Circular Cities, what are they?
Linear consumption is reaching its limits. The take-make-dispose model does not work anymore, and we now feel the future can only be circular. A circular city – a circular economy – is regenerative by design, and is based around three principles: no waste, no obsolescence, and regeneration of natural systems.
“Waste does not exist in nature, because each organism contributes to the health of the whole. A fruit tree’s blossoms fall to the ground and decompose into food for other living things. Bacteria and fungi feed on the organic waste of both the tree and the animals that eat its fruit, depositing nutrients in the soil that the tree can take up and convert into growth. One organism’s waste becomes food for another. Nutrients flow perpetually in regenerative, cradle to cradle1 cycles of birth, decay and rebirth. Waste equals food.”– William McDonough, Architect, Co-Author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002) and Author of Something Lived, Something Dreamed (2003) and Positive Cities (Scientific American, July 2017)
Waste prevention, re-use and smart design are set to close the loop of product lifecycles, curb plastic invasion, and bring benefits for both the environment and the economy. According to the European Parliament, transitioning to a circular model could save EU companies €600 billion while also reducing total annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2-4% and recycling 65% of municipal waste by 2035, as agreed in the EU targets.
The circular economy approach aims to reshape resource use by decoupling growth from material extraction. The intention is to create a more sustainable future that allows the natural environment to restore resources and protects it from the negative effects of industrialized waste.
“A circular economy describes an economic system that is based on business models which replace the ‘endof-life’ concept with reducing, alternatively reusing, recycling and recovering materials in production/distribution and consumption processes, thus operating at the micro level (products, companies, consumers), meso level (eco-industrial parks) and macro level (city, region, nation and beyond), with the aim to accomplish sustainable development, which implies creating environmental quality, economic prosperity and social equity, to the benefit of current and future generations.”
Sounds great, but the challenges are huge. So, where to begin?
