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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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Policy case

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

Increase Awareness

Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

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

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

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 agricultural products and processing them into food and beverageproducts for consumption

Agri/Food

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

Providing water and sewage services, including water collection and distribution, water treatment systems and sewage treatment facilities

Water and Sewage

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

Providing commercial and consumer financial services, such as lending, credit, financing, banking, asset management, financial exchanges, ratings services, money services, insurance and pension services, etc.

Financial Services

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

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Engage internally to guide employees and facilitate greater knowledge sharing between internal divisions

Internal collaboration

Engaging in discussions with government bodies and policymakers to push for regulations that support the circular economy

Advocacy for circular economy policy

Facilitate discussions and meetings between internal team members to identify circular opportunities

Dialogue with internal stakeholders

Other

Data, knowledge & information sharing

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

Research and Development

'Mobilise' sets the direction of and builds momentum towards long-term change, while also determining how this direction is determined and governed.

Mobilise

Visions and Ambitions

Roadmaps and strategies and targets

Institutional design to enable circularity

Information campaigns

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


Strengthen and advance knowledge

Redesign systems to lay the foundation for circular activities and enable the transition to a circular economy 

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Rethink

High-level changes to policy and practice (such as taxation systems, investment and procurement guidelines and criteria) that disincentivize activities that perpetuate linear economic systems, as well as vision-setting (goals, roadmaps) to catalyze
action on circularity across the city

Eliminate linear incentives and set goals and incentives for circularity

The food system nourishes populations and employs 50% of the global workforce, but:
- it currently drives a quarter of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its greenhouse gas (GHG) production, 
- animal farming alone uses over one-quarter of all land, equivalent to the size of the Americas,
- nearly a quarter of freshwater resources are lost due to rampant food waste, and
- it is the single largest driver of biodiversity loss.

A circular food system must address the whole value chain, from production to consumption to waste management. The four key solutions for the food system are:
- Put healthier, satiating foods first: Prioritise satiating and healthy foods with a lower environmental impact—ideally shifting calories from meat, fish, and dairy towards cereals, fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
- Go local, seasonal, and organic: Prioritise the production and consumption of local, seasonal, and organic produce (sometimes in combination with GMO to reduce pests and disease loss on crops), which can lead to a significantly reduced need for chemical inputs, fuels, and processing services that contribute to environmental impacts.
- Mainstream regenerative agriculture: Scale up agricultural practices that regenerate ecosystems, recirculate nutrients and sequester carbon by design. 
- End avoidable food waste: Minimise food loss and valorise waste following the food waste hierarchy along the supply chain and at the consumer level through better management of transport and storage, more refrigeration and smart planning, and technology at the consumer and food service levels.



🍏 Food Systems

Businesses

Communities

Governments

Current dominant, globalized food systems trigger far-reaching detrimental socioeconomic and environmental effects. As such, they struggle to meet the food demands of a growing population and face external shocks, such as resource scarcity, climate change and health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Local governments are directly or indirectly connected to all stages of the food value chain. For this reason, it is importanto for them to leverage this strategic position and develop an initial and collective vision, setting out transformational targets, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and key action areas and solutions urgently required to transform food systems—from food consumption and production to waste prevention and management.

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🍏  Targets and roadmaps for a circular food system

Redesign systems to lay the foundation for circular activities and enable the transition to a circular economy 

△Rethink

Formulating roadmaps and strategies are important tools to demonstrate political commitment towards a more circular future, as well as align and coordinate pathways of implementation. 

Setting tangible and achievable targets within such strategies can create focused action around particular strategic objectives.

Strategies and roadmaps

Take a look at how some cities have developed a food strategy that spans the full value chain: 


Food strategies and roadmaps

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

Policies

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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

Urban Opportunities

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

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

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]

Al Local Lab organizzato da IPES-Food, gruppo internazionale di esperti, hanno partecipato un centinaio di rappresentanti istituzionali e del terzo settore, ricercatori e agricoltori. In discussione Consiglio metropolitano del cibo, relazioni città-campagna, politiche UE.

