportunities

Cross-industry projects, pilots

Designing to enable multiple uses and lifecycles of a product and its materials

Design for cyclability

Engaging in discussions with government bodies and policymakers to push for regulations that support the circular economy

Advocacy for circular economy policy

Using renewable energy like solar, wind, etc. or renewable fuels like biomass, etc.

Renewable energy, fuels

Designing products of multiple parts that can be easily exchanged

Design for modularity

Working together with industry peers to engage in business activities or exploratory projects that advance the circular economy

Joint industry ventures, projects, pilots

Providing products through sharing between consumers, customers, etc.

Peer to peer sharing

Transforming waste products into materials and lower value products within other industries

Open loop downcycling

Providing DIY repair kits or spare part programmes for enabling self-repair

Self-repair, spare part service

Engage and guide customers and consumers to ensure circular use of products

Customer / consumer collaboration

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within the same industry

Closed loop upcycling

Designing to reduce waste during production and use

Design out waste

Allowing customers to alter and modify certain features of the product

Customisation

Facilitate discussions and meetings between internal team members to identify circular opportunities

Dialogue with internal stakeholders

Generating energy from waste through processes such as anaerobic digestion, gasification, incineration, etc.

Generating energy from waste

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

While resources are in-use, maintain, repair and upgrade them to maximise their lifetime and give them a second life through take back strategies when applicable

Stretch the lifetime

Industry peers to industry peer collaboration to create joint value and identify synergies

Industry collaboration

Preserving and conserving biological products such as food, forests, etc.

Preservation, conservation

Working together with the community and engaging them in the company operations

Joint product development

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within the same industry

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

Replacing freshwater use with rainwater, fogwater, seawater, etc.

Alternative water use

Initiatives with disadvantaged communities, minorities, people distanced from the labour market

Give-back programmes

Processing waste streams into fuels such as biogas, biofuels, pellets, etc.

Processing waste into fuel

Using bio-based materials such as bioplastics, mushroom-based materials, etc.

Alternative bio-based materials and inputs

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within other industries

Using open loop recycled materials

Employ technologies to gather and analyse data to provide insights on resource use

Data and insights

Designing products so they produce as little waste as possible during production

Design for minimal waste

Takeback and return of products from customers after end-of-use

Takeback programmes

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within other industries

Open loop upcycling

Upgrade, repair, and maintenance while in-use

Maximise lifetime of products in-use

Enacting measures that optimise water use

Water efficiency

Designing products that are made to last and to ensure longer use

Design for durability

Installing sensors to gather data from products and services to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Sensors, monitoring systems

Decentralised services that rely on the power of the crowd or the community

Crowd-based services

Marketplaces or services that enable the second hand sale of products

Second-hand sale, distribution

Engage internally to guide employees and facilitate greater knowledge sharing between internal divisions

Internal collaboration

Collection programmes that process products and parts for reuse or recycling within other industries

Open loop collection

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Engaging in discussions with customers to educate and raise awareness of the circular economy and explore circular opportunities together

Customer dialogue, marketing 

Integrating circular economy thinking into employee evaluations that are tied to professional compensation

Financial incentives tied to circular economy

 Develop research, structure knowledge, encourage innovation networks and disseminate findings with integrity


Strengthen and advance knowledge

Designing products so they are able to be easily repaired

Design for repair

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

Employ online platforms to connect and improve information sharing between stakeholders

Digital platforms

Using <a href="https://echa.europa.eu/information-on-chemicals" target="_blank">materials that are not toxic or hazardous</a>.

Non-toxic materials and inputs

Integrate principles of circularity into primary, secondary and tertiary curriculum and conduct workplace trainings

 Education and Curriculum

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use

Design for the future

Enacting measures that optimise energy use

Energy efficiency

Recover waste energy or generate fuels and energy from waste streams

Energy recovery from waste

Converting fossil fuel based operations to electric

Electrification

Collection programmes that process products and parts for reuse or recycling within the same industry

Closed loop collection

Selling high quality, long-lasting products

Sale of durable, long-lasting goods

Employing artificial algorithms and robotics to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Advanced robotics, artificial intelligence

Connecting products and services into the internet of things to identify, enable and/or implement circular strategies (eg. effective resource use & logistics planning, circular business models & design)

Internet enabled, connected operations

Developing or utilising online platforms to enable circular economy opportunities through information, product or service offering

Online platforms

Putting in place purchasing guidelines for procurement departments and evaluating suppliers on circular economy principles

Circular procurement

Providing upgrade programmes or upgrade services for products or parts of products

Product upgrade

Transforming waste products into materials and lower value products within the same industry

Closed loop downcycling

Key elements of the circular economy

"In 2015, the city of Sao Paulo began rolling out programs to reduce organic waste. What started as a small, voluntary home composting initiative grew to include thousands of families. At the same time, the city began composting organic waste at small, lowtech facilities and a larger pilot composting plant. The initiative proved so successful that more than five new plants have opened, which together process around 15,000 tons of waste annually and employ local residents." (Source: ICLEI, 2021, City Practitioners Handbook: Circular Food Systems)