[This article was written by the CCD Team for Ciudad Sostenible and was originally published in Spanish in Issue CS 52]

We have only one planet Earth, yet we consume resources as if we had three. To slow down and possibly reverse resource overconsumption, the European Union introduced the concept of the circular economy into its legislation in 2015 with the adoption of the first Circular Economy Action Plan. This plan outlined measures to transition Europe towards a system that keeps the value of products, materials, and resources for as long as possible, while minimising waste generation. Envisioned as more than just a policy initiative, the circular economy held the promise of enhancing global competitiveness, fostering sustainable economic growth, and creating new jobs. These objectives were addressed through 54 actions covering the entire lifecycle of products, from production and consumption to waste management and the market for secondary raw materials.

Building on this momentum, the European Commission took another bold step in 2020 with the new Circular Economy Action Plan. This updated strategy recognised the circular economy as a key building block for sustainable growth in Europe. It introduced ambitious legislative and non-legislative measures aimed at reducing the European Union’s consumption footprint and doubling the use of circular materials by 2030. This plan spurred the creation of the Circular Cities Declaration (CCD), which was launched in the same year by ICLEI in partnership with key European stakeholders. The CCD aims to establish a community of committed cities and regions, facilitate knowledge exchange, amplify their collective voice at the European level and by doing so, accelerate the transition from a linear to a circular economy across Europe. This initiative now counts over 80 signatories and remains open for interested cities and regions to join. “By signing the Circular Cities Declaration European local and regional governments are underscoring the central role they play as drivers and facilitators of the circular transition. The community of signatories works together on concrete implementation actions and advocates for a supportive European policy framework” said Simon Clement, Head of the Circular Economy Team at ICLEI Europe.

After nearly a decade since the release of the first Circular Economy Action Plan, cities across Europe are beginning to take ownership of their circular journeys and are actively translating their ambitions into tangible actions. According to the CCD Report 2024, a bi-annual report issued by the CCD to monitor the progress of the circular economy in European cities and regions, a clear majority of cities (78% of 54 cities contributing to the report) have strategies in place to steer their circular transition. These strategies are either explicitly designed to support the circular economy or embedded within other strategic documents, such as climate action plans. Drafting a strategy is the first and most important step for a city embarking on its circular journey, as it defines a vision and guides the circular transition with clear targets. The CCD Report shows that cities are now shifting their focus from strategy to practice, and that ensuring cross-departmental collaboration is crucial to drive change.

The over 200 circular actions registered in this year’s report reveal that cities are focusing their efforts on two main sectors: food and the bioeconomy, and the built environment. This focus directly addresses the significant negative environmental effects of these value chains, particularly in terms of climate impact and waste generation. Cities can also exert a significant influence in these areas due to their competences in waste management and urban planning.

In the bioeconomy, cities are usually in charge of managing bio-waste. This position allows them to encourage initiatives such as community and household composting. For instance, Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Spain, set up a community composting network engaging with around 500 households, ten districts, and 16 schools. As part of this initiative, the municipality offers dedicated support, advisory, and maintenance services. In 2022, the Municipality of Águeda, Portugal, took steps to empower citizens in managing organic waste by providing domestic composters to all schools in the area. To ensure effective use, the city conducted training sessions on composting in schools and made the materials available to all citizens through an online platform.

Beyond measures related to bio-waste management, an increasing number of cities are also adopting more upstream measures, related to sustainable production and consumption. This is most evident on the food chain, with cities like Copenhagen, Denmark, developing comprehensive city-wide food strategies. Copenhagen serves approximately 70,000 meals daily in nursing homes, schools, and day care facilities, accounting for about 10% of the city’s total public spending. The current food strategy focuses on five objectives: providing correct nutrition and promoting health; emphasising taste, quality, and food appreciation; ensuring sustainable and climate-responsible meals; strengthening social communities, food culture, and food literacy; and promoting Copenhagen as a healthy, green, and vital food city. Through this strategy, Copenhagen aims to reduce its footprint by 25% by 2025. To achieve these goals, the city facilitates collaboration among restaurants and small businesses to grow sustainable, zero-kilometre food and promotes urban gardening initiatives that give people access to public spaces to grow their own vegetables. Food procurement also plays a crucial role. By reducing the size of contracts, more small local food producers can participate in tenders and supply the city with locally produced organic food. To enhance food quality and encourage acceptability among children and the elderly in public facilities, training is provided to all institutions responsible for food provision. Additionally, guidelines have been distributed to ensure that meals prepared are healthy and meet the nutritional needs of the people they are intended for.

