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

Ecological Impact

Impacts on the social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families.

Social Impact

Impacts on the financial condition of a company, as well as the the economicconditions of its stakeholders and on economic systems at local, national, andglobal levels.

Economic Impact

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

Increase Awareness

Contribution to social parity, or impact on social disparity

Equality

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

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)

Producing electrical equipment and machinery for industrial use

Capital Equipment

Producing transporation equipment and providing services for thetransportation of goods and people

Transportation and Logistics

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

Producing transportation equipment for the movement of goods and people by air, rail, sea, and land, including airplanes, spacecraft and military equipment, ships, boats, rail locomotives and rolling stock, motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, and related equipment, as well as repair services for such equipment

Transportation Equipment

Producing electric cables and wires, power-generating equipment, including solar modules, motors, power turbines, as well as electronic equipment and instruments, including computer chips, communication equipment, analytical instruments, lasers, display screens, point-of-sales machines, security system equipment, and healthcare equipment

Electrical and Electronic Equipment

While resources are in-use, maintain, repair and upgrade them to maximise their lifetime and give them a second life through take back strategies when applicable

Stretch the lifetime

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

Use waste as a resource

Account for the systems perspective during the design process, to use the right materials, to design for appropriate lifetime and to design for extended future use

Design for the future

Give products and parts another life after their end-of-use

Maximise lifetime of products after use

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

Valorise waste streams - closed loop

Designing to enable multiple uses and lifecycles of a product and its materials

Design for cyclability

Extraction and reuse of parts from end-of-life products for use in new products

Part recovery

Collection programmes that process products and parts for reuse or recycling within the same industry

Closed loop collection

Designing products to remove any barriers to recycling and enable easy recyclability

Design for recycling

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

Manage

Infrastructure

Develop infrastructure to support sustainable lifestyles

Develop infrastructure to support resource cycling

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

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Rethink

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

Includes a variety of actions (e.g. campaigns, information sharing, public events) that encourage city residents and visitors to build sustainable practices into their daily lives

Enable sustainable lifestyles

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

Manufactured goods, such as vehicles, textiles, appliances and equipment and their associated production processes are big employers but:
- production processes often rely on fossil fuels and currently drive one-third of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its GHG production, 
- material- and energy-intensive industrial activities are linked to deforestation and drive 15% on both the land use and freshwater planetary boundaries, 
- manufacturing goods results in substantial amounts of hazardous industrial waste and leaks chemicals into the environment.

Here, circular solutions must tackle the full value chain, but material demand must also shrink: this will necessitate a societal shift to favouring sufficiency over excess and reducing consumption to sustainable levels. Our four key solutions for manufactured goods are:
- Mainstream industrial symbiosis and efficiency : Achieve process improvements, scrap diversion and reduction in yield losses through greater industrial symbiosis and efficiency. Foster tighter collaboration within and between industries to deliver powerful material and emissions savings.
- Extend the lifetime of machinery, equipment, and goods: Maximise the lifetime of goods that serve our daily needs to bring a number of environmental benefits. 
- Buy what's needed: Reduce the number of purchases of common electronic goods, appliances, and other equipment to sufficiency levels. 
- Eschew fast fashion in favour of sustainable textiles: Drastically reduce new clothing purchases. All used clothing should go on to be repaired, reused or, if needed, recycled appropriately. Prioritise natural and local textile manufacturing, as well as higher-quality and more durable garments. 




👕📱 Consumer Goods

The demand for transport is rising globally—but current modes are heavily material- and fossil-fuels-intensive. Emissions from the transport system could grow by 60% by 2050, and transport is the number-one user of oil worldwide. GHG emissions result not only in warming global temperatures, but also in ocean acidification, which has severe consequences for entire ecosystems and further destabilises our climate. The transport system also drives land-use change and biodiversity loss through the development of infrastructure—also releasing harmful pollutants into the ocean. Key circular solutions:

- Embrace and enable car-free lifestyles
- Invest in high-quality public transport
- Rethink unnecessary air travel
- Electrify remaining vehicles

🚌 Mobility Systems

Businesses

Communities

Governments

Mixed household waste - consisting of textiles, electronics, organic and other consumer goods - can be contaminated and difficult to separate, and hence limit the  recovery of materials and value.

Source separation reduces the upstream sorting cost and ensures that downstream recyclers receive clean feedstock, thus improving their ability to capture the value from post-consumer material streams. Source separation systems can take a variety of forms, such as providing a distributed network of collection points throughout a city for residents to drop off various types of waste materials. The most successful examples of this include: collection of electronics, plastics, waste oil, fabrics, metals, bulky goods, paper, cardboard, batteries, amongst others.