      Financing a circular project  Circular Cities Cities as Catalysts Cities as Ecosystems  The City of Milan is known to be a frontrunner in the area of food waste management. With 85% of bio-waste collected, the Italian city has one of the highest capture rates among European cities1. In recent years, the city has been developing projects with the broader ambition of becoming a circularity frontrunner as well. Milan is focussing on food, fashion and design, and resilience of the urban environment as the main sectors for the circular transition.
    While food is an important sector in the economy of the city, it is also one of the most polluting ones, due to the linear way in which food is handled. There are many opportunities to make this sector more circular.
The City of Milan’s Food Policy guidelines  for 2015-2020 focusses on access to food and water, fight against food waste, promoting local consumption, and the creation of a sustainable food system. The guidelines have also resulted in a policy instrument through which restaurants can benefit from tax reductions if they donate their food surpluses to charities or distributors.
In addition, in 2015, Milan created the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact , an international agreement signed by 207 cities from all over the world, with more than 450 million inhabitants. Through the pact, the participants agree that they will develop sustainable food systems to provide food to their people, minimise waste, and conserve biodiversity.
In line with Milan’s food policy, the European OpenAgri  project was started. The project focusses on peri-urban agriculture within the municipality of Milan and serves as a living lab for innovation along the food supply chain. The lab will also promote the development of projects involving SMEs and start-ups. This project was funded by the European Regional Development Fund with a budget of almost EUR 5 million.
Find out more about circular food strategies you can apply in your city here.
Joining circular networks
In recent years, Milan has joined different networks and pilots in European cities that aim to become more circular and sustainable through collaboration. Some examples:
Reflow : as part of this project, pilots were set out in six European cities to understand and transform urban material flows and test circular solutions. For Milan, the pilot focusses on the transition towards a more circular food system through a project called ‘Food Market 2.0’, involving Milan’s municipal covered markets. The project is funded by Horizon 2020.
CE100 network : this network was created by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation  and aims to improve collaboration between governments, cities, universities, and businesses to create insights and new ideas related to the circular economy.
CLEVER Cities : this project aims to create nature-based solutions to address urban challenges in Europe, South America, and China. Specifically for Milan, the plan is to experiment with green infrastructure and encourage shared management and use of spaces.
Sharing Cities : this project develops smart city solutions with high market potential in six cities throughout Europe. For Milan, the focus is on smart mobility and environment. The project received EUR 24 million in EU funding.
Other circular actions in Milan

Besides these projects, Milan contributes to the circular economy in other ways. Being known as one of the main fashion cities of the world, Milan has taken a sustainable turn by hosting the Green Carpet Fashion Awards  during their Fashion Week. This international event celebrated green and circular fashion. Besides an award ceremony, the event was also useful in increasing awareness and knowledge on circular principles in the fashion industry, through the presentation of case studies. Find out more about circular strategies in the textiles industry here.
The municipality launched Milano Plastic Free , which is a campaign to raise awareness among commercial businesses to promote the reduction of the use of packaging and disposable plastics. As part of this initiative, a logo was developed to identify all the ‘Plastic Free’-initiatives carried out in the city.
In addition, the city has created a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan . This plan includes different circular strategies related to mobility, such as car rentals, (electrical) bike sharing, and carpooling. Find out more about ways in which the mobility sector can become more circular here.
The city has also set a Sustainable Energy Action Plan  (PAES), which aims at a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 through the use of renewable sources for energy production. This is coherent with the Paris targets.
Furthermore, the new Urban Development Plan is aimed, inter alia, at combining urban development with the improvement of the environment, envisaging a 4% reduction in soil consumption compared to the previous plan.
Finally, the city is about to launch its Air and Climate Plan  (PAC), a cross-cutting plan offering strategic direction aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving air quality, and adaptation to climate change.
Lessons learnt
Based on Milan’s efforts to become a circular city, the following lessons can be useful for other cities interested in making a circular transition:
Circularity goes beyond good waste management. While recycling and collecting waste is important, circular principles can be applied to many other sectors too. Learn more about how you can apply circular principles to the different sectors here.
When deciding which sectors should be the focus in your city’s circular journey, consider those that have the most economic value but a negative environmental impact and start there. For Milan, these were food and fashion, but they could be completely different in another city’s context. Starting with the most relevant sectors provides a way to continue profiting economically from your sectors, while decreasing their negative impact on the environment.
There are many networks active in Europe or other parts of the world that revolve around circularity. By joining these programmes, cities can share their knowledge on their circular transition and on the set-up of pilot projects.
Contact
Lucia Scopelliti
Head of Economic Planning Unit
Urban Economy and Labour Directorate  

  18 October 2021 by Sarah Wray  The City of Milan and the Republic of Costa Rica are among the first ever Earthshot Prize winners, an initiative founded by Britain’s Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.
Each winner will receive £1 million (US$1.37 million) prize money and a global network of support to scale their pioneering environmental solutions.
The City of Milan, Italy, won the award in the Build a Waste-free World category for its food waste hubs.
As the first major city to enforce a city-wide food waste policy, Milan’s Food Waste Hub programme recovers food from local supermarkets and restaurants and distributes it to citizens in need.
The programme was launched in 2019 with the aim of halving waste by 2030. Today, the city has three Food Waste Hubs, each recovering about 130 tonnes of food per year or 350 kg per day, estimated as the equivalent to around 260,000 meals.
Through the Earthshot Prize, the goal is to scale Milan’s model to other cities.
Other winners
Costa Rica won the Protect and Restore Nature award for its policy of paying citizens to protect the rainforests and restore local ecosystems. Since the programme launched, Costa Rica’s forests have doubled in size.
Takachar, India, won the Clean our Air category for its portable machine to turn agricultural waste into fertiliser so that farmers do not burn it and cause air pollution.
The Revive our Oceans award went to Coral Vita in the Bahamas. Its approach to coral farming of growing coral on land then replanting it in the ocean can grow coral up to 50 times faster than traditional methods and improves coral resilience to the impact of climate change. Through the prize, Coral Vita aims to establish a global network of coral farms to grow a billion corals each year.
The AEM Electrolyser from Enapter was awarded the Fix Our Climate prize. It turns renewable electricity into emission-free hydrogen gas.
Prince William said: “Our five inspirational winners show that everyone has a role to play in the global effort to repair our planet. We need businesses, leaders, innovators, and communities to take action. And, ultimately, we need all of us to demand that the solutions get the support they need. Because the success of our winners is our collective, global Earthshot.” 

 22/10/2021   4' reading time   The city of Milan won the Earthshot Prize, a prestigious international award for the best solutions to protect the environment, thanks to its food waste hubs project.  Deputy Mayor Anna Scavuzzo with Andrea Magarini, the City of Milan’s Food Policy manager The winners of the first edition of the Earthshot Prize were announced by Prince William and Kate Middleton on Sunday 17 October, after having been selected among 750 initiatives from all over the world.  For the award ceremony, the BBC organized a live connection with London from a terrace overlooking the Duomo, Milan’s famous cathedral. The award ceremony was attended by deputy mayor Anna Scavuzzo, together with representatives of all the organizations that helped the city develop its pioneering scheme to combat food waste.   Milan won in the “Build a waste-free world” category, thanks to its neighbourhood food waste hubs, which recover food to give to those most in need.  “Milan is the first major city to enforce a city-wide food waste policy encompassing public agencies, food banks, charities, NGOs, universities and private businesses. And it is working” explained the organizers. “The City of Milan is incredibly honoured and proud to have been chosen as winner of the first-ever Earthshot Prize” commented the Mayor of Milan Beppe Sala. The winners in the other four categories of the award included the Republic of Costa Rica for a project that pays local citizens to restore natural ecosystems, a land-based coral farm in the Bahamas to restore dying coral reefs, a green hydrogen technology developed in Berlin to transform how homes and buildings are powered, and an India-based technology that creates fuel from agricultural waste in a bid to stop crop burning.  Milan’s neighbourhood hubs against food waste were launched in 2017. The goal of the project is to halve food waste by 2030. The hubs collect surplus food from supermarkets and office canteens and then donate it to charities and NGOs, who distribute it to the neediest citizens.. The project is the result of an alliance between the City of Milan, the Polytechnic University of Milan, Assolombarda (an association of local businesses), the Cariplo Foundation and the QuBì Program.  The creation of the first hub, operated by the Food Bank of Lombardy, made it possible to save over 10 tons of food per month, an estimated 260,000 meals equivalent a year, which reached 3,800 people, thanks to the contribution of 20 supermarkets, 4 canteens and 24 other entities.  There are now three food hubs in Milan. The second hub, located in the Lambrate district, was created immediately after the first lockdown in spring 2020, and it is also managed by the Food Bank and with the contribution of AVIS and BCC Milano. The third hub, in the Gallaratese area, is managed by NGO Terre des hommes with the contribution of the Milan Foundation. Two more hubs are due to open by the end of the year in the Corvetto district and in the city center.  The Earthshot Prize, worth £1 million, will be used to strengthen the existing Hubs and open new ones, ensuring their long-term sustainability.   Milan’s long-term goal is to encourage other cities, such as those that are part of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, to replicate the initiative and create their own food waste hubs.  The Earthshot Prize rewards Milan’s commitment towards a more environmentally-friendly urban future. In 2015, after hosting Expo 2015, whose theme was “Feeding the Planet”, Milan adopted its first Food Policy and since then the city has worked to make its food system more equitable and sustainable, while also taking on a global leadership role, promoting collective initiatives such as the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact.   

Milan

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Municipality of Milan

Milan Food Policy involves 10 dimensions: governance, education, waste, access, wellbeing, environment; ecosystem of agriculture; production; finance and commerce. The design of the policy has involved a public consultation among citizens. It has information campaigns focused on promoting healthy and sustainable food habits, better use and conservation of food. Moreover, it supports research institutions in the process of identifying national, european and international funding sources, in the creation of an academic network for sharing knowledge nationally and internationally and in the promotion of partnership between organizations involved on research.Milano won the Earthshot Prize 2021 thanks to its innovative food policy, that aims at halving food waste by 2030. The&nbsp;Earthshot&nbsp;Prize rewards&nbsp;the city’s commitment towards a more environmentally-friendly urban future&nbsp;and its role of global leader in the fight against climate change. Milan’s&nbsp;neighbourhood hubs against food waste&nbsp;were launched in 2017. The goal of the&nbsp;project&nbsp;is to halve food waste by 2030.&nbsp;The hubs collect surplus&nbsp;food&nbsp;from supermarkets and office canteens and then donate it to charities and NGOs,&nbsp;who distribute it to the neediest citizens.

Milan Food Policy

Impact on the quantity or quality of jobs, and shifts in the labour market

Jobs

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Processing and producing food and beverages for consumption

Food and Beverage

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

Use waste as a resource

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

Inform

'Manage' influences the use and function of physical and material elements within the urban environment. 

Manage

'Regulate' changes the rules of the systems to achieve compliance through enforcement. 


Regulate

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

Facilitate cross-collaboration by engaging city departments, industries and businesses on ambitious, closed-loop circular projects.

Support closed-loop systems and cross-sectoral synergies

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

“All the forces in the world are not as powerful as an idea whose time has come.” - Victor HugoChanges in mindset are crucial to facilitating actual system changes in society, and initiatives in schools can stimulate this shift. The city of Milan has promoted a number of campaigns in school canteens over the past few years, for example rescheduling snack times to reduce fruit waste, providing reusable ‘doggy bags’, and instituting recovery schemes to donate surplus school dinners. Such initiatives not only prevent food waste, but introduce children to the topic of food waste, thus reinforcing positive habits at an early age.In Sardinia in 2003, officials were obliged to rethink the food waste system to achieve targets set out in the European landfill directive. At that time, only two out of about 50 municipalities had separate waste collection, and average organic collection rates were less than 4%. To fulfil their legal obligations, Sardinia set up a Regional Programme for Biowaste underpinned by a simple but powerful thought: “while untreated, biowaste is a hazard, but if treated and sorted separately, it could be a benefit for the environment”. The shift in mindset encapsulated by this simple idea is one of the most powerful drivers for transitioning to a less wasteful, more circular system.In a country such as Italy, this idea has its roots in the nation’s proud heritage in produce and cuisine. As Luigi Riccardo from Intesa Sanpaolo, one of the largest banking groups in Italy, observes, “My grandmother would never consider food scraps as ‘waste’ but would see it as important for feeding the earth to grow the next crop.”Supporting policy frameworksWith the correct mindset in place, the next stage is to develop policies and incentives (both ‘push and pull’) to create the conditions that allow concrete measures to be adopted.An example of ‘push’ policy is Sardinia’s biowaste programme, which instituted compulsory separate collection, while at the same time increasing landfill tax for organics to the maximum possible rate. On the ‘pull’ side, a number of regions introduced a system of incentives to reward municipalities with high separate collection rates, and penalise those that lag behind. Municipalities that exceed a threshold rate set slightly above the average receive a rebate, those that fall below pay a surcharge. The whole system is balanced internally, so there are no additional costs. The scheme has so far provided the city of Parma with €710,000 (USD 800,000) in rebates.Financial instruments exist not only for municipalities, but also for individual households. Pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) tariffs comprise a fixed fee component related to household size and a variable amount based on the volume of residual waste. In some regions, there is an additional incentive connected to the variable tariff, discounting households that practise home composting of vegetable waste. This discount can be as much as 30%, in the case of Treviso. The impact of these new tariff systems can be significant, within a few weeks of introducing a PAYT system in the city of Ferrara, collection rates increased from 54% to 85%.There are also various non-policy interventions that municipalities can enact. For example, being transparent with what happens with the organic flows and where benefits accrue. Communicating how the whole system is improving and emphasising the important contribution of individual households to this story, can galvanise citizens to make a greater effort.Community as a catalyst for changeIn many of the Italian regions analysed, grassroots community mobilisation has been an important driver of change. Many policy interventions and technology installations would not have come about without self-organised community groups lobbying authorities to refocus their priorities.For example, in Parma a civil society group ensured that the topic of better collection systems was included in all regional election debates. In Capannori, a primary school teacher called Rossano Ercolini started a grassroots movement called Ambiente e Futuro. A central part of their demands was a waste management plan that addressed pollution concerns. A year later Ercollini, now head of the waste management company, started implementing the community-developed collection system, which after a short time facilitated recycling of over 80% of Capannori’s waste.

Treviso

Parma

Sardinia

Capannori

City of Parma

A number of regions in Italy have significantly increased bio and organic waste separation by transforming their waste collection systems. A group of Italian cities and regions including Milan, Parma, Sardinia, Treviso, and Capannori, within a few years have significantly improved their systems, and in doing so, have saved money, created jobs, and reduced environmental impacts.In the case of Milan, back in 2011, the city started implementing an ambitious scheme to separately collect bio-waste and recycle it back into local soil or use it to make biogas. With 1.4 million inhabitants in an extremely densely populated area, Milan is now one of the leading examples in Europe of how to design and implement an effective system. After a decade of implementation, in 2019 the system collected 95 kg of bio-waste per inhabitant with a contamination rate of less than 5%, whilst the city also had a total municipal waste separate collection rate of 62%.&nbsp;

Bio-waste collection in Italy

Direct and indirect effects that increase revenues or the potential for new revenues, for example from new products, customer segments, partnerships or business models

Revenue Potential

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

Agriculture

Legislation

 Public Procurement

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

Increase efficiency and promote local economic growth by shortening supply chains and connecting local producers to consumers.


