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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

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)

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

Communities

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

Use waste as a resource

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

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

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

Manage

Use digital, online platforms and technologies that provide insights to track and optimise resource use, strengthen connections between supply chain actors, and enable the implementation of circular models



Incorporate digital technology

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

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

Inform

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

Increase Awareness

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


Strengthen and advance knowledge

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

Governments

Infrastructure

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

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

Thematic Areas

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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Today, International Earth Day, the campaign Porto Orgânico kicks off in the city of Porto with the outlining goal of extending the selective collection of organic waste in Porto housing areas. This programme incorporates approximately 60% of the city’s population, and the collection of circa 7 thousand tons/year of organic waste.This collection will be implemented in Porto, in areas of high population density (up building), with the setting up of over 500 proximity bins, which offer access control by electronic identification card, alongside the distribution of over 60 thousand 7 litre capacity containers in the housing areas defined by the Project. Moreover, four natural gas driven cars were purchased to carry out this specific waste collection.Collected waste is sent to organic valorisation, thus transforming into organic compound (Nutrimais), which is used as a natural fertilizer with various purposes, but mainly biological agriculture.In line with its mission’s sustainability principles, Porto Ambiente ensured the financing of the implementation of such project through the Sustainability and Efficiency Operational Programme (POSEUR) and also through the “CityLoops” project, financed by H2020.It is worth recalling that it’s been over a decade now that Porto promotes the selective collection of non-domestic food waste, namely in restaurants, cafés, canteens and hotels, which covers circa 1000 commercial establishments. 

In 2018, Porto Ambiente, the municipal company in charge of waste collection and cleaning in the city of Porto, implemented the door-to-door selective collection, including food waste, in a housing area of the city that covers 2000 households.The expansion of bio waste selective collection is a priority by the Municipality of Porto regarding urban waste management, which adds to the increased sustainability of the system, in line with Porto Circular 2030, with the city taking firm steps towards a more sustainable and ambitious city that fights climate change.The implementation of this project involves an awareness and communication campaign in the Municipality which features a strong digital component and the collaboration of well-known personalities in the city, who have not hesitated to embrace this project.+ Info at https://organico.portoambiente.pt/


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Porto

Municipality of Porto

Porto set up of over 500 proximity bins (complemented by a Smart Collection System tool that allows every container to be identified and located) in areas of high population density in order to expand its biowaste selective collection. The project offers access control by electronic identification card, alongside the distribution of over 60,000 7-litre-capacity containers in the housing areas. This programme incorporates approximately 60% of the city’s population, and the collection of near 7,000 tons/year of organic waste. Awareness and communication campaigns are also part of this project.

Expanding and enhancing biowaste collection system

Create and support online platforms and physical spaces for sale, sharing and exchange of spaces, items and materials.

Facilitate second-hand markets, sharing & exchange platforms

Use longer and more often by extending and intensifying use of existing resources, products, spaces and infrastructure

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Reuse

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

Incorporate extended use in project planning phases; create or update city policies to allow for extended use.


Design and regulate for separation and recovery

Producing building materials and providing services to create residential and non-residential infrastructure and real estate


Construction and Infrastructure

The built environment, including housing, commercial buildings, and the necessary infrastructure for mobility, is essential for our livelihoods, but:
- the extraction of minerals used to produce construction materials is responsible for a quarter of global land use change,
- approximately 40% of global GHG emissions can be attributed to buildings’ construction, use and demolition, and
- construction and demolition processes drive nearly one-third of all material consumption. 

Making the built environment more circular must prioritise a heavy reduction in material use—while also closing the loop on materials and bringing secondary and renewable material choices to the fore. Our four key solutions for the built environment are:
- Make the most of what already exists: Make the most of existing materials by reusing, repurposing, upgrading and renovating following circular approaches. Where new builds are needed, use secondary materials and be as efficient as possible with urban planning solutions that follow circular design principles so that buildings can be reused, repurposed, and easily disassembled in the future.
- Be as energy efficient as possible: From the design phase, utilise circular strategies to create material- and energy efficient buildings. Couple these designs with a rollout of clean energy solutions, and prioritise energy-efficient appliances and retrofitting. 
- Utilise secondary materials: Maximise the high-value reuse of buildings and components where possible. Ideally, enable the utilisation of construction and demolition outputs and ensure that as much of it as possible is recycled to avoid the need for virgin materials, such as sand and gravel.
- Prioritise circular materials and approaches: Transition to using renewable wood, timber or cross-laminated timber instead of steel and concrete, or move to other locally available materials. Utilise mainstream modular construction and prioritise lightweight frames and structures to reduce cement and steel use, as well as green roofs where possible.



