This collection is being created to regroup all case studies related to the packaging industry (CAT purpose)

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Packaging collection

Business case

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

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 transporation equipment and providing services for thetransportation of goods and people

Transportation and Logistics

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

Processing and producing food and beverages for consumption

Food and Beverage

Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles

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

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

Industry collaboration

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

Customer / consumer collaboration

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Engage with the local community where facilities or offices are located

Community collaboration

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

Alternative bio-based materials and inputs

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

Renewable energy, fuels

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

Open loop collection

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

Cross-industry projects, pilots

Working together with customers to jointly create products fit for them

Co-creation

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

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

Joint product development

Implementation of strategies to collect recyclable waste in order to make it accessible and available to be used as an input in industrial processes (big or small). These are door-to-door collection (higher recovery rates but more costly intensive), drop-off schemes (cheaper but less effective, more common in cities with high housing density), or a combination of the two, and their corresponding incentive schemes. 

Collect recyclables

Collection of waste arising from commercial and industrial actors

Collect non residential

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

These countries are home to around a quarter of the global population, yet consume over one-third (34%) of raw materials. Shift countries’ material footprint per capita is 4.6 times that of Build countries (largely due to the overconsumption of consumer goods imported from Grow counties) and 1.6 times that of Grow countries.

These are high-income countries in the Global North, as well as in the Gulf, Australia, and Oceania. Examples include:
- Member States of the EU
- the US
- Japan
- the UK
- Canada
- Argentina, ...

While much of their infrastructure is already built, they still contribute heavily to the overshoot of planetary boundaries: they contribute 42% of climate change, 27% of nitrogen, 18% of phosphorus, 16% of freshwater use and 38% of land use change.

To find out what country profile your country belongs to, explore [this interactive story](https://circularity-gap.world) and search for your country on the final map.  


Shift

Business

Local government

Food losses and waste

Zero waste packaging

Healthy, planetary diets

Impacts

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Industries

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Nace Sectors

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

Whilst no two countries are the same, there are still obvious similarities between some of them, with discernible development patterns and parallels in evidence. Common problems and shared solutions help place unique country identities and individual issues in context.

Whilst this classification is far from clear-cut and exhibits some overlap, it does underline how the discourse on transitioning to a circular economy needs to account for both differences and commonalities, if we are to arrive at a more strategic and instructive analysis. It also allows to highlight a set of key themes that are likely to be central to the countries that fall under the respective profiles. 

Country profiles (Build, Grow, Shift)

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A framework to distinguish between different country profiles and their circular transition needs.

Browse case studies by type of implementing stakeholder.

Implementing stakeholders

In a circular economy:

* Food is produced regeneratively and, where possible, locally; 
* Biomass is optimally used—from agricultural by-products to manure, rainwater or used water; 
* Food losses and waste and packaging waste are designed out entirely; 
* Healthy, planetary diets are promoted and easier to access; and 
* Environmental and economic benefits are balanced with benefits to people and animals.

This definition builds on those of the [Ellen MacArthur Foundation](https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/cities-and-circular-economy-for-food), [Wageningen University](https://www.wur.nl/en/Dossiers/file/Circular-agrofood-system.htm), the [Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy](https://pacecircular.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/circular-economy-action-agenda-food_0.pdf ) (PACE), as well as Circle Economy’s own work in analysing the climate mitigation potential of [circular food interventions](http://circularity-gap.world/2021).

Explore the different themes under this definition below.

Circular food themes

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Explore different themes under the concept of 'circular food'

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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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Living Lab is an open user-driven innovation ecosystem that integrates public and private, research and innovation activities in communities.[1] In the urban context, these living labs enable early and continuous involvement of users for co-creation and experimentation of solutions addressing the challenges of climate change, resilience and urban sustainability.[2], [3] Living Labs can support stakeholders in translating specific strategies into actionable implementation plans and associated financing strategies, in order to favor the transition of cities towards circular practices.[4] [1] Leminen S., Westerlund M., Nyström A., (2012). Living Labs as Open-Innovation Networks. Technology Innovation Management Review, 2(9), p. 6-11, Talent First Network (Carleton University). [2] Voytenko, Y., McCormick, K., Evans, J., & Schliwa, G. (2016). Urban Living Labs for sustainability and low carbon cities in Europe: Towards a research agenda. Journal of Cleaner Production, 123, 45–54. [3] Schaffers H., Cordoba M., Hongisto P., Kallai T., Merz C., Rensburg, J. (2007) Exploring Business Models for Open Innovation in Rural Living Labs. [4] European Commission. 2017. Cities as Living Labs - Increasing the impact of investment in the circular economy for sustainable cities. Available online via: https://ec.europa.eu/research/openvision/pdf/rise/cities_as_living_labs.pdf



