Business case

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

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

Enacting measures that optimise water use

Water efficiency

Managing and enriching biological products such as soil, land, etc.

Management, enrichment

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

Use recyclables

Collect organic waste generated by households and related businesses for use in, for example, composting and anaerobic digestion facilities.

Collect organic

Wastewater (blackwater and water from industrial processes) can be treated and reclaimed for agricultural and industrial purposes. Moreover, depending on economic factors, wastewater treatments can be adopted for supplying domestic freshwater. 

Use wastewater

Measures to drain accumulating rainwater from rooftops, roads or other public surfaces and channel it into containers for multipurpose use. These include watering plants and crops, as an input into manufacturing processes, the establishment of public water features, or the introduction back into plumbing systems, Uses may include the application of filtration and treatment systems when needed. 

Manage rainwater

In the context of cities, regenerating ecosystems refers to the active protection of native habitats or the conservation and restoration of natural habitat analogues. Examples: reforestation and afforestation in urban contexts, protection of birds and local wildlife, management of green spaces, and removal of waste and plastic (or other anti pollution measures).

Regenerate ecosystems

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

Urban Opportunities

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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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 In Amsterdam, a decentralised alternative has been developed for an improved separate sewer system. That alternative is not only cheaper; the cleaner effluent means that it is also better.
In the project on Erasmusgracht, rainwater is discharged into a separate sedimentation reservoir in the canal, after which it passes through the helophyte filter. It is subsequently discharged into the canal.
The pilot project shows that the effluent from the sedimentation reservoir alone is better than that of improved separate sewers. In the sedimentation section, suspended particles settle, with the heavy metals bound to them. The subsequent treatment in the helophyte filter further improves the quality of the effluent. The helophyte filter serves primarily to remove the organic nutrients nitrogen and phosphates from the water.
This decentralised facility has also proved itself to be considerably more efficient in terms of cost as well. In the same situation, realising improved separate sewers would be over 50% more expensive over a ten-year period.
 © atelier GROENBLAUW
Once the pilot period revealed the solution to be more attractive for both environmental and financial reasons than realising an improved separate sewer system, opMAAT created a design that is also open to locals. That design was completed in 2005.
The two oval helophyte filters seal the sedimentation reservoir off from Erasmusgracht. The helophyte filters are lined by rock-filled gabions. The helophyte filters are open to the public and a bench has been placed by them. A sign on the bank explains the purpose and workings of the system.
The conclusion is that using a helophyte filter with a sedimentation reservoir as a peripheral facility is also an attractive alternative financially. Another benefit of this system is that it is not necessary to break open a series of streets. The space required might present an objection, although this system in fact demonstrates that it is easy to incorporate aesthetically and so enhances the quality of the surrounding area. Realising only a sedimentation reservoir means that the costs and the space required can be reduced even further. [Dijk, 1999] [Pötz et al., 2009]
Literature 

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Municipality of Amsterdam

opMAAT

<p>In Amsterdam, a decentralised alternative has been developed for an improved separate sewer system. That alternative is not only cheaper; the cleaner effluent means that it is also better. In the project on Erasmusgracht, rainwater is discharged into a separate sedimentation reservoir in the canal, after which it passes through the helophyte filter. It is subsequently discharged into the canal. The pilot project shows that the effluent from the sedimentation reservoir alone is better than that of improved separate sewers. In the sedimentation section, suspended particles settle, with the heavy metals bound to them. The subsequent treatment in the helophyte filter further improves the quality of the effluent. The helophyte filter serves primarily to remove the organic nutrients nitrogen and phosphates from the water. The two oval helophyte filters seal the sedimentation reservoir off from Erasmusgracht. The helophyte filters are lined by rock-filled gabions. The helophyte filters are open to the public and a bench has been placed by them. A sign on the bank explains the purpose and workings of the system.</p>