Stirling: Shaping a Circular Future
Could Stirling become a zero waste hotspot, and lead the small cities of the world to follow in its footsteps?
Before the COVID-19 crisis hit, another major global crisis was already underway. Science has been warning us about the dangers of climate change for decades. As the risks continue to spread and increase, the response has largely been business as usual. Yet the climate maelstrom will only make future pandemics and disasters more severe and more regular. So what can we do?
Whether it’s the architecture of our buildings or what and how we consume, humans will need to live differently in the future. Acceptance of this new reality has fuelled the rise of the zero waste and circular economy movements worldwide. Increasingly, citizens are pursuing their own responses to climate issues.
The aim? To create a better system where all resources are returned and reused. New norms that reduce the impacts of human activity could lead us to a different future—a better one. Could a small urban centre like the Scottish city of Stirling—with a population of just 48,000—act as a proving ground for other cities in Europe and around the world?
Closing the loop
For decades now, humanity has produced waste without thinking much about it. People consume huge amounts of natural resources each day. Today, material consumption is 92.1 billion tons per year—250% more than it was in 1970.
Over the past six decades, the world has produced more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic. What doesn’t end up in our oceans is laid to rest in landfills. As populations swell and consumer demand grows, the planet won’t sustain us. This realisation is forcing a rethink—not only about how we dispose of waste, but how we create it too.
The linear economy is built on the principles of take, make and dispose. In contrast, the circular economy aims to retain as much value as possible from every resource and material. Circularity is concerned with reversing environmental damage during production and minimising waste throughout the life cycle of products.
The idea is simple: use only the materials needed, manufacture without producing surplus waste, and create products designed for reuse. As the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals frame it, we need to “do more and better with less”.
Shifting the status quo
To achieve full circularity, action is needed on three scales:
In cities, we need regulation, infrastructure and systems that balance innovation and consumption with equality, human progress and environmental stewardship.
In business, we need industries to build a circular economy that frees them from dependence on dwindling natural resources and wasteful supply chains.
In lifestyle, we need families to reject high consumerism and reduce their landfill waste, and apply pressure for cities and business to take action.
One of our Nile coventures, Pawprint, tackles that last scale. Their PWA app, launching this summer, will help users reduce their carbon footprint through personalised challenges. The goal is to increase people's understanding of their relationship with resources, and encourage them to adopt smarter lifestyles and sustainable consumption habits.
Pawprint measures, gamifies and incentivises positive behavioural change in individuals. This is the kind of human innovation needed to empower and inspire people into taking actions. But even if great progress is made in households, the wider impact will be limited if it happens in silo. So what about the other scales?
Incentives for change
City-level circularity and sustainable supply chains are where businesses and municipal authorities come in. These stakeholders must work together to design the right systems and processes for the future—solutions fit for our interconnected, interdependent and globalised world.
There are good reasons to take action. Zero waste and circular concepts present big economic and industrial opportunities too. In Scotland, these new markets are predicted to stimulate job creation and deliver annual business savings of £1.4 billion. The projections are impressive, but what does it look like in practice?
Zero Waste Europe is a cross-border collaboration network pursuing the shared goal of eliminating waste in society. Jack McQuibban, the organisation’s cities programme coordinator, has seen the difference that coordinated efforts make on the ground. He says:
“If a city generates less waste, the first opportunity is simple: there’s less waste to deal with. Municipalities can optimise operations and save costs on waste management. For example, if households separate their waste into different streams—such as paper, plastics, cardboard, glass and organics—it can be collected less often. Waste collection rounds might go from twice a week to once a week or even once every two weeks. Less waste goes to incineration sites too, which saves a lot on fees. The recycling industry, in particular, has a history of creating jobs. There are also knock-on effects for social entrepreneurship: citizens are incentivised to get involved with initiatives like repair cafes.”
The business benefits are similar but go even further: less costly waste to deal with, yes, but more importantly, the opportunity to earn more respect and attention from customers by championing better ways of doing things.
The opportunity for Stirling
One company’s waste is another’s raw product. The circular economy has the potential to improve productivity and open up entirely new markets—for cities of every size and character. Can a small city like Stirling leverage this to play a role on the global stage? Perhaps.
Theresa Thomasson is co-founder of Circular Action Tools, an Amsterdam-based consultancy that helps public and private sector clients identify ways to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste. Theresa believes success starts with thinking big and then narrowing the focus:
“You can’t expect a household to recycle plastic goods on their own. You can’t expect a bakery to eliminate food waste overnight. Infrastructure and a degree of city-level coordination are needed to map where waste flows can achieve industrial symbiosis. Stirling has a great opportunity to move fast because of its size, but the risk is it might not be able to reach the critical mass necessary for many schemes.”
Pilot projects are underway in Stirling. Recycle-A-Bike is a scheme where bicycles are refurbished and resold. Ditching Disposables will see 18 independent cafes and hospitality businesses work together to minimise the use of disposable cups. The city has a popular tool library, giving residents access to items they don’t have at home. The city launched a £6 million district heat network fuelled by wastewater last November—a UK-first.
None of these case studies are groundbreaking in the international context—but if Stirling seizes the opportunity to push harder and faster on zero waste and circular principles, they’ll build a decent foundation.
For Stirling to become a leader globally, it needs to show that solutions for 48,000 people could scale to succeed in urban centres ten or even 100 times larger. But the world is already full of small cities seeking to learn from and collaborate with other locations on these issues. If Stirling chooses to engage with them early, it has a shot at becoming a test-bed for tomorrow’s world much sooner.
As always, thank you to Lauren Razavi for her research and editorial support, and to Robyn Johnston for her illustrations. Stirling is Robyn’s hometown, so this week’s dispatch is especially close to her heart.
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Are bananas green? Answering this and other environmental questions
Many of us aim to reduce our carbon footprint, but what does that mean in the real world? With this question in mind, the Nile team teamed up with Edinburgh entrepreneur Christian Arno to him design his new company: Pawprint.
Launching soon, Pawprint is an eco companion that helps you understand the impact of your actions and purchases, take on challenges to reduce your footprint, and drive change in your community.
We’re proud to say the Pawprint team recently smashed their crowdfunding target and are well on the way to launch. Sign up for updates below.