Making the economy of Europe’s cities more circular

The EU-funded CityLoops project is piloting a series of actions to close the loop of two of Europe’s major waste streams: biowaste, and construction and demolition waste. About 50 % of the waste generated worldwide comes from cities, and experts believe this number to be even higher in Europe. The project is focusing on several European cities for a simple reason. Although cities may be the largest consumers of energy and materials, they also have the capacity to manage resources better and more efficiently, potentially leading the transition to a circular economy.One of the cities taking part in CityLoops is Porto, which is concentrating efforts on its social economy and tourism sectors to promote food waste reduction. The Portuguese demonstrator city also aims to develop small-scale local circular economies by composting biowaste and reusing the compost to grow food locally.

As reported in a news item posted on ‘TheMayor.EU’, composting islands have been installed in two Porto neighbourhoods since 4 August. Residents can deposit their organic waste for composting at these spaces – one near Parque Infantil do Amial and another in Praça do Cávado, both in the Paranhos parish. The initiative is a collaboration between CityLoops project partners Intermunicipal Waste Management Service of Greater Porto and municipal company Porto Ambiente.

Anyone living in the two neighbourhoods can join the project. Participants are provided with a bucket for separating organic waste, a key card for accessing the composter installed on the island, a vertical garden kit and a backpack. Once they have separated the organic waste and/or greenery (leaves, branches and grass) in the bucket, they simply access the composter using the key card and deposit the bucket’s contents in it. “The end result will be a 100% natural organic compound that will be available for use by all project participants,” the news item states. Field technicians will be available to provide support and monitor the composting process.Urban metabolism is an important sustainability model that analyses cities in terms of resources, consumption and waste. It approaches cities as living biological systems with inputs such as materials and energy and outputs such as labour, waste and pollution.

Analysing a city’s urban metabolism requires the use of appropriate tools and methods. Belgian CityLoops project partner Metabolism of Cities has mapped out 29 frameworks to investigate urban metabolism. Most of the frameworks are based on material and energy flow analysis, “thus adopting an essentially linear approach,” according to an article posted on ‘GreenBiz’. Others are based on system dynamics that are deemed “more appropriate to interpret non-linear complex systems such as cities.”

The other six CityLoops (Closing the loop for urban material flows) demonstrator cities are Høje-Taastrup and Roskilde (Denmark), Mikkeli (Finland), Apeldoorn (the Netherlands), Bodø (Norway) and Seville (Spain). Spanish city Murcia and county Valles Occidental have joined the project as replicators. More are expected to follow.

For more information, please see:

CityLoops project website