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Making the economy of Europe’s cities more

circular
Residents in the Portuguese city of Porto get help making their own compost, and
urban metabolism is analysed as an important tool in transitioning to a circular
economy.
CLIMATE CHANGE
AND ENVIRONMENT

SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES

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
© BsWei, Shutterstock 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.

Promoting circularity in Porto

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

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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.

Driving transition to a circular economy with urban

metabolism
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

Keywords
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CityLoops, cities, waste, circular economy, Porto, compost, composting, urban
metabolism

Related projects

CityLoops

Closing the loop for urban material flows

7 May 2021
PROJECT

Last update: 22 September 2021

Record number: 430688

Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/430688-making-the-economy-of-
europe-s-cities-more-circular

© European Union, 2021

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