🏢 Built Environment

Currently, most Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste is mixed and used for backfilling or sent to landfill. Some of it is incinerated or downcycled into products of much lower value. This has become a pressing issue in many urban areas due to the sheer volume of C&D waste, which often is the biggest proportion of the waste stream. However, the built environment in cities is already a “mine” from which to recover valuable materials from the existing building stocks. 

Improving separation of different materials at demolition sites and establishing or improving facilities for reuse and recovery of C&D waste allows for value to be retained within the local economy, reducing the burden of urban C&D waste management and helping cities achieve a more resource-efficient urbanisation. By recovering building components from buildings that are to be demolished, fewer new components need to be produced, and fewer raw materials need to be extracted. This reduces environmental impacts and emissions at each step of the value chain, from extraction to transportation and manufacturing. 

Cities can influence the type of waste management infrastructures developed within the city’s borders, as well as how different facilities throughout the city connect to one another. They can invest and support in developing infrastructure, both physical and digital, that can facilitate the closing of material and energy loops throughout the urban built environment. This can take the form of C&D recycling facilities, facilities for reconditioning of deconstructed building elements, and material and component marketplaces to collect and recover disassembled pre-used building components and material. Finally, they can invest and facilitate research to map the building stock aiding in identification of recovery opportunities and adequate demolition practices.


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🏢  Construction and demolition waste reuse and recycling

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

Businesses

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

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

 The MaterialBase is located in the Palacete dos Viscondes de Balsemão, which also houses Porto City Council’s Culture Department. The building was constructed in the mid-18th century by the nobleman, José Alvo Brandão, and was inherited by the Balsemão family and rented in the 1840s by António Bernardino Peixe to build a hostel there. Profound remodelling works of the palace took place in the following decade, when it was acquired by the 1st Visconde da Trindade, José António de Sousa Basto, leading to its current appearance. Open to the public since 2010, Station 6 is a municipal project, that is pioneering at the national level and was attributed awards in 2009 and 2013. It promotes the safeguarding of the materials that characterise the city’s public image, collecting them from degraded buildings, or those to be demolished or altered, for the purpose of later returning them to the city. In this space, various decorative and constructive elements from buildings in Porto can be seen , such as azulejo tiles, in particular Hispanic-Arab specimens and a great diversity of patterns from the 17th to the 20th centuries, as well as a significant set of stucco pieces from Oficina Avelino Ramos Meara, one of the most prestigious of its kind and the last to close in Porto. The MaterialBase also has a set of place-name signs collected on the public roads, and several wooden, iron and stonework artifacts. The Triplex is located in this building, a set of three exhibition rooms on the ground floor of the Palacete dos Viscondes de Balsemão, that hosts exhibition projects conceived in partnership or in co-production. Images—Atlas: António Alves and Fernando Noronha (MdC).  Address     Palacete dos Viscondes de Balsemão
Praça de Carlos Alberto 71, 4050-157 Porto
GPS: 41.148946, -8.615291
Location  Bus     22, 304, 305, 507, 601, 602  Subway     Trindade  Parking     Carlos Alberto, Leões;
Praça de Lisboa 

To promote and safeguard materials and components that exemplify the character of Porto’s built environment, the city has established a material bank. The Materialbase collects tiles, signs and other compone building components from degraded or soon to be demolished buildings. Not just for conservation, these materials are then available to building owners free of charge for use in renovation projects.

Porto — Materialbase Porto’s material bank for heritage materials

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

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

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmiOqUtQ0oo          Regenize Circular Economy South Africa    Piloting Partner : AB InBev Program Cohort: 4    Regenize is an accessible, inclusive and rewarding recycling collection solution built for developing nations context.   Founders              Chad Robertson   
           Nkazimlo Miti   
       Corporate partners                

ACCESSIBLE, INCLUSIVE & REWARDINGRECYCLING FOR SOUTH AFRICAAdd AddressWHAT DO WE DO?HOW DOES IT WORK?1 SIGNUP and gather your recyclables.2 PLACE your recycling bag outside on collection day.3 COLLECTION of your recyclables will performed by a Regenize collector which will weigh once collected and upload your details.4 AWAIT report consisting of weight, carbon emissions reduced and how much Remali earned.TESTIMONIALSFEATURED INAVAILABLE VOUCHERS

Portugal

Porto has developed a “Roadmap to a circular city” plan which sets out its ambitions for a circular transition across a number of themes including the food system. The responsibility for implementing this plan sits with the Environmental Planning and Management Department but many otherdepartments are key stakeholders, including the Green Structure Municipal Office. The strategy is structured around four areas; production and consumption, natural resources and environmental balance, circular constructions and sharing resources and waste prevention and management. While these themes are linked to eight of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there are also clear links with relevant European and National policies, directives and targets. Porto reports its progress through many mechanisms including voluntary commitments (Circular Cities Declaration, Carbon Disclosure Project), and local and national statutory reporting.