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Ares(2024)488372 - 22/01/2024

Report on 4 annual circular

city workshops
Deliverable 8.6

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability

Version 1.0

WP 8

Deliverable 8.6

Date 29.09.2023

Dissemination
Public
level

Deliverable lead ICLEI

Jon Jonoski, ICLEI

Authors

Reviewers Simon Clement, ICLEI

This is an overview of the four Circular City Workshops ICLEI

organised in collaboration with the partners during the course
Abstract of the project. It highlights the aims and objectives of each
workshop and provides a brief overview of the content and
topics discussed..

Keywords Communication; dissemination; awareness

License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

International License(CC BY 4.0).
See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Contents
1. Introduction ___________________________________________________________ 2
2. Plastic, construction and bio-waste: too valuable to waste _____________________ 3
3. Loops 2.0 – CityLoops & Reflow ___________________________________________ 7
4. Círcular Policies for Changing the Biowaste System____________________________ 8
5. CityLoops final webinar – CityLoops and Bio-waste ___________________________ 12

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1. Introduction
In collaboration with all partners ICLEI organise four European circular city workshops – two
focusing on bio-waste and two focusing on construction and demolition waste (CDW). It is
hereby worth noting that the first workshop called “Plastic, construction and bio-waste: too
valuable too waste” did feature, as the name indicates, a discussion on bio-waste, but
CityLoops was only represented in the conversation on Construction and Demolition Waste.
The aim of these events was to raise awareness on the benefits of a circular economy,
showcase what the seven CityLoops cities are doing, share knowledge and expertise, and
encourage others to replicate or build upon the outcomes and results of the project. The four
events were originally intended to be organised annually. In the end two events took place in
2022 and none in 2021. This was decided to give cities more opportunity to present their
results in-depth.
Below follows an overview of the four Circular City Workshops. With the exception of the
fourth one, the CItyLoops final webinar on Bio-waste, they all include related (sister) projects
that have worked over the past four years to advance the circular transition in Europe. The
collaborative nature of these workshops highlights the efforts of Europe’s circular economy
community to share its best practices, knowledge and lessons learnt widely and to make sure
that the implemented circular activities are replicated beyond the boundaries of specific
projects and cities.
They also make evident that Cities throughout Europe are increasingly recognising that the
transition from a linear to a circular economy is crucial in the fight against climate change and
biodiversity loss and that this requires them to move away from the take-make-waste
approach towards an economy based around closed material loops, where resource
consumption is decoupled from economic growth.

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2. Plastic, construction and bio-
waste: too valuable to waste
Date: Friday 2 October 2020
Time: 9:30 - 11:00 CEST
The first annual Circular City Workshop was held on 02 October 2020, as part of the 9th
European Conference of Sustainable Cities and Towns, and in cooperation with the
PlastiCircle project. During the session city representatives (CityLoops was represented by
Klaus Kellerman, Head of Sustainable Buildings at the Municipality of Roskilde) presented
the work they are implementing to minimise waste, and to maintain the value and utility of
products, materials and resources. The main objective of the session was for other cities and
stakeholders to hear some experiences that can inspire them, so that they can adapt them
and/or replicate them in their local context. Another goal was to show that not only big cities
are doing things to move from a linear to a circular economy. Small and medium-sized cities
are also taking ownership and are piloting solutions.
More specifically, the session looked at the technologies cities have used to make plastics,
bio-waste and construction and demolition waste more circular, what the plans for the future
are, and how cities plan to involve citizens in this processes. Furthermore, the session
addressed which economic and regulatory levers cities can use. The session was placed in
the broader context of the Circular Economy Action Plan, issued by the European
Commission in 2020. The Plan identified the three waste streams discussed in the session
among its priority areas, as they have an adverse effect on climate and (marine and land)
ecosystems.
Among the main conclusions of the session was the key role of cities and towns in making
plastics, bio-waste and construction and demolition waste more circular. Cities and towns are
the main consumers of materials related to these waste streams, while also suffering most
from the associated environmental impact. At the same times due to their innovation potential
as well as their urban form (population density, urban building stock and urban consumption
patterns), cities and towns have a great opportunity for impactful circular economy
interventions.
The 90-minute session was divided in a 50-minute plenary session, featuring 3 speakers and
three 40-min breakout sessions, divided by waste stream. The audience was invited as much
as possible to interact and ask questions. The full programme of the session can be found
below:

TIME PROGRAMME
09:30- Welcome and Introduction (Ashima Sukhdev, Ellen MacArthur Foundation,
09:35 Moderator)

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 09:35- Klaus Kellerman, City of Roskilde (on construction waste)
09:45
09:45- Yolanda Morant, City of Valencia (on plastics waste)
09:55
09:55- David Andreas Mana-Ay Christensen, Island of Bornholm (on bio-waste)
10:05
10:05- Panel discussion (incl. short Q&A) - Focus:
10:15 • Transferability of experiences to other cities
• Biggest challenges in achieving a genuine circular transition
10:15- Redirecting to break-out rooms (Moderator)
10:20
10:20- Break-out rooms
11:00

Break-out sessions:

1. Construction

TIME PROGRAMME
10:20- Panel and audience discussion
11.00 • How can local governments support the secondary construction
materials market?
• Is regulation getting in the way?
• What requirements can local governments already set when procuring
construction and demolition works?
• (Add in a poll? What is getting in the way of circular construction – or
make each of the questions pollable?)

