Page 261 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

Chapter 12

Urban Circular Economy: The

New Frontier for European
Cities’ Sustainable

Development

1
Danilo Bonato , Raimondo Orsini 2
1 2
Remedia Consortium, Milano, Italy; Sustainable Development Foundation, United Kingdom

Chapter Outline
The Urban Circular Economy in The Role of Small Cities: the Italian
Europe 235 Experience 242
The Big Cities Examples: Amsterdam, References and Sources 243
London, Paris, and Milan on the Chart 1: Circular Economy and Its
Leading Edge of the Urban Circular Impacts on Citizens’ Day-to-Day Life 244
Economy 237 Chart 2: The European Union Circular
Where to Find the Resources to Invest Economy Action Plan and the
in Urban Circular Economy? 240 Role of the Cities 245
How to Overcome This
Contradiction? 240

THE URBAN CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN EUROPE

Circular economy is our best alternative to the traditional make, use, and
dispose linear economy model. Implementing circular economy’s models, we
do our best to keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the
maximum value from them while in use, and then recover and regenerate
products and materials at the end of each service life. Circular economy is
about our everyday life, it concerns our role as citizens and consumers, and it
will probably shape our future.
Circular economy is about people, and people live in the cities; in 2050,
75% of the global population will reside in cities. Cities are the engine of the

Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813964-6.00012-4
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