Business case

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)

Providing public and private education and support services at any level or for any profession, and governmental and public administration services, including judicial, regulatory, and legislative activities, taxation, defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs and the administration of government programmes

Education and Government Services

Processing and producing food and beverages for consumption

Food and Beverage

Transforming waste products, materials for reuse within other industries

Open loop upcycling

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

Cross-industry projects, pilots

Make collected and sorted recyclables available for use by citizens, small businesses up to large scale industrial processes. 

Use recyclables

Collect organic waste generated by households and related businesses for use in, for example, composting and anaerobic digestion facilities.

Collect organic

Locally produced food has to travel shorter, which means less fuel is consumed and less greenhouse gases are generated. Moreover, buying locally produced food helps local farmers and markets and creates more jobs in the local businesses. 


Produce locally

Recover and collect surplus food products that might otherwise be wasted for distribution to people.


Redistribute surplus 

Derive chemicals and fuels from organic waste matter, for example, wasted fats, grease and oils can be used for biodiesel production. Food waste such as corn starch and sugar cane can be used for PLA (Polylactic Acid) to replace plastic packaging, liquid fats and solid meat products can be used as raw materials in the rendering industry (animal food, cosmetics, soap, etc.).


Derive fuel and materials

Other

Impacts

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Industries

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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

Urban Opportunities

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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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We strive to run our brewery in the most sustainable way possible, focusing hugely on the circular economy that is an alternative to the traditional linear economy of take, make and dispose. The circular economy aims to keep resources in circulation as long as possible, extracting the maximum value from them as well as recovering and regenerating products and materials. In simple terms, making good the phrase “One man’s rubbish is another man’s gold”  In 2016 we partnered with Aulds the Bakers to pioneer a beer made from their morning bread rolls. The challenge was to develop a tasty beer while using a circular economy model, by using a product that would otherwise have been wasted. This was an arduous task, met with optimistic enthusiasm from our brewers who relish a challenge. After much trial and tribulation, varying malt ratios, hop strains and timings, Hardtack was born and we loved it! The indication we were on the right track was when Hardtack won a bronze medal in the Scotland Region SIBA awards ahead of many larger, longer-established brands. We also clinched a Commendation at the Vibes Awards for their Circular Economy initiative, the first time a brewery has featured in this prestigious event.We also use our own waste in a circular manner. Our spent grains and bread that result from the mash goes to a local farm as cattle feed and the hops are used as mulch by a local gardening club. Where possible, heat is recovered from the brewing process using a heat exchanger and retained for the next batch. A local artisan baker (who already uses our dark beer, ‘Fathom’ in their chocolate gateaux) is experimenting with our spent grain to produce a high fibre loaf, which could fulfil some special dietary requirements. We are also working on other uses of this spent grain including the creation of snack bars.In addition to this, we are working hard to reduce our packaging footprint as to zero. For example, instead of using plastic can connectors that far too often end up in the ocean damaging sea life, we are collaborating on an alternative made out of a biodegradable plastic derived from prawn shells. In Scotland, there is a huge surplus of prawn shells resulting from the seafood industry and we are hoping to utilise these left over shells to create a sustainable and harmless can connector which will not be left floating around our oceans for years to come, but which instead will become part of the food chain.

The City of Glasgow is on the road to becoming one of the world's first circular cities. The city has taken its first steps in creating a stronger more sustainable economy by completing the Circle City Scan. Commissioned through a partnership between Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, Zero Waste Scotland and Glasgow City Council, an analysis of the city’s material flows was executed by Circle Economy. This pioneering study of Glasgow’s economy, identified leading industries through which the city’s economy can become more ‘circular’ and defined implementation strategies and opportunities for the region’s business community. The goal of the Circle City Scan is to pinpoint areas in which the city of Glasgow can benefit from new collaborations, create market opportunities and increase profits, while reducing the city’s environmental impact. The resulting report highlights sectors in which circular business models can be applied and specifies strategies to accomplish the practical and scalable implementation of these circular solutions.‍

Glasgow

Jawbrew

Jaw Brew offers the first ever Scottish beer to be made from leftover bread has been created using unsold morning rolls in a bid to reduce food waste in Glasgow. Hardtack beer by Jaw Brew was born thanks to a collaboration with Aulds the Bakers, set up by Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and Zero Waste Scotland. Besides using waste as an input product, Jaw Brew also uses its own waste in a circular manner. The spent grains and bread processing by-products go to a local farm as cattle feed and to a local baker to produce a high fibre loaf, while the hops are used as mulch by a local gardening club. Where possible, heat is recovered from the brewing process and retained for the next batch. In addition, they are working hard to reduce their packaging footprint to zero, collaborating on an alternative biodegradable plastic packaging derived from prawn shells. This case was a successful and practical result of the work that Circle Economy and the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce developed together to accelerate the transition to a circular economy in Glasgow. Read more at: