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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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Business case

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

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 transporation equipment and providing services for thetransportation of goods and people

Transportation and Logistics

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

Producing building materials and finished and semi-finished building products for construction

Construction Materials and Products

Producing basic and specialty chemicals, inks, agricultural chemical such as fertilisers and pesticides, plastics including packaging, and rubber

Chemical and Plastic

Using waste materials that have been processed and recycled to produce new products within other industries

Using open loop recycled materials

Designing products of multiple parts that can be easily exchanged

Design for modularity

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

Use recyclables

Innovation-oriented public procurement

Globally, 13% of global resources consumed relate to mobility. This includes transport infrastructure, from roads, to rail, to cycle routes ([Ellen MacArthur Foundation](https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy-opportunity-and-benefit-factsheets)). Virgin materials sourced to build mobility infrastructure often include cement and asphalt, which are responsible for a significant portion of global greenhouse gas emissions (cement—a constituent component of concrete—is responsible for an estimated 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions) ([BBC](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46455844)). 

The materials that are required for the construction of transport infrastructure can be sourced from residual materials, to offset the demand for virgin resources. Construction techniques that utilise residual material are often less intensive in relation to greenhouse gas emissions, and can help to lower the material footprint of mobility infrastructure. A range of residual materials can be used within mobility infrastructure. These can come from conventional materials, such as cycled concrete and other stones and aggregate. As well as other residual materials such as plastics and rubber from end of life tyres. 

Local governments can support the cycling of materials for mobility infrastructure by mandating a certain proportion of recycled material input in tenders for new developments or renovations of existing infrastructure. For example, criteria could stipulate that all residual materials within renovations must be cycled back into the project, for example as aggregate. Alternatively, criteria could stipulate a minimum proportion of material inputs from cycled sources, or ban the landfilling of certain residual materials. Collaboration and engagement with local businesses can help local governments to identify the most appropriate criteria that the local market is able to satisfy, and support the most effective transition towards a more circular economy. 


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🚌  Cycled materials for mobility infrastructure

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

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

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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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    A new bike path in the Dutch city of Zwolle is made from the equivalent of 218,000 recycled plastic cups. KWS/Total/Wavin   
A new 100-foot track in the Dutch city of Zwolle is the world’s first bike path made almost entirely out of recycled plastic, containing the equivalent of 218,000 plastic cups or 500,000 plastic bottle caps. The plastic road is the latest example of the growing shift among cities and businesses toward a circular economy, which requires reusing products and producing no waste.
The designers of the new bike path in Zwolle — Dutch engineering firm KWS, pipe maker Wavin, and French oil major Total — claim the road is two to three times more durable than traditional asphalt roads and has the potential for drastically reducing the amount of plastic waste that ends up in landfills and oceans. “This first pilot is a big step towards a sustainable road made of recycled plastic waste,” the path’s inventors, Anne Koudstaal and Simon Jorritsma, said in a statement.
The plastic track is a prefabricated, modular design, allowing for quick and easy installation. It is filled with sensors that will monitor the durability of the road, including tracking temperature and the number of bike trips. The path also has cavities to divert and store excess stormwater. A second plastic section of bike path will be installed in the Dutch city of Giethoorn in November.
In recent years, engineers across the globe have been developing innovative second uses for roadways, from building bridges out of recycled plastic to opening solar-paneled motorways.


Zwolle

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KWS 

Gemeente Zwolle

<p>A new bike path in the Dutch city of Zwolle is the world’s&nbsp;to be made almost entirely out of recycled plastic. The plastic path is the latest example of the growing shift among cities and businesses&nbsp;towards a circular economy, which requires reusing products and producing no waste. The path was developed by KWS, a leading Dutch asphalt producer. The road sections are prefabricated and modular, can be constructed in a matter of weeks and require very little maintenance, reducing future costs and road closures.</p>