Business case

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

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Research and facilitate new technological developments to aid the transition to a circular economy.

Research and Development

Collecting waste from households and businesses by means of refuse bins, wheeled bins, containers, etc., and providing treatment, incineration, materials recovery and reclamation, and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste

Waste Management

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

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 and gathering crop and animal products from land and water through farming, hunting, and fishing

Agriculture

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

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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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         Biobuu Limited is an East African insect company. It was registered in Tanzania after three years of research on the breeding and feeding behaviors of black soldier flies. The company has focused on a factory model that produces high protein chicken and fish feed as well as organic compost. Our model is labor intensive and perfect for Africa. After developing our first factories in Tanzania and Kenya we are now looking to open factories all across the continent.                       The global population is growing at unprecedented rates and is estimated to reach 9.1 billion by 2050. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has stated that in order to sustain such a  population, world food production will need to rise by 70%. Producing meat takes a lot of input. For instance, in order to produce 1 kilogram of meat it takes anywhere between 2 – 7 kilograms of feed depending on the livestock. To grow this feed large swathes of forests are being cleared putting species at risk. In 2010, agricultural production accounted for 70% of the global freshwater consumption with more than half of all this agricultural production going to feed livestock. Studies have shown that at the current rate of consumption, there will not be enough available fresh water to irrigate croplands to feed estimated populations in 2050. Of the feeds currently fed to chickens, pigs and farmed fish, they all require high levels of protein. At the moment that protein comes from Soy or Fish Meal. The inputs to produce both of these consume natural resources and are being consumed at an unsustainable rate.       Soy farming next to the Amazon Rainforest    For soy researchers estimate that millions of hectares of rain-forest has been cleared causing widespread deforestation, species extinction and pollution. According to the WWF, soy is the second largest agricultural driver of deforestation worldwide, behind beef. There was 113 million hectares used to grow the soy produced in 2013/2014, which is an area the size of the UK, France and Germany combined. Around 75% of all that soy was used as animal feedPoultry and aquaculture use fish meal as feed due to its high protein content. In 2012, around 85% of global fish stocks were over-exploited, depleted, fully exploited or in recovery from exploitation. One way around this would be to stop depleting the natural supply of fish and start to farm fish commercially as we do with other livestock. However, the current feed for farmed fish is made up almost entirely of other fish. Some fish require as much as 1-8 kilograms of wild fish to create 1 kilogram of farmed fish.                In Africa, waste is a real challenge for rapidly urbanizing cities. The proper disposal of waste and necessary infrastructure is a heavy cost for cities and residents that they often cannot afford. For this reason African cities find themselves ranked as some of the dirtiest cities in the world with large amounts of waste not being disposed of properly. What is more, the vast amount of waste in African cities is organic waste, over 50% in many places. When organic waste goes to a landfill it releases serious amounts of methane, a very harmful greenhouse gas. According to the UN, rotting food waste accounts for 7% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. We have a solution that can deal with these problems in a more sustainable and cost-effective way. And it all comes down to a fly.                  Insect protein plant to be built in KilifiJuly 19th, 2019An innovative project to introduce insect protein for animal feed into the East African market is under way in Kilifi county. The plant will produce insect protein as well as fertilizer by converting organic waste using the larvae of the black soldier fly.[...]Making money from maggots in TanzaniaMarch 3rd, 2019The black soldier fly effectively converts organic waste in proteins. These proteins are an excellent source for animal feed. The Tanzanian entrepreneur Matthew Haden realized this and has established a successful profitable company based on this concept[...]

Tanzania

Kenya

Biobuu Limited

<p>In certain African cities, there is a huge amount of waste, including a high proportion of organic waste, which releases substantial quantities of methane, a very dangerous greenhouse gas. That is why Biobuu Limited's aim is to reduce organic waste. Biobuu Limited is a Tanzanian insect company that specializes in working with black soldier flies. The company has based its efforts on a factory model that provides high-protein chicken and fish feed, as well as organic compost which gets to be created from these flies. The company currently operates factories in Tanzania and Kenya, with plans to extend to additional countries in the future.</p>

Protein feed for farm animals from organic waste

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This collection is part of Footprints Africa's work to build a comprehensive database of circular economy initiatives in Africa. 