Local governments can support the implementation of the solution by developing and providing the necessary infrastructure throughout the city or engage in public-private partnerships to provide source separation systems. What is more, information campaigns can help to inform residents on which types of consumer goods can be recovered, and the most effective means of disposal. 


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👕📱  Source separation and collection systems for consumer goods 

The mobility choices and behaviours of residents and businesses can vary greatly depending on the structure and design of the city. A sprawling city covering large areas with wide highways and no bike lanes discourages cycling and increases dependence on private vehicles, which contribute significantly to resource demand and GHG emissions. Meanwhile, a more compact city with mixed use developments, accessible public transport and extensive and appealing pedestrian and cycle networks enables and encourages walking, cycling and other non-motorised, low-carbon forms of mobility. Combined with urban planning that incentivises higher densities along major public transport routes, transit-oriented development can help to slow the outward expansion of cities into the surrounding countryside. 

Compact city planning can help local communities build and create more efficient, safe and viable cities. This concept includes ideas such as the 15-minute city or ‘complete neighbourhoods’, whereby all of the basic needs and services of a resident can be accessed within 15 minutes by walking, cycling or public transport. This concept has also attracted attention as a way to reduce inequality by ensuring that all neighbourhoods have access to affordable mobility options.

Local governments can support the development of compact and low-carbon cities by integrating such concepts into the city’s urban plans, and ensuring that all residents are easily able to conduct their day-to-day lives using non-motorised or public transport. Cities can also ensure that necessary and facilitating infrastructure is provided, such as cycle lanes, pedestrianised areas and public transport options, to enable the shift away from dependency on personal vehicles.


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🚌  Compact city planning and development

Slow strategies aim to keep materials in use for as long as possible, for example through design for durability and repairability. A more circular economy is also a slower one: materials, components, and products—and even buildings and infrastructure—that we lock in stocks are made to last. This will lower material demand in the long run, in essence also serving to narrow resource flows.

Slow

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

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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    Dezember 2021   Beim Cargo-Tram können Sie vier Stunden lang Sperrgut und beim E-Tram Elektrogeräte gratis einliefern – zu Fuss, mit dem Fahrrad oder öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln.    
    Dezember 2021   Beim Cargo-Tram können Sie vier Stunden lang Sperrgut und beim E-Tram Elektrogeräte gratis einliefern – zu Fuss, mit dem Fahrrad oder öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln.     

  Liefern Sie Elektrogeräte ins E-Tram sowie Sperrgut, Grossmetall und Grubengut ins Cargo-Tram an. Ohne Auto entsorgen! Das Cargo-Tram und das E-Tram stehen Ihnen zur Verfügung, sofern Sie zu Fuss, mit dem Fahrrad oder öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln unterwegs sind. Die Anlieferung mit einem Auto oder Lieferwagen ist nicht erlaubt (siehe «Gut zu wissen» am Seitenende).  
 Corona-Schutzmassnahmen  Beim Cargo-Tram und beim E-Tram gilt Maskenpflicht.  
 Fahrplan und Haltestellen  Das Cargo-Tram und das E-Tram halten 10 bis 12 Mal im Jahr während mehrerer Stunden an einer VBZ-Haltestelle in Ihrer Nähe. Alle Daten finden Sie im persönlichen Entsorgungs-Kalender oder im Fahrplan Cargo-Tram und E-Tram. Beachten Sie, dass die zwei Trams an unterschiedlichen Tagen unterwegs sind.  Alle Haltestellen und mit welcher Tramlinie Sie dahinkommen Klicken Sie auf die Haltestelle und Sie erhalten den Stadtplan von Zürich mit der genauen Lage des Cargo-Trams und E-Trams angezeigt. Albisrieden: Tram 3, Bus 80 Bahnhof Tiefenbrunnen: Tram 2, Tram 4, Bus 33 Burgwies: Tram 11 Hardturm: Tram 8, Tram 17 Hirzenbach: Tram 9 Letzigrund: Tram 2 Seebach: Tram 14, Bus 40, Bus 75 Strassenverkehrsamt: Tram 10, Tram 13, Bus 32, Bus 89 Tramdepot Universität Irchel: Tram 9, Tram 10, Bus 39 Wartau: Tram 13, Bus 80 Wollishoferplatz: Tram 7, Bus 70 Richtig anliefern und schon vorher trennen Die angelieferten Gegenstände dürfen nicht länger als 2,5 Meter (Ausnahme: Sofa/Polstermöbel nicht länger als 2 Meter) und nicht schwerer als 40 Kilogramm pro Stück sein. Trennen Sie das Material vorher nach Beschaffenheit: Brennbares, Grossmetall und Grubengut.   
 Was entsorgen  Das gehört ins Cargo-Tram Einzelner Gegenstand maximal 40 kg schwer und 2,5 m lang (Ausnahme: Sofa/Polstermöbel maximal 2 m lang) Metall Sperrgut Grubengut Getränkekarton Plastikflaschen Styropor Textilien Korken (Naturkorken) Kaffeekapseln aus Aluminium Das gehört ins E-Tram Einzelner Gegenstand maximal 40 kg schwer und 2,5 m lang Elektrogeräte  
 Preise (alle Preise in Schweizer Franken und exklusive Mehrwertsteuer)  Für Zürcherinnen und Zürcher gratis Stadtbewohnerinnen und Stadtbewohner, die ohne Auto oder Lieferwagen unterwegs sind, entsorgen gratis im Cargo-Tram respektive E-Tram.   
 Gut zu wissen  Beim Cargo-Tram und E-Tram stehen zwei Handwagen für den Transport der Gegenstände zur Verfügung. Die Gratis-Ausleihe erfolgt gegen die Deponierung eines amtlichen Ausweises. Die Angebote Cargo-Tram und E-Tram sind explizit für das Entsorgen ohne Auto konzipiert. Da die Transportkapazität der Trams beschränkt ist, vor Ort keine Parkplätze angeboten werden und das Verkehrsaufkommen in den Quartieren nicht unnötig gefördert werden soll, ist es untersagt, Abfall mit dem Auto anzuliefern. Wer mit dem Auto unterwegs ist, kann in den Recyclinghöfen bequem vorfahren und entsorgen. Mit den Entsorgungs-Coupons sind die ersten 400 Kilogramm pro Jahr sogar kostenlos!   

