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Circularity principles

13 important questions on Circularity principles

What is the difference between Relative decoupling and Absolute decoupling?

In the concept of Relative decoupling, the GDP increases and environmental pressures also increase albeit at a lower rate. In comparison with Absolute decoupling, the GDP also increases however ALSO the environmental pressures decrease.

What is the concept of Urban experimentation?

It's a way to seed change that over time may lead to a fundamental transformation of a system. Developing and trialling innovations as well as corresponding institutions that nurture and scale them over time. You see how it works, send out surveys, talk with all people involved, put together multiple actors.

How to manage the transition?

Improve Resource Efficiency
use renewable resources and ecosystem services
reuse waste
circularity principles

What is the field of Urban Transition Analysis?

There is a need to explore how innovative activities within cities interrelate with wider national and societal transitions. Understanding the role of cities in a multilevel transitions perspective also needs to take seriously multilevel governance and different scales of action. How city experiments can be scaled up that it has an impact on the national level.

What is circular economy?

Long- and short-term vision.
a circular economy describes a sustainable economic system, for which materials are used several times with the goal of improving environmental quality economic prosperity, social equity, and focussing on both production and consumption processes. The opposite of a linear economy the products are used one time.

What are the benefits of urban mining in the city?

It is local and therefore sustainable lower transportation cost, energy source (waste energy that can be re-used).

What is The Functional Service Economy?

This refers to the change in the way businesses and the relations between businesses and consumers work. Meaning, you would have to:

Design for disassembly and re-use.
Closed-loop systems: from selling products to services.
Producers maintain ownership of the materials that are used and also as a product as its useful life/ Service provider.

What are the implications for the matter of the functional service economy?

Policymakers (make life easier for start-ups):

develop procedures that avoid bias towards existing interests.
foster and facilitate circular start-ups
identify and remove procedural barriers

Create pressure on linear systems:

clear objectives (x% less raw materials in 20xx) (done!)
create financial incentives: taxes on linear business models

Guide to the exit of those that are unlikely to have a place in the future.

How do we support the Circular economy?

Incentivising waste reduction and high-quality separation by consumers;
adapting the rules and regulations to facilitate instead of hinder the circular economy;
minimising costs of recycling and reuse with good separation and collection systems (keeping it clean);
facilitating industrial clusters that exchange by-products to prevent them from becoming wastes (industrial symbiosis);
encouraging wider consumer choice throug renting or leasing instead of owning products (new business models)

What is urban mining?

Recovering materials from the city

What are three important questions considering Circular economy?

Is it sustainable?
is it practical? How visible it, implementing a certain system, is to reduce material consumption
is it economically viable (able to work as intended or able to succeed)?

How do we characterize the Urban mine?

Find (anthropogenic) stocks
collect and transport (the better also ecologically)
mechanical processing

sorting
dismantling
separating

smelting & refining

The opposite (linear economy)

extracting (geogenic) resources from the ground
use explosives, a lot of energy for mining and take it where you want it to be
mineral processing
smelting & refining

What do you have to do if you want to understand whether it is visible to have practices of urban mining in an urban system?

Physical system; you have to understand what is in the system
Economics; understand whether there is an economic incentive to recover the sources
Recovery technologies; you have the technology to recover those resources.
eventually, try to act.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

The Material City

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Circularity principles

13 important questions on Circularity principles

What is the difference between Relative decoupling and Absolute decoupling?

What is the concept of Urban experimentation?

How to manage the transition?

What is the field of Urban Transition Analysis?

What is circular economy?

What are the benefits of urban mining in the city?

What is The Functional Service Economy?

What are the implications for the matter of the functional service economy?

How do we support the Circular economy?

What is urban mining?

What are three important questions considering Circular economy?

How do we characterize the Urban mine?

What do you have to do if you want to understand whether it is visible to have practices of urban mining in an urban system?

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