Business case

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

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

Innovation

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)

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 machinery for mining, construction, industrial, and agricultural use, such as heavy duty trucks, rolling machinery, earth-moving and construction equipment, farm machinery, commercial printing and presses, machine tools, compressors, pollution control equipment, elevators, escalators, insulators, pumps, etc., including their related parts

Machinery

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

Chemical and Plastic

Refining and processing ores and producing ferrous and non-ferrous metal and glass products, including packaging

Metal and Glass

Extracting and gathering wood through forestry and producing wood and paper products

Wood and Paper

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

Use waste as a resource

Consider opportunities to create greater value and align incentives that build on the interaction between products and services

Rethink the business model

**Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns**

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The world is seriously off track in its effort to halve per-capita food waste and losses by 2030.The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on consumption and production patterns, with disruptions to global supply chains and changes in consumer behaviour. 

Responsible consumption and production must be an integral part of the recovery from the pandemic. 
But the global economy also needs to speed up the decoupling of economic growth from resource use by maximizing the socio-economic benefits of resources while minimizing their negative impacts. 

Reporting on corporate sustainability has tripled since the beginning of the SDG period, but the private sector will need to significantly improve reporting on activities that contribute to the SDGs. 

This primarily entails environmentally sound management of "toxic chemicals" A substantial use of chemicals is essential to meet the social and economic goals of the world community, and these can be used with a high degree of safety when best practices are followed.  Gross chemical contamination, with grave damage to human health, genetic structures reproductive outcomes, and the environment, has been continuing within some of the world's most important industrial areas, and restoration will require major investment as well as the development of new techniques.
Effective control of the generation, storage, treatment, recycling and reuse, transport, recovery and disposal of hazardous wastes is another similar challenge. 
In addition,  solid wastes include all domestic refuse and non-hazardous wastes such as commercial and institutional wastes, street sweepings construction debris, and, in some countries, human wastes. As hazardous waste is frequently intermixed with other waste, this poses particular management challenges.
Finally, this target ensures that radioactive waste is safely managed, transported, stored and disposed of, with a view to protecting human health and the environment. 

To deliver SDG12, it is crucial to implement policies that support the shift to sustainable practices and decouple economic growth from resource use.

Sources: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal12](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal12)
[https://sdgs.un.org/topics/chemicals-and-waste](https://sdgs.un.org/topics/chemicals-and-waste)

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12. Responsible consumption and production

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

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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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

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**These 17 Goals recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.**

The SDGs build on decades of work by countries and the UN, and especially on the Millennium Declaration adopted in September 2000 at UN Headquarters in New York which let to the elaboration of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce extreme poverty by 2015.

In 2015, the Paris Agreement was signed. A major blueprint came out of this: The Sustainable Development Goals: 17 overarching goals—and 169 targets—that governments are aiming to meet by 2030. Significant progress has been made in terms of poverty, health and inequality, but there's still a way to go. This is where the circular economy comes in: by circulating resources multiple times, the circular economy tackles issues of scarcity and allows all to access what they need—without overburdening the earth. If it's implemented in a holistic way—affording attention to social considerations and the fair distribution of resources— it also offers a pathway for achieving the SDGs; and the link between the two is ever-growing. To read more about the link between the SDGs and the circular economy, click [here](https://www.circle-economy.com/blogs/how-the-circular-economy-can-help-us-reach-the-sustainable-development-goals).

It is the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (DSDG) in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) which provides substantive support and capacity-building for the SDGs and their related thematic issues. TheDSDG plays a key role in the evaluation of UN systemwide implementation of the 2030 Agenda and in advocacy and outreach activities relating to the SDGs. In order to make the 2030 Agenda a reality, broad ownership of the SDGs must translate into a strong commitment by all stakeholders to implement the global goals. DSDG aims to help facilitate this engagement.
Alongside this, the annual High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development serves as the central UN platform for the follow-up and review of the SDGs.
In addition, the UN Secretary-General presents an annual SDG Progress report, which is developed in cooperation with the UN System, and based on the global indicator framework and data produced by national statistical systems and information collected at the regional level.