Remaining in the bioeconomy sector, cities can also harness the potential of nature for industry, as seen in examples from Temse, Belgium, and Rotterdam, Netherlands. In Temse, a partnership with local entrepreneurs, the social economy, and farmers has been established to cultivate industrial hemp for use as bio-based construction material, aiming to reduce carbon footprint. Meanwhile, Rotterdam annually maps its organic matter flows to optimise the maintenance of materials and nutrients essential for trees and plants, while supplying materials like leaf bokashi to local industries through circular material banks. The city plans to continue its current trials with leaf bokashi and will soon initiate pilots with willows, cross-laminated wood, city wood, cattail, and seaweed.

In the built environment, cities can implement circular practices in construction and urban development, promoting sustainable materials and waste reduction. This very localised industry allows cities to implement both technical and regulatory measures. For example, legislation requiring pre-demolition audits ensures that valuable materials are identified for reuse, as in the case of Malmö, Sweden. When faced with dismantling the old hovercraft terminal, Malmö opted for a sustainable approach. The structure was carefully disassembled to assess the potential for material reuse. Salvaged items like concrete tiles, marble floors, and metal roofs were sold through a dedicated platform, while the city stored other materials for future projects.

Another strategy involves promoting the reuse of building materials through material banks, as exemplified by Leuven, Belgium. This facility offers reclaimed building materials from diverse sources, which are resold to both individuals and companies. This initiative not only supports sustainable practices but also generates job opportunities by employing local workforce. As far as urban development and new construction are concerned, some cities are creating projects designed to be circular from the outset. Helsinki, Finland, has diminished its need for virgin materials in construction projects by incorporating secondary materials in the construction of the new tramway linking Kalasatama to Pasila. Espoo, another Finnish city, is developing sustainable districts, favouring carbon-neutral and circular solutions. The city’s development strategy steers private landowners towards circular approaches and incentivises the use of reused building materials for new constructions through design competitions and co-creation models.

What motivates cities to adopt circular solutions? Waste prevention stands out as a primary driver for the adoption of circular practices, particularly for cities new to the concept. However, leading cities are taking a more proactive stance, viewing the circular economy not merely as a means to reduce waste, but as a strategic approach to enhance resource efficiency. An increasing number of cities is also recognising the potential of circular practices to mitigate climate impacts and greenhouse gas emissions. This shift is evident in the integration of circular principles into their Climate Action Plans. Moreover, some pioneering cities are pushing boundaries by assessing the impact embedded in imported goods and services, known as Scope 3 emissions, and taking action to reduce their footprint through circular approaches, such as prioritising the procurement of reused products over new ones and enhancing resource recovery from waste.

Besides preventing waste, reducing footprints, and mitigating climate change, the circular economy offers tangible benefits both within cities and beyond. One such benefit is the regeneration of nature and biodiversity, which helps prevent irreversible loss and damage to natural systems. For example, Turku, Finland, has integrated its Circular Roadmap with the Action Plan for Biodiversity Protection, setting a precedent for other cities to follow. Thanks to this strategy, the city is enhancing green spaces, conserving forests and fields, and promoting natural planting methods and reforestation, using urban parks and green infrastructure as carbon sinks to mitigate climate impacts and bolster resilience.

When it comes to resilience, the circular economy can be a powerful ally as it ensures sovereign and secure access to vital resources such as water and food while alleviating the pressure that extractive activities place on natural systems. Cities like Évora, Mangualde, and Porto in Portugal, and Mikkeli and Turku in Finland are investing in infrastructure to enable circular urban water cycles. This includes setting up advanced wastewater treatment plants and increasing water use efficiency to combat water scarcity. In terms of food security, cities such as Bruges and Ghent in Belgium, and Zurich in Switzerland, have implemented food strategies that cover the entire value chain, from agriculture to consumption, aiming for nutritional self-sufficiency.

The circular economy promotes local economic development. Cities like Glasgow, United Kingdom, Maribor, Slovenia, and Mikkeli, Finland, have incorporated local economic development into their circular economy, climate, or sustainability strategies and action plans. Other cities are fostering the creation of circular hubs and platforms. These collaborative spaces promote cooperation and an entrepreneurial culture by offering networking and matchmaking, capacity building and skill development, technical assistance, and seed funding. The city of Porto, Portugal, launched FoodLoop, a circular entrepreneurship contest on food, through dialogues, boot camps, training sessions, and contests.