Support local low-impact circular economies

The Municipality of Milan and Fondazione Cariplo have taken a bold new strategic approach to support a new food system by developing the Milan Food Policy - a tool to support the city's food industry players as they manage food related challenges.What makes the Milan Food Policy circularThrough local procurement, developing logistics for distributing surplus food, and valorising discarded organic material, Milan is making the most of its food resources while supporting the regeneration of natural systems.The benefitsBy working with local public and private organisations, and supporting innovation, Milan has seen important reductions in food waste and the associated costs. Through awareness raising and capacity building, local organisations involved with food are also able to evolve and benefit from this positive shift.Cities as drivers for change in the food systemThe modern food system has many challenges - it is hugely wasteful, degrades nature, and causes many people to be unhealthy, through both its consumption and production. The consequences are significant. A recent report published by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimated that for every dollar spent on food, society pays the equivalent of two dollars in health, environmental, and economic costs.Cities, through their unique characteristics, assets, and capabilities, could play a key role in changing this. By 2050 more than two-thirds of people will live in cities. The average consumption of food per person tends to be higher in cities due to higher incomes and other factors. Combined, this means that by 2050 it is estimated that 80% of all food will be destined for cities, giving urban food players huge demand power. Cities also accumulate large volumes of valuable food by-products and waste, which if managed effectively can yield many new forms of value for the bioeconomy.For these reasons, cities have great influence to shape the future food system. The ongoing work in Milan is a great example of policymakers realising this potential and creating the important policy foundation to support this transformation.Milan - city of 1.3 million people with a strong food cultureOrigins of the Milan Food PolicyMilan had been engaged in new thinking around food since at least 2006 as the city prepared their successful bid to host the 2015 Universal Exposition. In 2014, in the run up to the exposition, the municipality partnered with Fondazione Cariplo to promote and implement a comprehensive local food strategy - the Milan Food Policy.The first step was to assess the local food system by engaging food experts and stakeholders. A public consultation was launched, involving city departments, universities, businesses, and other organisations, which collaborated to establish the most effective strategy, ultimately selecting five interconnected priorities:Improving access to water and healthy foodMoving to regenerative food productionRaising awarenessMaking the most of foodSupporting scientific researchTo support the initiative, the Milan 2015-2020 Food Policy Guidelines were developed and a food policy office was established to coordinate efforts and monitor progress.Towards a better urban food systemSince the launch, many concrete initiatives have been developed and implemented that build on the foundation of the Milan Food Policy.A local ‘food waste hub’In 2018, research was run between the Politecnico of Milan, which provided modelling and data analysis expertise, and Assolombarda, an umbrella organisation that connects supermarkets, businesses, and canteens. Together with the Milan Food Policy office, they explored the creation of edible food waste in three different neighbourhoods. This research culminated in the launch of a local ‘food waste hub’ located in a municipality warehouse, supported by Fondazione Cariplo (with the actions of the project QuBì) and the logistics required to bring in and redistribute food from private canteens, supermarkets, and street markets.Awareness raisingWorking with Milano Ristorazione, the municipal food agency that manages all school catering in the city, a campaign was run in 85 schools. Pupils in school canteens tend to waste fruit that is served at the end of their lunch, so children were instead encouraged to take their fruit as a mid-morning snack. Children were also provided with reusable doggy bags to take leftover food at the end of the school day. The campaign resulted in a 17% reduction of food waste.Regenerating peri-urban and local soils, and creating biogasMunicipal trucks (many powered by biodiesel) regularly collect surplus food from households, commercial properties, and schools in Milan, and transport it to an anaerobic digestion and composting plant. These organic resources are processed into biogas which is injected into the local gas network, and compost which is used to fertilise peri-urban farmland. Through a number of communication tools such as leaflets, radio, and television, Milan inhabitants were given guidance to encourage separation of different organic and non-organic materials, and by 2018, achieved a source separation rate of nearly 56%. In total for that year alone, approximately 130,000 tonnes of organic resources were processed in this way, avoiding 8,760 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.Fiscal measuresTo further encourage markets, restaurants, private and school canteens, and others, a 20% municipal tax reduction was introduced in 2018 for any organisation that donates to food banks and food charities. Administration of this measure requires the collaboration of the fiscal, environmental, and food policy departments.Procurement of locally sourced food productsAround 100 farms and 800 orchards surround Milan. The Distretto Agricolo Milanese (DAM), is a consortium that brings together over 30 of these farms. Together with the Municipality of Milan, DAM works to support procurement of locally sourced food. For example, the rice served in Milan school canteens is entirely produced by the DAM and to date 19 other horticultural supply chains have connections to local sources of food production, drastically cutting down on transportation and supporting local production.