To read more information: [https://sdgs.un.org/goals](https://sdgs.un.org/goals)

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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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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 Photo: Tomra Since it stopped the separate collection for plastics in its region and unleashed the power of mixed waste sorting, the facility increased recovery rates from 28% to 82% and achieved recycling rates of 56,4%, thus meeting the EU’s 2025 recycling targets ahead of time. Today, Ivar ranks first in processing MSW by volume.
Situated in Forus, between the cities of Stavanger and Sandnes in the southwest of Norway, IVAR manages all residues and waste collection from 10 municipalities with an approximate population of 325.000. With its advanced municipal solid waste sorting plant, it recovers high volumes of recyclable materials before incineration, reducing CO2 emissions and the global dependency on virgin material by supplying high-quality recycled content for new products and packaging. 
When local and international recycling targets became increasingly stringent, IVAR recognized the need to improve its waste management methods and decided to more closely examine the hidden potential of its region’s household waste. With the goal of finding the most effective and environmentally friendly approach to waste management, the company sought the advice of TOMRA. To identify the opportunities in mixed waste sorting and assess its performance potential, the plant sent MSW samples from the region to Tomra’s test facility in Germany. There, these materials underwent extensive tests on the company’s sorting machines. Test analysis showed that, whereas paper recovery from MSW streams performed reasonably well, plastics recovery offered room for improvement. Test analysis unveiled that the household waste contained high amounts of plastic recyclables, even though they were meant to be disposed of separately. The team considered the analysis as a clear call for concrete, future-oriented action.
Based on the analysis and the still untouched possibilities in MSW sorting, a new business case was developed. The result: the construction of a new fully automated mixed waste sorting plant consisting of new facilities for plastics reprocessing and paper sorting, as well as the elimination of the separate plastics collection in that region. Previously collected separately, plastics are now also disposed of in the grey bin and recovered in the new facility. As a consequence, only the plant’s residues are transported to the waste to energy plant and used for the production of electricity and energy for remote heating systems. In short, the materials discarded by the municipality are turned into value again in the most optimal way. 
In late 2014, the plant building project began with Sutco Recycling Technik chosen as a plant supplier for IVAR’s combined residual waste and paper sorting plant. Sutco, in turn, selected TOMRA Recycling as project partner for sorting equipment. Since the new facility started operation in January 2019, 22 of TOMRA’s state-of-the-art AUTOSORT® sorting units efficiently and effectively sort plastics (PET, PS, LDPE, HDPE, PP) and paper (mixed paper, cardboard, beverage cartons) out of the residual waste (grey bins) collected curbside. In addition, metals (aluminum, steel) are recovered from the residual waste. 
Today, Ivar processes 40 tons of MSW per hour from which paper, plastics, metals, and residues are separated in numerous steps:
Presorting
Once the collected material is fed into the plant, items > 350mm are sorted by a finger screen and shredded into smaller pieces before two drum screens separate the material into three target sizes: 0-60mm; 60-150mm; and 150-320mm. In a second step, Tomra’s Autosort machines recover 90% of the mid-sized (60-150 mm) and the large (150-320 mm) plastic fractions before they extract mixed paper. Finally, magnets and eddy currents remove both the non-ferrous and ferrous metals. 
Plastics and paper recovery
After plastics have been presorted, they are further sorted by material type. First, ballistic separators separate plastic film and rigid plastics. Afterwards, 14 Autosort machines undertake the separation of rigid plastics into PP, HDPE, PS, PET and create a clean fraction of LDPE plastic film. To further increase purity levels, these clean material fractions undergo a second sorting step, also carried out by Autosort machines, to remove the remaining contaminants. The high-quality PS and PET end fractions are then packed into material-type-specific bales and sent to different mechanical recycling plants in Europe. LDPE, HDPE and PP are washed, dried and pelletized in the Forus plant and sold as pellets. 