After making great strides in the field of circularity for years, electronic music festival DGTL is taking a crucial next step during its upcoming eighth edition. As a pioneer in the field of innovation and sustainability, DGTL has created a circular blueprint that can be applied to both a festival and a city. DGTL Amsterdam, which kicks off the festival season on April 11th and 12th at the NDSM Docklands, is, therefore, the world’s first electronic music festival that pursues full circularity. The DGTL sustainability program has been running since 2013 and has been aimed from the outset to close cycles in the areas of energy, water & sanitation, food, commodities (waste) and mobility. As the aim this year is to close the entire DGTL circle, organisers have deemed the term ‘CYCLE’ their overarching theme for the 2020 edition. DGTL will close the cycles for a number of on-site systems, including energy, resources, water and sanitation. Of course, DGTL remains first and foremost a music festival, and for years have been working with a sustainable way of programming, combining international headliners with local talent. With over 65 artists spread out over seven stages, DGTL focuses on deepening and broadening the music line-up. For the broader audience, the Modular and AMP stages create a real festival vibe. Connoisseurs and purists can find their way to the techno stage Generator or the more underground-focused Filter. An increasingly prominent part of the program is set up for live performances on the large LIVE stage. View the full line-up at https://dgtl.nl/artists/line-up.  COLLABORATION WITH THE CITY OF AMSTERDAM It’s entirely feasible to view a festival as a temporary miniature version of a community. People work and consume, move, eat and sleep. Much like in a community there are all kinds of different flows such as money, energy, food, exchange of knowledge, water and creativity. For this reason, DGTL sees its festival terrain as a living lab for circular innovation in neighbourhoods and cities. By entering into partnerships with, among others, the City of Amsterdam and the Central Government, the festival takes on urban challenges on themes such as the energy transition and a new more sustainable form of sanitation. ENERGY NEUTRAL With regard to energy, the objective this year is simple: during show days, energy consumption must come entirely from renewable sources. This means from sun, wind or other inexhaustible sources. The City of Amsterdam has invested in the event facilities at the NDSM Docklands; for example, the construction of additional power boxes has increased access to the main power grid. This means that all energy-demanding parts of the festival – such as bars, lighting and the food court – can simply use the sockets on the NDSM Docklands for their power supply. DGTL’s energy system will be completely energy-neutral and emission-free during show days and the festival is parting ways with traditional diesel generators. FROM URINE TO WATER, FROM POO TO COMPOST DGTL has also started a pilot together with the City of Amsterdam, researchers, toilet suppliers and processors to realize a circular sanitary system at the event. Urine is converted into (gray) water and faeces are processed into compost. DGTL hopes that this pilot offers a blueprint which neighbourhoods, cities and the music and events industry can learn from. PLANT-BASED MENU After the introduction of a meat-free food court in 2016, in recent years DGTL has moved towards a menu consisting of rescued food and imperfect products. This year DGTL is taking a step further by offering a fully plant-based (vegan) menu put together by a select group of chefs. MOBILITY Another important spearhead is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as a result of mobility movements. By far the largest part of DGTL’s greenhouse gas emissions is caused by the travels of visitors. Artists’ flights, transport of suppliers and the use of machines during the festival build and dismantling process also produce emissions through burning fossil fuels. DGTL is closely looking at ways to make mobility (visitors, suppliers, artists) as efficient and sustainable as possible. Regarding the fuel used for the machinery used during the set-up and breakdown of the event, DGTL will switch completely from diesel to biodiesel this year. With this, the festival reduces the CO2 emissions in that area by 89 per cent. This year, DGTL also focuses on making travelling by train attractive for both national and international visitors. The festival offers special ticket deals, promoting national and international train transport when purchasing a ticket for DGTL Amsterdam. DGTL aims to direct as many visitors as possible towards travel by train instead of flight travel.