Distretto Agricolo Milanese (DAM)

The Municipality of Milan works together with the Distretto Agricolo Milanese (DAM), a consortium that brings together over 30 farms surrounding Milan, to support procurement of locally sourced food. For example, the rice served in Milan school canteens is entirely produced by the DAM and to date, 19 other horticultural supply chains have connections to local sources of food production, drastically cutting down on transportation and supporting local production.

Procurement of locally sourced food products


REFLOW

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This collection has been built by a community of passionate researchers, students, and industry professionals as part of <a href="https://worldcirculartextilesday.com/" target="_blank">World Circular Textiles Day</a> (WCTD). 


World Circular Textiles Day takes place every year on 8th October. Our vision is to galvanise the collective ambitions and goals of people, organisations and businesses to reach a fully circular textiles world by 2050. Our mission is to provide a framework for circularity stakeholders to develop and deliver a collaborative, evolving roadmap and to chart circularity’s momentum annually from the 8th of October until 2050.

What does fully circular by 2050 mean?
- Shared textile resources, in the form of products and raw materials, are kept in **continual circulation**.
- Virgin resources are **replaced with circular materials**.
- Dignity, equity, and equality for the **people** involved in all parts of the circular value chain.

We need to know where we stand today to chart how to get to 100% Circularity by 2050. What circular activity is currently happening in the textiles and apparel industry, and where in the world is it happening? The WCTD Collection aims to answer this question by building the world’s largest digital library of circular textiles case studies. 

World Circular Textiles Day is proud to be supported by our 2022-23 Circular Hero Partners:
[Lenzing](https://www.lenzing.com/), [Texaid](https://retailsolutions.texaid.com/), [Bank & Vogue](https://www.bankvogue.com/), [Usha yarns limited](https://ushayarns.com/), [The Conduit](https://www.theconduit.com/), and [Asia Pacific Rayon](https://www.aprayon.com/en/)

## Want to contribute to the WCTD Collection? Sign up and add your circular textiles activities.

World Circular Textiles Day

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Article / Report

Efficiency gains on operations or transactions either through cultural or technological shifts

Productivity

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

Innovation

Scalability

Reduced use and withdrawal of water and rate of recycling and reuse of water

Save Water (SDG6)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Contributing to the improvement of biodiversity including species diversity, total number of protected species, and ecosystem health

Biodiversity

REFLOW was an EU Horizon 2020 innovation action project running from 2019 to 2022, with the aim to increase circularity in European cities. Through REFLOW, the 28 project partners developed a range of solutions to make the material flows more circular within the six pilot cities of Amsterdam, Berlin, Milan, Cluj-Napoca, Paris, and Vejle. The cities' social, environmental, and economic impact was assessed, and a range of solutions enabling the circular transition were developed through active citizen involvement. The project combined the expertise of the project partners spanning municipalities, scientific and research institutions, technology providers, design and grassroot organisations, and small and medium-sized enterprises.