2. Plastics

TIME PROGRAMME
10:20- Welcome + poll (Facilitator: Meritxell Diaz)
10:25
10:25- ITENE + question
10:33
10:33- Las Naves + question
10:40
10:40- Ghent + question
10:47
10:47- Discussion with the audience
11:00
Questions:

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 • (To Valencia and Ghent) Are your initiatives replicable in other cities
around Europe?
• From the industry perspective, what is currently being done to support
redesign and innovation of plastics? Where are the priorities
(recyclability, reusability, compostability…)?
• What do you think about the radical solution of banning plastic and
replacing it with other material?
• What do cities need to increase the circularity of plastics? (Is it
regulations, is it innovations, is it support from citizens…)
• When talking about plastics, can Europe move at the same speed?
Where are you, as cities, taking good examples from?

3. Bio-waste
TIME PROGRAMME
10:20- Panel and audience discussion
11:00 • How can local governments support the development of the
bioeconomy? Which are key levers?
• What role does biowaste play for cities?
• Which are the most pressing regulatory and technical/feedstock-related
challenges related to bio waste valorization? And what could be possible
solution pathways or research needs?
• What constitutes a “bio-based city” and how is it related to other local
(sustainability) agendas?
• (polls to the audience will be included either via Mentimeter, or through
the conference platform)

Speakers
• Plenary:

Name Organisation
Yolanda Morant City of Valencia (Spain)
Klaus Kellerman City of Roskilde (Denmark)
David Andreas Mana-Ay Christensen Bornholm Island (Denmark)

• Breakout Sessions:

1. Plastic waste

Name Organisation
Yolanda Morant City of Valencia, Spain
César Aliaga ITENE, Valencia, Spain
Kerstin Kleinhans City of Ghent, Belgium
Julián Torralba Las Naves, Valencia, Spain

2. Bio-waste

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 Name Role / Position Organisation
Susanna Albertini CEO FVA New Media Research
Miia Jylhä Waste Specialist City of Turku/FI
Igor Kos Senior Advisor WCYLCE Institue, City of Maribor/SL

3. Construction waste

Name Organisation
Klaus Kellerman City of Roskilde (Denmark)
Anna-Vera Deinhammer City of Vienna
Michael Ghyoot Rotor Deconstruction

The full session can be viewed here.The session was attended by approximately 60
participants.

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3. Loops 2.0 – CityLoops & Reflow
Date: 27 January 2022
Time: 11:00-12:00
The second Circular City Workshop was on 27 January 2022 within the context of the Loops
webinar series, organised by Veltha, committed to exploring innovation in the circular
economy. The webinar featured a discussion between Reflow and CityLoops on. The
speakers from Reflow were Manon Taillebois and Minh Man Nguyen who are working with
circular wood in Reflow’s Paris pilot. From CityLoops' side Tor Gausemel Kristensen,
CityLoops demonstration manager in Bodø discussed the circular reuse and repurposing of
construction & demolition waste (CDW) in the context of a major urban development project
focused around the demolishment of old military airport of the Norwegian city.
The overarching topic of the session was Urban Transformation and how construction and
wood are a huge part of circularity in cities. The aim is was to highlight common challenges,
opportunities, and best practices of these two highly connected topics with each project
presenting its main challenges, opportunities, best practices, and methods to reach its
objectives. These introductions were then followed by an interactive discussion (with the
audience invited to participate) on the common learnings of the two projects.
Kristensen’s presentation focused mainly on the role of data, citizen engagement and
sustainable procurement in Bodø’s demonstration actions and how a digital twin helps
visualize the work the city is doing. The digital twin helps the city understand how much
emissions it can save under different scenarios and give it a better idea of where they perform
well and where they can improve.
Reflow’s speakers presented a number of the instruments that the project is developing to
make wood waste more circular. They include a smart device composed of a computer and
a 3D-scanning system and coupled to database that allows the digitization of reused
materials, a methodology for material flow analysis, an incubation programme for
entrepreneur, and a label to promote and support the re-use of local manufacturing actors.
The full webinar can be viewed here, The YouTube video has 230 views. The live session was
attended by around 50 people