  Operating as an E-Tram for the afternoon, car 1922 has just reversed onto the siding at the Bahnhof Tiefenbrunnen terminus. The turning loop for regular services surrounds the siding and the pictured building. This is a fine example of how the Cargo-Tram/E-Tram operation is able to function efficiently without getting in the way of regular passenger trams. Image courtesy of Andrew Thompson. Since 2003 a unique tram enterprise has operated in the Swiss city of Zürich. It provides waste collection and recycling services to the roughly 48% of city households without a car or the facility to get large or bulky items to the main disposal centre at Hagenholz. Due to the popularity of this public service, the operation’s scope has been expanded to include the collection of old or broken electronics. Correspondingly, this facility has been branded as E-Tram.
Both the E-Tram and Cargo-Tram run all year-round Monday-Saturday, serving 11 pick-up sites around the city on a rotating basis. Drop-off times are 15.00-19.00 on weekdays and 07.30-14.00 on Saturdays. Purely for the location at Strassenverkehrsamt, a substitute lorry has to be used every 14 days on Fridays, as there is no suitable siding to park rolling stock without blocking regular tram traffic on line 13.
The city’s terms of use for both the Cargo Tram and E-Tram state that only objects weighing up to 40kg or with a maximum length of 2.5m may be brought for disposal on the waste container hauled by the tram. Naturally, some items are banned, such as sand, gravel, liquids or hazardous materials. Using a car to deliver bulky items to the pick-up site of the Cargo-Tram or E-Tram is not permitted either. Hand-carried sofas are accepted for disposal, if they are a maximum of two metres in length.
The Cargo-Tram in operation
The operation is staffed by a team of four; in addition to the tram driver there are two recycling specialists and a guard to manage traffic flow. The actual tramcar used is a novelty in its own right, as it is a vintage vehicle dating from 1940. Originally built as Be 4/4 car 1352, it was part of the iconic Standardwagen series. These semi-streamlined trams were the Swiss adaptation of the US PCC concept, although technically different enough to not require a production license.
From 1940 to 1973, Swiss manufacturers delivered a total of 261 Standard motor cars and 216 matching trailers (in various sub-series) to undertakings in Basel, Bern, Genève, Luzern, Neuchâtel and Zürich. In Zürich these simple yet sturdy non-articulated trams were withdrawn between 1987 and 1994, although the nine vehicles (1351-59) had already been converted to snowploughs between 1980 and 1982. This also led to their reclassification as type Xe 4/4 works vehicles. As part of this modernisation, the angular front-end with enclosed cab and one row of side windows were cut off, shortening the vehicle and allowing the installation of a much larger flat windscreen panel for better operation of the newly-fitted snowplough and its hydraulic lifting device.
Of those nine adapted Standard cars, four (1922-25) remain in Zürich today, with 1922 dedicated for Cargo-Tram/E-Tram operation. When the cargo service began in 2003, the tram had a white and blue livery, but in 2013 this was changed to white and green to reflect the updated corporate identity of Zürich’s municipal waste management company ERZ, which runs the Cargo-Tram in co-operation with public transport operator VBZ, another city subsidiary.
Inside, car 1922 is fitted with a practical work area and various small waste processing tools, allowing the recycling specialists to begin dismantling awkwardly-shaped items on site. The Cargo-Tram typically hauls one or two flat-bed freight wagons which can carry different types of swap bodies, such as containers or large recycling bins. The stock is typically based at the Werdhölzli depot, from where all collected waste is transferred the short distance to Hagenholz by lorry. Due to current track renewal work on the Werdhölzli branch, the Cargo-Tram has most recently been stabled at Hardturm depot.
On average, the service collects around 425 tons of bulk waste a year, roughly 3.2% of all such materials processed in Zürich. Often long lines of neighbourhood residents can be found at the designated site at 15.00 and the pick-up locations get particularly busy after the normal office hours from 17.00.