 World-renowned electronic music festival, DGTL welcomes nearly 40,000 visitors to the NDSM-Docklands in Amsterdam North every year. Festivals of this scale demand immense resources and have the potential to produce tons of damaging waste; but DGTL Amsterdam is showing the festivals industry that this does not have to be the case. Confronting the unsustainable principles of the current festival model, DGTL is striving to become the world’s first circular festival by 2020. As part of its constant search for the newest technological innovations, the DGTL Revolution movement works to reduce waste, lower carbon emissions, and increase sustainability awareness amongst its visitors. And its efforts are not going unnoticed: in late 2017, DGTL was voted Amsterdam’s most innovative and sustainable SME (small/medium-sized enterprise).  In 2017, Metabolic was commissioned by DGTL to map out the festival’s material and waste flows, transition from waste management to resource management, and prioritize impact hotspots for future editions. Now, with six editions across three continents, we team up with DGTL again, to map not only material and waste flows, but also energy and water flows. Using this data, DGTL is able to answer some key questions about where the festival should focus in order to achieve a circular state, and continue its exemplary efforts in bringing sustainability to the forefront of the festivals industry What is a circular festival? The circular economy essentially requires us to design an economic system that results in the cycling of all resources at high value, similarly to what we see in nature. One way of realizing this is designing products for reuse and recycling at the end of their life cycles; this prevents products and components from being downcycled (e.g. using broken concrete as filler) or mixed with other material flows in such a way that they can only processed as mixed waste instead of pure resource steams. On the one hand, making DGTL a circular festival comes down to minimizing waste as much as possible. On the other hand, it crucial to separate and recycle the waste produced at the highest possible value. The cleaner the waste is delivered, the more chance the waste processor will cycle the resources at a higher quality.  But circularity is much more than just recycling materials, and Metabolic’s definition of a circular economy goes beyond only materials and waste: it is a ‘new economic model for addressing human needs and fairly distributing resources without undermining the functioning of the biosphere or crossing any planetary boundaries.’ What this means is that the festival should also aim to use renewable energy, be resilient, and structurally support key parameters of planetary health such as biodiversity, health and wellbeing, and culture and society. Festivals can make critical choices regarding location, accessibility, mobility options, catering, beverages, and power supply to have a positive influence not only on the local environment, but also to avoid embodied impacts in the form of C0₂ emissions, land and water use. Metabolism of DGTL After getting a partial preview of DGTL’s metabolism in 2017, we were eager to map DGTL’s full metabolism in 2018. Of course, even with fenced-off boundaries, you must define your scope clearly. For DGTL 2018, we quantified the flow of materials, energy, and water on the festival terrain, the different kinds of environmental impacts these flows are associated with, and the carbon footprint of artist and visitor travel. The method we use here is called “Material Flow Analysis” (MFA), which is always depicted as a Sankey-diagram and is read from left (inputs) to right (outputs), which helps to visualize the different resource flows and their sizes. The lines in the infographic are scaled to represent the total mass of the resource flows consumed, reused, or disposed of at DGTL. Since some flows are significantly bigger than others there are some exceptions to the scaling rule, such as the representation of water flows, which have been scaled down. Every resource flow is inherently linked to ecological impacts – both positive and negative. Red callouts on the infographic point out selected areas of high environmental impact, while the green callouts present possible opportunities associated with the different resource flows. We consider the data in the context of these impacts and briefly discuss the challenges these imply for DGTL’s activities in the embodied impact analysis. Metabolism overview Click to expand.Figure 1: DGTL metabolism overview. From sustainability pioneers to circularity champions This year, DGTL radically increased its efforts to address some of its sustainability shortfalls from the year before. A number of fundamental changes to the set-up and operation of the festival have had significant impacts on its circularity performance. Resource Street At DGTL, waste becomes the resources for new products. As such, they have moved away from waste collection areas, which are typically tucked away behind- the- scenes, to a “Resource Street”, which is central for all visitors to see. Consisting of a recycle hub and pyrolysis installation that turns bottle caps into oil for new plastic, the Resource Street allows visitors to discover the value of their own waste and change the narrative from “waste as a problem” to “resources as a solution”. Circular food court This year, DGTL launched the first ever “circular food court”, a zero-waste initiative which garnered the festival a lot of media attention. The newly designed food court is a powerful alteration to how the