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4. Circular Policies for Changing
the Biowaste System
Date: 27 September 2022
Time: 09:30 – 17:00
The third Circular City Workshop took place on 27 September 2022 in Brussels, within the
context of the ROOTS initiative. CityLoops joined the initiative alongside its sister projects
HOOP, Valuewaste, SCALIBUR and WaysTUP aiming to promote innovative solutions for
the European circular bio-economy and bring down the regulatory barriers blocking a more
sustainable future. As such, ROOTS stands for circulaR pOlicies for changing the biOwasTe
System.
In July 2022, the ROOTS Initiative published a position paper arguing that as up to 50% of
European municipal waste is organic, valorisation of biowaste is a key tenet of a circular
economy. However, numerous regulatory bottlenecks hinder the full deployment of
revolutionary solutions in the field. In response to this, the ROOTS position paper provide a
series of recommendations to bring down regulatory barriers in seven policy areas: Recycling
targets & treatment plants, Waste & by-products, Biopesticides, Insects for Animal Feed, (Bio-
)Waste prevention, The Behavioural problem, and Investment needs.

On 27 September these recommendations were presented to, and discussed with European
policymakers and other relevant stakeholders during a Policy Conference in Brussels, aiming
to help EU policymakers to learn lessons from the ground in order to improve the regulatory
framework. CityLoops was represented by Simon Gresset, senior circular economy expert at
ICLEI Europe and Daniel Freitas, Head of Carbon Neutrality in Porto. Their key argument was
that a circular economy starts with preventing waste, with Freitas highlighting how preventing
food waste has both environmental and socio-economic policy benefits.

The full programme for the event can be found below:

09:30-09:45

Institutional welcome

09:45-10:15

Introduction to the ROOTS projects and initiative

ValueWaste & HOOP: Gemma Castejón, Martin Soriano (CETENMA)

SCALIBUR: Cesar Aliaga (ITENE)

CITYLOOPS: Simon Gresset (ICLEI)

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WaysTUP!: Belen Miranda (SAV)

ROOTS initiative: Giulio Poggiaroni (EUBIA)

10:15-11:00

PANEL 1 – Recycling targets and treatment plants

Pedro Gustavo Rodríguez (Prezero)

Paula Marozzi (FCC)

Yeray Asensio Ramirez (Aqualia)

Q&A

11:00-11:15

Coffee break

11:15–12:30

PANEL 2 – Waste and by-products

Maria Nicolas (SAV)

Toraf Igelsund (BIR)

Ainhoa Bilbao (GAIKER)

Michael Jensen (UNIBIO)

Q&A

12:30-13:30

Lunch break

13:30-14:30

PANEL 3 – Insects for animal feed

María Cámara (Uni Alicante)

Alba Cerisuelo (IVIA)

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Diego Amores & Juan Cortés (ENTOMO)

Valeria Paganizza (UNIMORE – KOUR ENERGY SRL)

Q&A

14:30-15:10

PANEL 4 – Biowaste prevention

Gloria Sanchez (AMB Barcelona)

Daniel Freitas (City of Porto)

Simon Gresset (ICLEI)

Q&A

15:10-15:50

PANEL 5 – Citizen awareness

Carina Diedrich (CSCP)

Lola Vicente-Almazán (Las Naves – City of Valencia)

Mercedes Hernández (Murcia City Council)

Mar Escarrabill (Science for Change)

Q&A

15:50-16:30

PANEL 6 – Investment needs

Jorge Rodrigues de Almeida (RdA Climate Solutions)

Yannis Fallas (CluBE)

Q&A

16:30-17:00

Closing speech

Circular Cities and Regions Initiative

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The Conference was streamed online and can be found here. Around 150 people (on-site and
online) attended the conference.

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5. CityLoops final webinar –
CityLoops and Bio-waste
Date: 26 September 2023

Time: 11:00 – 12:30

The CityLoops final webinar on Bio-waste presented in depth the main results from the
project's work towards a circular bioeconomy, giving an overview of how the developed
instruments and demonstration actions can be replicated in other cities in Europe and beyond.

The webinar followed the structure of one of the main legacies of the project, the Bio-waste
Practitioner Handbook. The handbook provides recommendations for any European local
government on how to promote circularity in the bio-waste sector. It aims to bridge the gap
between theory and practice by referring to both relevant findings in literature and a selection
of case studies from CityLoops as well as from other projects.

The webinar was led by Malen Otero, circular economy officer at ICLEI Europe and featured
interventions on best practices and lessons learnt from Apeldoorn (the Netherlands), Mikkeli
(Finland), Porto (Portugal) and Seville (Spain).

The programme for the webinar can be found below:

11:00

Introduction: The circular transition of the bio-waste sector and the role of local authorities

11:05

Evaluation: Understanding your city

11:15

Implementation: CE in the bio-waste sector

- Waste prevention

- Food redistribution

- Decentralised treatment

- Centralised treatment (Separate collection, Pre-treatment method and Main valorization

technologies)

11:35

Implementation & acceleration - Enabling and accelerating the transition to a circular bio-waste
system

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11:50

Q&A with webinar participants

12:20

Closing

The webinar can be viewed here. It was attended by approximately 35 people.

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