Roubaix

Roubaix, France

The third largest city in the Hauts-de-France region, the city of Roubaix has been developing for several years a sustainable development strategy in which Zero Waste and the Circular Economy are playing a key role. Roubaix is part of the European Metropole of Lille and is a Circular Cities and Regions Initiative Pilot.

Zero Waste Territory

Since 2014, the city of Roubaix has been committed to implementing a Zero Waste approach. This is a programme which aims at significantly reducing production of waste through the mobilisation of all local actors. The city of Roubaix has implemented a simple, cross-cutting and comprehensive approach based on the dynamics of citizens and associations, economic development and network animation, thus becoming one of the Zero Waste pioneering municipalities in France. The impacts are numerous: reduction of the waste volume but also an increase of living standards, creation of social links, behaviour changes of inhabitants, changes of lifestyle... The town has more than 600 Zero Waste families, 50 Zero Waste retailers, and many schools, associations involved in a Zero Waste approach.

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Circular economy

In 2022, the city adopted its circular economy strategy for the period 2022 - 2026, which is based on five main objectives:

  1. Raising awareness and training economic and institutional actors about circular economy
  2. Facilitating and support territorial synergies
  3. Facilitating the emergence and development of circular businesses
  4. Improving the exemplariness of the city of Roubaix local authority
  5. Contributing to the influence of the territory about circular approaches

A plan of thirty actions makes operational this strategy implemented by the Circular Economy team. Created in 2018 and composed of three people. It aims at developing synergies between economic actors and animating the ecosystem of circular actors. The Circular Economy team contributes to the emergence of totemic places, including the House of Circular Economy and Zero Waste at the Couvent des Clarisses and the TISSEL factory, the future business incubator for circular economy companies.

The city's achievements and commitments were recognised in October 2018 by the "Rev3 Demonstrator Territory" label, awarded by the Region.

The European project: Upcycle Your Waste

To extend the circular economy on its territory, the City of Roubaix has joined the 2 Seas Interreg project "Upcycle Your Waste", which targets at creating circular economy loops and recycling/upcycling industrial wastes. This programme started in November 2019 and aims to develop an Industrial Ecology symbiosis strategy in Roubaix, i.e. to optimise the management of resources between the economic actors in the area by transforming the waste of companies into secondary resources for other companies and by pooling certain resources in the area to manageme them better collectively. The ambition of the "Upcycle Your Waste" project is to:

  • Create local circular economy loops.
  • Reduce the amount of industrial waste in the territory.

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