A concept with mixed results
This rear view of the Cargo-Tram/E-Tram consist shows the type X2 (two-axle) flat-bed freight wagon with interchangeable container for waste collection. While the front part of car 1922 has been significantly altered and modernised with the shortened car body and flat windscreen panel, the angular rear is original and a hallmark of 1940s industrial design, as applied to the entire series of Swiss Standardwagen. Image courtesy of Andrew Thompson.
The success of the Zürich Cargo-Tram is largely due to it meeting a public need in a city where residents can comfortably live without a car. This is in contrast to other European cities, where alternate ‘freight by tram’ concepts have failed to gain traction.
In Wien (Vienna), a ‘GüterBim’ was launched in 2005. Mainly designed to use the tram network for delivery logistics and to supply goods to supermarkets, the GüterBim proved impractical and was therefore never able to attract enough commercial customers. The trial was cancelled two years later.
In 2009, the short-lived ‘CityCargo’ venture in Amsterdam (Netherlands) suffered a similar fate, while in Saint-Étienne (France) the ‘TramFret’ logistics service had the backing of a national supermarket chain for a short period in 2017. This concept has not been pursued, however.
Aside from Zürich, the only other successful 21st Century freight tram service in Europe was Volkswagen’s ‘CarGo’ which operated in Dresden from 2001 to 2020. This was used for just-in-time logistics to transfer components between the city’s Friedrichstadt freight yard and the Gläserne Manufaktur (Transparent Factory) facility at Strassburgerplatz using a small fleet of bespoke five-section trams.
The proposition is being investigated elsewhere in Germany. In March 2021, a collaborative effort between the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, operator Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (AVG), the FZI Research Centre for Information Technology and industry partners began developing a technical and logistical concept for a freight service based upon the Karlsruhe tram-train network.
Bound for Bahnhof Tiefenbrunnen for an afternoon pick-up, car 1922 is seen with one trailer on the busy three-track section in the city centre between Bellevue and Opernhaus. In the background is a Forchbahn (FB) LRV in traditional orange and cream livery, sitting idle at the Bahnhof Stadelhofen city centre terminus. Image courtesy of Andrew Thompson.
The ‘LogIKTram’ programme is part of the wider regioKArgo initiative, investigating the potential for new forms of cross-carrier logistics traffic. The three-year pilot has funding of EUR2.75m from Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
In Zürich, the cargo tramway has proven successful as it represents a high-quality public service that covers a niche for which there is significant demand. Thanks to the clean and green cargo tram operation, countless car and lorry journeys are eliminated, helping contribute to congestion and pollution reduction in the city. Article appeared originally in TAUT 1008 (December 2021) 

Zurich

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Municipality of Zurich

Zurich Transport Authority (VBZ)

 ERZ Entsorgung + Recycling Zurich

<p>The city of Zurich, Switzerland, offers a free recycling service via Cargo-Trams and E-Trams that allows residents without a car to recycle electric appliances, glass, bulky goods, plastic bottles and other waste via scheduled trams, which operate on existing public transport lines. The delivered items must not be longer than 2.5 meters (exception: sofa/upholstered furniture no longer than 2 meters) and no heavier than 40 kilograms each.&nbsp;Residents have to separate the materials beforehand according to its composition: flammable, large metal and pit waste.&nbsp;</p><p>While the plants of ERZ Entsorgung + Recycling Zürich (sewage treatment and composting Plant Werdhölzli) employ around 870 employees, this specific cargo tram operation is staffed by a team of four: in addition to the tram driver there are two recycling specialists and a guard to manage traffic flow.</p>