Policy case

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

Increase Awareness

Impact on the quantity or quality of jobs, and shifts in the labour market

Jobs

Direct and indirect reduction in economic costs

Cost Savings

Direct and indirect effects that increase revenues or the potential for new revenues, for example from new products, customer segments, partnerships or business models

Revenue Potential

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)

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Extracting resources and processing them to produce materials for use bysociety

Materials and Fuels

Producing and providing business and consumer goods and services

Goods and Services

Providing public and private education and support services at any level or for any profession, and governmental and public administration services, including judicial, regulatory, and legislative activities, taxation, defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs and the administration of government programmes

Education and Government 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

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

Use waste as a resource

Employ online platforms to connect and improve information sharing between stakeholders

Digital platforms

Using materials that can be easily reused or recycled after use

Reusable, recyclable materials and inputs

Engaging in discussions with government bodies and policymakers to push for regulations that support the circular economy

Advocacy for circular economy policy

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

Integrate principles of circularity into primary, secondary and tertiary curriculum and conduct workplace trainings

 Education and Curriculum

Circular Economy in school programmes

Encourage workplace training

Public-private partnerships

Awareness raising events

Information campaigns

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

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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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 "The Zero Waste Project”, under the auspices of First Lady Emine Erdoğan, was awarded with "Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) Action Award” the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will give for the first time in Turkey
Ankara, 22 March 2021 - "Zero Waste Project" will receive UNDP Turkey’s "Sustainable Development Goals Action Award" due to its important contributions to the goal "Responsible Production and Consumption", one of the SDGs.
Zero Waste Project which was initiated in 2017 under the auspices of Emine Erdoğan, aims to contain waste under sustainable development principles, leaving a clean Turkey and a liveable world to future generations.
The Sustainable Development Goals Action Award, which will be given to the Zero Waste Project for the first time in Turkey for successfully meeting the goal “Responsible Consumption and Production”, will be presented to Emine Erdoğan by UNDP Turkey’s Resident Representative Claudio Tomasi, at a ceremony to be held in Ankara on March 25th.
12th of seventeen Global Goals for Sustainable Development, the goal “Responsible Consumption and Production” aims to substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse by the year 2030, among others.
For the year 2023, the centenary of the Republic of Turkey’s foundation, by operating “Zero Waste Management System” in 400,000 buildings, the Zero Waste Project targets 35 percent recovery rate, which is the proportion of waste recycled among all the recyclable materials in the waste stream.
As of 2020, Zero Waste Management System was launched in 76,000 buildings belonging to organizations and institutions. Recovery rate, which was 13 percent at the beginning of the project, reached 19 percent.
Zero Waste System is a seven-step roadmap developed by the Turkish Environment and Urban Planning Ministry, consisting of steps that companies, institutions or organizations should apply to be included in Zero Waste movement.
Between 2017 to 2020, the project helped save 397 million tons of raw material, 315 million kilowatt-hour of energy, 345 million cubic meters of water and 50 million barrels of oil. In the same period, 17 million tons of usable waste was collected, 2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions were prevented, and 209 million trees were saved by the project.
The economic savings attained with these actions are calculated 17 billion liras (over 3 billion dollars). The project aims direct employment for 100,000 people, 20 billion liras of annual saving.
The presidential complex was the first to switch to a zero-waste scheme and it was followed by ministries. Since 2017, thousands of public buildings have joined the campaign with recycling almost all the waste they produce, from paper to food.
To better protect the seas and coasts of Turkey from the wastes, Zero Waste Blue Project was also launched in June 2019 within the same project. So far 760 leading organizations pledged to fight pollution of the seas by participating in the Zero Waste Blue project.
In 2020, Turkish government set up an Environmental Agency, which will operate under the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, to further advance the project’s works.
The agency aims at improving the environment and maintaining the Zero Waste project, launched by the ministry to collect and dispose of wastes effectively.
The agency will establish and operate waste management systems, ensuring the involvement of relevant departments and streamlining their working in line with the environmental strategies and policies formulated by the ministry.
Turkey uses about 10 million tons of glass, plastic, aluminium and metal packaging every year according to figures and plans to increase the recycling rate for packaging to 65 percent by 2026. For more info: Faik Uyanık, Head of Communications for UNDP in Turkey - faik.uyanik@undp.org 

Turkey

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Republic of Turkey Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change

Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change

“Zero Waste” is a goal defined as a waste management philosophy that involves preventing the wastage, using the resources more efficiently, identifying the root causes of wastage, preventing or minimizing waste formation, and collecting and recovering waste at the source separately. In 2017, Turkey announced its "Zero Waste Policy" and started implementation under the management of Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change. With the Zero Waste Policy, Turkey aims to increase countrywide recycling rate of domestic solid waste by %35 by 2023. Improved public awareness and waste management at all levels of the society is the focus of the policy. Targets are planned to be achieved through engagement of local authorities, public-private organizations and citizens.