This is a result of the collaboration with the <a href="https://www.acen.africa" target="_blank">African Circular Economy Network (ACEN)</a>, as part of the programme to support the circular economy transition in Africa. Footprints Africa's vision is that businesses can be a force for good at scale. Their mission is to advance sustainable, scalable and inclusive approaches to development of local African economies. Footprints Africa supports SMEs to adopt future-friendly practices, such as those inspired by the circular economy, to address the challenges of growth and create jobs. 

This open-source dataset features well over 500 cases and 200 examples of policies and laws and intent to collect inspiring examples of initiatives from across Africa, in order to inform the global dialogue, which is largely focused on the European and American context. 

To learn more about Africa's initiatives and content to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, visit https://www.footprintsafrica.co/



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Footprints Africa

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Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

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


Strengthen and advance knowledge

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Regenerate

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

Archetypes

CE Materials

Materials

Nace Sectors

Topics

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.

80+ circular strategies for product development 
organised hierarchically into three tiers
with tier 1 and tier 2 based on the Key Elements Framework

DISRUPT

It is 2050.  Full systems change has taken place. This wouldn’t have been possible without the immediate action and radical steps taken from 2020 onwards. Many targets had to be identified in the early 2020s and achieved by 2030 to ensure that the 2050 goal happened in full. A sense of urgency, turbo stakeholder collaboration, supportive government regulation and clear, data driven targets enabled the mindsets and systems change needed to transform to a fully circular textiles ecosystem.

A circular economics model underpins what we have created. It reflects and supports a living organism made up of makers, users and restorers, interacting across vibrant and interconnected networks. Checks and balances, alongside transparency and accountability, ensure a healthy system. Financial, environmental, and social metrics have the purpose of serving communities and the planet. There is shared ownership of profit and loss – across all three metrics – throughout the value chain.

This is what we’ve achieved over the last 30 years:

WCTD Themes

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The Circular City Actions Framework provides urban changemakers with five complementary strategies they can use to start working towards a more circular system. 

The framework is action-based to provide users with concrete strategic directions and showcase the desired outcomes of each strategy. 
The framework consists of five complementary **strategies**, under which **sub-strategies** provide further detail. Finally, each sub-strategy consists of a diversity of tangible **solutions** which are framed in relation to key thematic areas. 

Note: solutions are currently focused on:
- 🍏 **Food systems**
- 🏢  **Built environment**
- 👕📱  **Consumer goods**
- ⚡ **Energy Systems**
- 🚌 **Mobility Systems**
- 💧 **Water Systems**

More thematic areas are coming soon...

'Click through each of the five strategy cards below to explore the framework and circular economy case studies in more depth!'



This framework was developed in collaboration with ICLEI, Metabolic and Ellen MacArthur Foundation with support from the MAVA Foundation. Read more about it [here]( https://circulars.iclei.org/action-framework/). 



Circular City Actions Framework

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An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

Thematic Areas

City 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'

Test Framework

Challenges

Based on the ongoing ISO standardisation process, a taxonomy has been defined under which to cluster indicators to measure circularity. 

ISO Taxonomy

If managed well, the transition to the circular economy will have multiple benefits for the labour market, including the opening up of job opportunities, raising job standards and reducing inequalities through a global redistribution of value. But a positive transition to circularity for work and workers must be underpinned by three pillars: upskilling the workforce, quality of work and inclusive job opportunities. Find out more and explore cases that illustrate these pillars below.

Circular Jobs Initiative Pillars

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A positive transition to circularity for work and workers must be underpinned by three core pillars.

This is a survey that dives into understanding the policy environment around specific circular solutions. 