festival functions. Its primary goal is to eliminate waste produced for the food court: food waste and disposables. The EcoCreation composting machine enables this ambition by converting all food waste and biodegradable disposables into usable compost within 24 hours. As a result, DGTL produced virtually zero food court waste this year. Figure 2: DGTL demolition waste reduction from 2017 to 2018. Volunteer engagement DGTL stepped up its volunteer process this year. Volunteers were expertly scheduled, managed, and distributed, with clear tasks and dedicated teams. They picked up terrain litter, ensuring it was recycled where possible, and separated all consumer waste, resulting in recyclable monostreams and actionable insights for future editions. Photo by DGTl Hard cup rotation system In 2017, we saw that the most waste from festival goers originated from food and drink packaging. Hard cups were introduced to DGTL a couple of years ago to combat the growing plastic waste problem on festival grounds. The system asks festival goers to pay a deposit for their cup, which incentivises them to return it instead of throwing a single-use cup on the ground after use. As the system was better communicated this year than in previous years, it offered greater success rates in decreasing plastic waste. With the hard-cup and biodegradable disposable successes, DGTL visitors cut their waste in half from last year. So much so that in 2018, the average Dutch festival goer produced seven times more waste than a DGTL visitor (See Figure 3). Design for disassembly One of the biggest success stories of DGTL 2018 was one the average visitor wouldn’t see: design for disassembly. Last year, DGTL produced just under 10 tonnes of demolition waste, mainly from stages and decorations that were built in a “linear way” (take, make and waste the material). This year, due to mandatory reuse regulations, design for disassembly, and strict enforcement, DGTL decreased its demolition waste by 86%. The significant reduction is not only impressive, but also shows the autonomous nature of festivals and how a focused, dedicated team can make true impact happen in just one year. Figure 3: Data on overall festival waste is limited. Although it is known that the average Dutch festival goer produces 2.33 kg of waste, this statistic also includes waste that may or may not end up recycled (Green Deal, 2015). To aid comparison, this infographic assumes total waste (including recycled materials) produced by DGTL’s 30,000 visitors for the entire festival (0.77 kg per visitor in 2017 and 0.37 kg per visitor in 2018). Embodied impact analysis To gain an understanding of how some of the material, energy, and water flows through DGTL rank on different kinds of impacts, we evaluated the major flow categories on three important indicators: embodied land use (ha), water use (m3), and CO₂ emissions (in kg of CO₂-equivalents). By embodied impacts, we refer to the land use, water use, and carbon dioxide emitted during all life cycles of the material, such the manufacture, transport, construction, and disposal. From this analysis, we can also get a glimpse of the magnitude of DGTL’s indirect impacts – effects occurring along the supply chains of all the products that DGTL consumes. These points of evaluation serve as a filter to highlight which areas of DGTL’s resource footprint are likely to be contributing most to bringing us towards environmental tipping points. Aluminium, steel, and electronic equipment were identified as the most problematic in terms of land use, water use, and C0₂ emissions. Although high in impact, most of these resource use hotspots can be drastically diminished by effective reduction, reuse and recycling policies. What’s next? Though DGTL is clearly one of the world’s most sustainable and technologically advanced festivals, there is still a road ahead for it to become fully circular. DGTL is a frontrunner in modular and flexible design, opting for reusable and recyclable materials wherever possible. However, the issue of toxicity also needs to come to the forefront. Building with wooden pallets, for example, could expose people to methyl bromide, a highly toxic pesticide known to cause acute lung injuries and chronic neurological effects. DGTL’s pioneering design for disassembly has already significantly reduced demolition waste, but the 1.3 tonnes that remained could be eliminated next year with even stricter enforcement. The amount of residual waste (7.5 tonnes) remained stagnant from 2017 to 2018, showing little innovation in its reduction. To inform this reduction, further analysis of both the festival’s procurement and consumer waste behaviour should be executed at future editions.  DGTL is indeed revolutionizing the festival industry by developing a business model that is inherently circular and leading the way for other festivals to follow suit. Based on continued commitment and rigorous execution, DGTL’s path to 100% circularity in 2020 remains attainable. Which leads us to the next question: can DGTL establish itself not only as the world’s first circular festival, but also as its first regenerative festival? 

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DGTL

<p>The DGTL festival in Amsterdam aims to be the first fully circular festival in the world. DGTL considers its festival terrain as a living lab for circular innovation in neighbourhoods and cities and partners with the City of Amsterdam and the Central Government to take on urban challenges—from food, mobility and waste to energy and water—to demonstrate best practices and to trial new innovations. [1] [2]</p>