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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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Article / Report

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

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)

Societal Services

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

Utilise bio-based, reusable, non-toxic and non-critical materials

Regenerative materials

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

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

Reuse, repurpose, and recycle waste streams within other industries

Valorise waste streams - open loop

'Inform' increases the overall levels of awareness and builds the necessary skills and knowledge around the circular economy to foster long-term change.

Inform

Conduct research

Do better with less by using and supporting infrastructure, processes and products that are designed to minimize material, water and energy use and waste generation from production to end of use


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Reduce

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

Process waste into valuable industrial inputs or consumer products; distribute processed waste to users.

Process waste and ensure its re-entry into industry at its highest value

Businesses

Communities

Governments

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

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

Impacts

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Industries

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A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policy Instruments

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

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

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

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

City Stakeholders

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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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65% of Quezon City’s electric consumption is for streetlights.
The city government adopted a plan to increase energy efficiency, under a World Bank-sponsored programme.
Growing 2,8-million Quezon City updated its Land Use Plan to balance urban development with the preservation of its green spaces.

The night sky in Quezon City is dotted by blue, orange and white lights that surround the bay of Manila. These streetlights will now be more efficient and consume less energy.
A dynamic and growing city, belonging among other cities to Metro Manila, the national capital of the Philippines, Quezon City is the most populated city in the country. Having been the national capital for almost three decades, Quezon City is also the site of many government offices, including the Batasang Pambansa Complex, which is the seat of the House of Representatives.
The city is one of the beneficiaries of World Bank’s three-year Carbon Financing Capacity Building Programme (CFCB) in Emerging Cities of the South and in ECOS (Ecology, Economy and Social Responsibility). The aim of the programme is to assist cities in industrialized and developing countries to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the effects of climate change.
As part of a comprehensive attempt to drive sustainable urban development, the local government has chosen as its CFCB project “Energy Efficiency from Streetlighting”. Streetlights constitute almost 65% of the city’s annual electric consumption with an average monthly billing of $615,000. The administration plans to establish baseline data on energy efficiency and emission reduction from the use of LED technologies, reducing electric consumption (which means less costs and less CO2 emissions).
Quezon’s administration acknowledges that balancing urban development with the preservation of green spaces and improvement of quality of life is a crucial challenge for a 2.8-million-people city. With this idea in mind, the city government updated its Comprehensive Land Use Plan, adopting the modern trend towards balanced, mixed-use communities and recognizing the need to maintain environmentally protected zones especially around the city’s reservoir. Local ordinances were also passed, prescribing standards for the design, construction and retrofitting of buildings in the city, and requiring all new buildings and housing construction in Quezon City to devote at least 30% of their roof area to plants and trees. It also launched an improved waste management and reduction plan, aiming at cutting in half solid waste, the only major city in the Philippines to adopt this measure. Part of the waste is now helping produce clean energy, thanks to the biogas plant located in Payatas. The Biogas Emissions Reduction Project was also registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as the country’s first Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). With revenues from carbon credits, the city government is funding socio-economic and livelihood programs for the Payatas community.
Due to its exposure to tropical cyclones and flooding, Quezon City and Metro Manila as a whole are threatened by climate change. Typhoon Glenda, in 2014, was the last to wreak havoc, causing death and destruction. Floods are becoming a familiar sight in this area, which prompted the local authority to earmark $3,4 million for flood control. The 21 projects include improvement of drainage systems, construction of ripraps, retaining walls and box culverts.

“The recent string of typhoons and storms has caused the death of many of our citizens, mostly living along the banks of our rivers” said Herbert Bautista, mayor of Quezon City and chairperson of ICLEI South-East Asia. “The best part of our efforts is now focused on protecting our citizens by being prepared to adverse weather conditions driven by climate change and doing our part to ensure climate change is kept under control”

Homes and businesses, natural resources and landscapes, in Quezon City as elsewhere, will be at risk if no agreement is reached between developed and developing countries on how to tackle climate change and who should bear the costs of reducing emissions and mitigating increasing climate instability.
Quezon City is an ICLEI Member and is reporting its carbon emission reduction targets and progress on the carbonn Climate Registry.
 Photo: Jun Acullador, 2008, Araneta Center
  

Dar es Salaam

Tanzania

The International Solid Waste Association is an international network of waste professionals and experts from around the world whose mission is “To Promote and Develop Sustainable and Professional Waste Management Worldwide and the transition to a circular economy.”

International Solid Waste Association (ISWA)

Climate Clean Air Coalition Municipal Solid Waste Initiative (CCAC MSWI)

BORDA Tanzania

<p>As part of the ’Cleanest Mtaa program’ aiming at awareness creation in communities about solid waste management, this study was conducted to get a feeling for the existing situation with respect to solid waste management practices in all eleven sub wards in Makuburi and Mabibo, two of the thirty four wards of Kinondoni municipality in Dar es Salaam city. Within these 11 sub wards, two can apply for the program and be trained and capacitated on solid waste management options and their implementation.</p><p>Finally the report also lists recommendations from the community and will provide an evaluation of the data collected.</p>