The survey is divided into five sections, based on the five key elements of the Circular Cities Action Framework. 
Each section asks 2-3 questions to explore which policies may or may not be present within your city to support a transition towards a circular economy. 

You are not alone! Each question provides some practical examples from cities around the world that have adopted a certain policy to support their transition. This can help to compare with your city - is your city doing something similar?

The survey answers should be based on your current knowledge, and not illicit additional research - ! Please make use of the Not sure option as appropriate.


Ganbatte Cities Policy Tracker [Food]

         Biobuu Limited is an East African insect company. It was registered in Tanzania after three years of research on the breeding and feeding behaviors of black soldier flies. The company has focused on a factory model that produces high protein chicken and fish feed as well as organic compost. Our model is labor intensive and perfect for Africa. After developing our first factories in Tanzania and Kenya we are now looking to open factories all across the continent.                          The global population is growing at unprecedented rates and is estimated to reach 9.1 billion by 2050. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has stated that in order to sustain such a  population, world food production will need to rise by 70%. Producing meat takes a lot of input. For instance, in order to produce 1 kilogram of meat it takes anywhere between 2 – 7 kilograms of feed depending on the livestock. To grow this feed large swathes of forests are being cleared putting species at risk. In 2010, agricultural production accounted for 70% of the global freshwater consumption with more than half of all this agricultural production going to feed livestock. Studies have shown that at the current rate of consumption, there will not be enough available fresh water to irrigate croplands to feed estimated populations in 2050. Of the feeds currently fed to chickens, pigs and farmed fish, they all require high levels of protein. At the moment that protein comes from Soy or Fish Meal. The inputs to produce both of these consume natural resources and are being consumed at an unsustainable rate.          Soy farming next to the Amazon Rainforest    For soy researchers estimate that millions of hectares of rain-forest has been cleared causing widespread deforestation, species extinction and pollution. According to the WWF, soy is the second largest agricultural driver of deforestation worldwide, behind beef. There was 113 million hectares used to grow the soy produced in 2013/2014, which is an area the size of the UK, France and Germany combined. Around 75% of all that soy was used as animal feed Poultry and aquaculture use fish meal as feed due to its high protein content. In 2012, around 85% of global fish stocks were over-exploited, depleted, fully exploited or in recovery from exploitation. One way around this would be to stop depleting the natural supply of fish and start to farm fish commercially as we do with other livestock. However, the current feed for farmed fish is made up almost entirely of other fish. Some fish require as much as 1-8 kilograms of wild fish to create 1 kilogram of farmed fish.                     In Africa, waste is a real challenge for rapidly urbanizing cities. The proper disposal of waste and necessary infrastructure is a heavy cost for cities and residents that they often cannot afford. For this reason African cities find themselves ranked as some of the dirtiest cities in the world with large amounts of waste not being disposed of properly. What is more, the vast amount of waste in African cities is organic waste, over 50% in many places. When organic waste goes to a landfill it releases serious amounts of methane, a very harmful greenhouse gas. According to the UN, rotting food waste accounts for 7% of the global greenhouse gas emissions.  We have a solution that can deal with these problems in a more sustainable and cost-effective way. And it all comes down to a fly.                   Insect protein plant to be built in KilifiJuly 19th, 2019An innovative project to introduce insect protein for animal feed into the East African market is under way in Kilifi county. The plant will produce insect protein as well as fertilizer by converting organic waste using the larvae of the black soldier fly.[...] Making money from maggots in TanzaniaMarch 3rd, 2019The black soldier fly effectively converts organic waste in proteins. These proteins are an excellent source for animal feed. The Tanzanian entrepreneur Matthew Haden realized this and has established a successful profitable company based on this concept[...] 

Africa

Kilifi

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Footprints Africa supports SMEs to adopt future-friendly practices, address the challenges of growth and create jobs, using supply chains as a tool for development. 

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<p>Biobuu Limited is an insect company that was established after three years of research into the breeding and feeding behaviours of black soldier flies. The company operates on a factory model, producing high protein chicken and fish feed as well as organic compost.</p>