At the same time, the mixed paper fraction, as well as mixed paper and cardboard infeed coming from separate collection, is processed in a separate sorting line. From the 23,250 metric tons of paper sorted per shift, 95,7% of the infeed material is turned into four salable paper products such De-ink, ECC (corrugated cardboard), tetra Pak and carton.
When Tomra was selected as technology provider of IVAR’s waste sorting plant, it was clear that the most advanced sensor-based sorting technology was required. Specifically, Tomra provided 22 of its Autosort machines to extract both paper and plastics from household waste.
Equipped with sophisticated infrared sorting technology, which combines near infrared (NIR) and visual spectrometer (VIS), the machine can accurately and quickly identify and separate different materials according to their material type and color. In Forus, Autosort machines sort paper into three and plastics into six target fractions. Its sorting accuracy is mainly based on the integrated Flying Beam technology, which evenly distributes light across the entire conveyer belt and scans and analyzes all material passing through the scanner. The sensor sends the respective signal to the machine’s valve blocks which turn the scanner’s information into action, either ejecting or dropping scanned items. 
When starting operations in 2019, Ivar set an overall goal to recover nearly all plastic types (PE, PP, PS, PET) and a more concrete target to realize purity rates of 95-96% in LDPE, PP, HDPE, PS and PET sorting. Thanks to the ultraprecise sorting machines, the plant’s goal soon became reality, with purity rates of up to 98% achieved. As for paper, sorting studies have shown that more than 85% of all beverage cartons in the residual household waste have been successfully separated from the household waste stream.
After extraction of recyclables from the infeed material, the sorted fractions undergo an extensive recycling process on-site. Whereas homogenous PET and PS bales as well as both ferrous and non-ferrous metals are sold to European recyclers, Polyolefins (LDPE, HDPE, and PP) are shredded into flakes, hot washed, dried and pelletized on-site before these are sold as industrial commodities. Thousands of tons of PE and PP recovered from MSW have been diverted from incineration and to be integrated in the production of high-quality PO recyclates.
The business case at Ivar proves that sorting prior to disposal can preserve recyclable materials previously incinerated and strongly contribute to climate protection. Prior to opening the waste sorting plant, the separate collection rate in the region served by Ivar was high: 65% of the waste collected in the municipalities was sorted. However, with the plant fully operational, the recovery rates of recyclables are now as high as 74%. 
From an environmental perspective, sorting, recovering, and recycling plastics from mixed waste streams – instead of relying solely on material-dedicated collection systems – leads to a two-fold reduction in CO2 emissions. First, less plastics, that comes with a high caloric value but based on fossil carbon, are incinerated. Second, the provision of high-quality recycled plastics reduces the need for primary production. Thus, IVAR contributes to delivering environment-friendly feed and works in line with the principles of a circular economy, resulting in a decrease of 33,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions a year, which is equivalent to taking 20,000 fossil fuel cars off the road. 
The results have clearly shown that MSW sorting before incineration brings numerous benefits: in Norway, the need for separate collection of plastics packaging, and its associated costs, has been eliminated and enabled Ivar to provide ready-for-market recycled material for new products and packaging, while reducing its CO2 footprint considerably. Furthermore, the partners have already started to investigate if glass and biowaste could be profitably extracted from the fines fraction (0-60 mm). 
Automating the sorting process with the latest technology has strongly contributed to this change. However, the partners are convinced that automation only complements waste sorting but will never replace local separate waste collection systems. Rather, the components of optimal waste management must go hand in hand – from collection to mixed waste sorting to recycling – to have the biggest impact on how much we recycle. In Norway, we see that it works.
 

Stavanger

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Tomra

IVAR

Municipality of Stavanger

<p>IVAR IKS, a Norwegian intermunicipal waste management company, has transformed municipal solid waste (MSW) processing by implementing an advanced mixed waste sorting facility in Forus.By shifting from separate collection to automated sorting, IVAR has significantly increased recycling rates, reduced CO₂ emissions, and provided high-quality recycled materials for new products.This initiative exemplifies a successful circular economy model in waste management.</p>