Circular MuSe

Circular MuSe - Promoting circular economy approaches that increase the resource efficiency of municipal services

Municipalities and urban utility companies provide various services to residents and visitors. Offering these services involves a wide range of fundamental tasks and background operations (e.g., winter road snow removal, repair work on streets and other public infrastructure, maintenance of public spaces, etc.). Many of these activities by municipalities and utilities still rely on the linear economy paradigm, which in turn involves excessive use of - often even raw materials (e.g., sand or gravel for winter road snow removal), which become waste and are disposed of after a single use. The result is relatively high consumption of raw materials and the generation of waste during the provision of municipal services.

Applying circular economy principles to these fundamental tasks and background operations could significantly reduce the environmental impact of providing municipal services in the Southern Baltic area. There are also potential leverage points to reduce raw material consumption and waste production, which lie even within the direct sphere of influence of municipalities and municipal utility companies, for example:

The Circular MuSe project takes a comprehensive and systematic approach to promoting circular economy principles in municipal services across the South Baltic area.

The overall aim of the project is to support municipal enterprises and municipalities in smaller towns and rural areas in adopting a circular approach that promotes the reuse of raw materials in their supply chains, thereby enabling the efficient use of resources in municipal services.

The overarching goal is to increase resource efficiency by minimizing raw material consumption and reducing waste through the reuse of materials in municipal service supply chains.

The project focuses on smaller towns and rural areas, recognizing their unique challenges and opportunities in transitioning to a circular economy.

The project approach is based on three main objectives:

  1. Establishing the "South Baltic Knowledge Hub on Circular Municipal Services" to facilitate cross-border capacity building and knowledge transfer. This will be ensured by conducting in-depth analyses to identify the needs and potentials for applying circular economy solutions in various thematic areas of municipal services; inventorying existing technical and organizational solutions applicable to circular municipal services; assessing replication potential and creating an open online catalog with case studies and information on "knowledge agents".
  2. Testing and evaluating new circular approaches to enrich the portfolio of available solutions. This will be ensured by conducting feasibility studies based on existing best practices and the latest international knowledge; implementing international workshops and peer review sessions to accompany pilots in the involved municipalities; co-designing, testing, and evaluating new circular solutions by urban utility companies, documenting results, and providing guidelines and plans for followers.
  3. Implementing support measures based on co-developed curricula for delivering circular municipal services. This will be achieved by identifying target groups and their needs, with a special focus on municipal utility companies, smaller towns, and rural municipalities; tailoring educational and mentoring programs to the specific needs of the target groups; organizing and implementing educational programs for urban utility companies and decision-makers, recruiting companies through municipal umbrella organizations, and facilitating thematic exchange workshops and study visits in Circular MuSe pilot cities.

Project activities are grouped into three content-related work packages. The first is dedicated to the creation of the "South Baltic Knowledge Hub on Circular Municipal Services". It includes the development of an open catalog of case studies and available solutions for circular municipal services, the development of a set of modular curricula and mentoring programs for urban utility companies and urban decision-makers, and the establishment of an international network of circular economy experts from R&D institutions. The second work package focuses on the practical implementation and evaluation of innovative circular approaches within municipal services, which involve planning, implementing, and evaluating pilot solutions in technical-organizational practices for providing circular municipal services. The last work package involves educational and mentoring programs for urban utility companies along with international workshops connecting practitioners and researchers.

The target groups of the project are urban utility companies in smaller towns and rural areas, smaller towns and rural municipalities, and associations of municipalities and/or sectoral utility company associations.

Sztum Circular Economy

The project is implemented under the "Environment, Energy, Climate Change" Program co-financed by the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.

The project provides for investment activities and soft activities carried out in parallel over a 26th-month period, not only in the area of ​​Sztum City and Commune but also using the experience and expertise of partners from Norway, thanks to the support of International Development Norway. "Sztum Circular economy" uses the possibilities of transferring knowledge and good practices regarding environmental protection, entrepreneurship and the use of circular economy thanks to cooperation with the Gdańsk University of Technology - Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering and leads to the internationalization of activities involving municipalities of two voivodeships and foreign partners from 5 regions of the Baltic Sea basin through information and network activities carried out through the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Bałtyk.
The project consists of 4 components developed by partners from Poland and Norway, diversified in terms of scope and content, which contribute to creating lasting conditions for activity in the field of circular economy in the City and Commune of Sztum, participation and cooperation of the general public with local entities economy and environmental protection in the entire Baltic Sea region.
Through, among others training, an educational campaign, exchange of experiences for effective operation, increases the capacity of the human resources and resource potential in the field of circular economy (GOZ), while providing them with appropriate work tools, rationalization of management methods and techniques, increasing the efficiency of waste management and recycling, and increasing transparency and availability of the local offer to the general public. The use of innovative ways of engaging and educating residents (participation in the management of a repair point, SferaLab, hackathon) to manage waste segregation in a commune will contribute to the creation of an easily transferred model of stimulating social activity and increasing the levels of knowledge, ensuring the achievement of the main goal of the project, which is to strengthen the implementation of the circular economy closed.
Activities to make the functioning of the Selective Waste Collection Point facility for Sztum (including the construction of a selective waste collection point in Sztumskie Pole and a repair, storage and exhibition hall in Sztum) in a changing environment lead to an increase not only in the ability to adapt to social needs, but also to establish permanent cooperation with local entities in the field of development of information and education services provided in the city of Sztum. It is also better cooperation between the public, scientific, private, business and social sectors as well as the internationalization of the issues and promotion of good practices implemented under the project.
In terms of infrastructure, by creating a selective municipal waste collection point, the so-called SWCP (PSZOK in PL) and the repair - warehouse - exhibition hall aims to create permanent conditions for activities in the field of circular economy, and at the same time to protect the environment and health of the inhabitants of the City and Commune of Sztum.
Moreover, the project will promote regional and international cooperation, in which Polish and foreign partners will play an important role. The tasks carried out under the project will take place in Poland and abroad (Norway and BSR countries)

PROJECT BRIEF:

Project area: Circular economy, green and blue growth, counteracting climate change
Duration: 26 months
Project scope: local and transnational (investment activity in Poland, know-how from Norway). With a local or regional focus but international
The role of STG ERB: partner with own budget
Co-financing rate 85%
Project budget: 1 169 798,16 EUR
STG ERB budget: 67 819,77 EUR
Project consortium: 4 partners, including 3 from PL and 1 from NOR