Keeping valuable resources and materials in circulation reduces scarcity and alleviates the cost-of-living crisis. For this reason, we may say that the circular transition is also a just transition. Repair and reuse initiatives ensure that marginalised communities benefit from the circular economy. Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, provides subsidies for repairing household appliances, while Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Oulu, Finland, collect used textiles and garments for distribution to those in need. Fingal, Ireland, does the same with bicycles and musical instruments. Food redistribution platforms are also becoming popular across Europe. Cities such as Bruges, Belgium, Budapest, Hungary, and Vallès Occidental, Spain, collect unconsumed excess food and deliver it to the most vulnerable sectors of society. Many cities use circular actions to develop sharing or social economies, promoting community-based solutions that build social cohesion and instil a shared sense of ownership and responsibility. Urban gardens in Évora, Portugal, and Rivas Vaciamadrid, Spain, exemplify this approach. Additionally, cities like Temse, Belgium, and Florence, Italy, have created libraries for bikes and tableware, respectively, contributing to a sharing economy that reduces redundancy and increases access to goods.

Cities trying to move out from a linear paradigm often encounter numerous challenges, including the lack of resources and difficulties in adapting governance structures, engaging with the right stakeholders, and measuring progress against targets. However, the most significant obstacle they face is securing funding. Cities are struggling to invest in essential enabling infrastructure—such as collection, sorting, and storage systems—as well as in innovative policies and incentives necessary to advance circular economy initiatives. The Circular City Centre – C3, launched by the European Investment Bank and co-funded by the European Commission under the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI), provides invaluable support to cities through tailored advisory programmes. Its Circular City Advisory (CCA) and Circular Project Advisory (CPA) programmes are designed to cater to cities at various stages of their circular transition, guiding them from initial exploration of circular concepts to the practical implementation of circular projects. The CCRI also offers Project Development Assistance through EU-funded projects such as CircularInvest and DEFINITE-CCRI.

To enable cities to move forward towards a circular economy, the CCD Report 2024 identifies six priority actions to be carried out with the cooperation of policymakers, businesses, and civil society and citizens.

1 Work towards common circular economy metrics

Performance data can help cities provide an economic rationale for adopting circular economy approaches and demonstrate how these approaches tackle global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. By aligning priority indicators with key reporting initiatives, cities can improve comparability and ensure they have the information needed to make effective decisions.

2 Set more ambitious targets, including on consumption-based emissions

Alongside adopting more upstream material targets, such as on reuse and virgin material consumption, frontrunner cities are setting Scope 3 consumption-based emissions targets. These goals ensure that cities move circular economy discussions beyond focusing on downstream interventions such as recycling, challenging the need for costly waste management. This upstream focus helps cities fully benefit from the circular economy transition, especially in meeting climate goals and targets.

3 Integrate circular economy approaches across city departments to unlock resources

To ensure the circular economy is seen as an integral part of a city’s strategic plan and operations, it is vital to integrate circular economy principles across all areas of governance, planning, and decision-making. Cross-departmental coordination and working groups adopting a whole-of-city-government approach will help cities access more resources and tap into previously overlooked funding opportunities.

4 Innovate circular systemic solutions

New policies and circular systemic solutions are urgently needed. While this report identifies over 200 actions for cities to replicate or learn from, significantly more progress is needed to unlock the circular economy's economic and environmental potential. Cities must continue using all available policy levers to test and innovate scalable solutions.

5 Advocate for a new paradigm

Where local government innovation alone is insufficient, cities must advocate to central governments, financial actors, and other stakeholders for more coherent circular economy policy frameworks and packages. Creating connections between these key decision-makers is essential. Fiscal reforms and cost recovery mechanisms like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes are also critical to addressing the true costs of linear production and consumption.

6 Embed nature into all decision-making processes

Cities need to build their understanding of the natural environment that sustains them. Full spatial mapping of green, blue, and grey infrastructure, and monitoring the impact on nature or the ecological footprint of city operations and urban flows, will support this effort, much like accounting for greenhouse gas emissions. Using toolkits such as the Urban Nature Plan Guidance and Toolkit will inform target setting and nature-positive action planning, helping cities take a more systematic approach to regenerating nature.