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This collection features a selection of inspiring examples of the circular economy in Norway! 

Circular Norway is a driving force for the conversion of Norwegian companies and municipalities to a circular economy through practical tools, innovation, and business development. They collaborate with the leading environments on the circular economy in Europe, and together they contribute to Norway delivering on the sustainability goals and climate goals in the Paris Agreement.

At 2.4%, Norway's circularity rate is below the global average (8.6%). Norway consumes 235 million tonnes of materials—metals, fossil fuels, biomass, and minerals—to fuel its societal needs each year. 97.6% of these materials are never cycled back into the economy. But Norway has enormous potential: the country could see a 20-fold increase in its circularity by restructuring Norwegian business and industry.

To learn more about Norway's initiatives to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, visit www.circularnorway.no/ (content in Norwegian) 

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Circular Norway

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Business case

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

Use waste as a resource

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

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

Data and insights

Employ online platforms to connect and improve information sharing between stakeholders

Digital platforms

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


Strengthen and advance knowledge

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

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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Globally, we produce more than 2 billion tons of waste each year.Even if most materials may be recycled, reused, or repurposed, only 8,6%* of the materials we consume return to the cycle. *According to the 2020 Circularity Gap Report.The core of the problem is that we lack data on the waste we throw in the bin. It’s a black hole. And even when people make an effort to sort their trash, they keep wondering whether their efforts make a difference.The potato peel or plastic container you carefully sort in your kitchen, or the cardboard you keep separate in your workplace, may seem like a drop in the ocean.Collectively our actions can solve the world’s waste problem.At Carrot, we want to show people, companies, and industries that their efforts count. That almost everything we throw away can regain value as a new resource by taking better care of it.Capturing data about waste allows us to extend the life of materials and change our perception of its value.By rewarding people for what they return, we want to create a world of circular materials.

Norway

Bergen

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Turning apathy into action and waste into resources. 

Carrot

Their software system collects data about waste and helps uncover valuable resources by incentivizing users for more sustainable behavior. Using the carrot, not the whip: the system collects data about who throws what to motivate and reward waste sorting efforts. By rewarding people for what they return, Carrot is creating a world of circular materials through “turning apathy into action and waste into resources.”.