Ten Finnish municipalities − Ii, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Lahti, Lappeenranta, Porvoo, Riihimäki, Rovaniemi, Turku and Vantaa − have committed themselves to promoting the circular economy in an ambitious and concrete way. As the first Finnish municipal network, they intend to implement the goals of the national waste plan by recycling at least 55 per cent of their municipal waste, by utilising at least 70 per cent of construction and demolition waste as materials, and by decreasing the amount of waste that they generate to the level that it was in 2000 by 2020.
The municipalities are free to select the methods that they will use to promote the circular economy in their regions. These will initiate new business, activate their citizens and create new collaborative opportunities with different actors.
“Even on a global scale, the plans of these municipalities are ambitious. For example, they're planning to recover precious metals from electronic waste, utilise the side flows of the forest and mining industry as a replacement for concrete, create a bioindustry park and circular economy cluster, transform a landfill into a renewable energy production area, and construct a smart and low-carbon infrastructure. Many of the municipalities also want to involve their citizens in the development of the circular economy,” says Head of Unit Tuuli Myllymaa from the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE.
SYKE and Motiva selected the pioneering municipalities from a group of twenty applicants. Their selection criteria included the commitments made by the municipalities during the application phase as well as the measures that the municipalities have utilised to promote the circular economy so far.
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