In 2020, The City of Amsterdam took a radical step by becoming the first city to commit to building a circular economy, where waste is eradicated and citizens are prosperous. By 2030, the city will halve its use of new raw materials. By 2050, its economy will be fully circular.
To do so, it will cut waste in three areas: the food Amsterdamers eat, the products they use, and construction in the built environment. Most importantly, the city is changing the way its residents and companies think, shifting people from a ‘use-and-dispose’ mindset towards one of ‘rethink- and-reuse.
Two years into the city’s ‘Circular Strategy’, things are already changing, with a blizzard of small acts leading to society-wide transformation. When Covid struck, for example, the city helped local textile businesses cut the cost of clothing repairs by 80 percent to encourage more re-use as household budgets fell.
Further opportunities to cut waste have been found in unlikely places. The city has started recycling its artificial grass, and examined how new grass pitches can be designed so that they can last longer. Besides that, the municipality has made the reuse of building material the standard, instead of automatically ordering new supply.
Major steps are necessary to achieve the system change that is required. The Circular Monitor that Amsterdam has built and which tracks all material streams in the City can help in making the right choices on which materials need to be prioritised, and how we can rethink and regenerate their design and life cycle.
By 2030, we choose to ensure that, for the first time in human history, the natural world is growing – not shrinking – on our planet.
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By 2030 we choose to ensure that everyone in the world breathes clean, healthy air – at World Health Organization standard or better.
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By 2030, we choose to repair and preserve our oceans for future generations.
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By 2030, we choose to build a world where nothing goes to waste, where the leftovers of one process become the raw materials of the next – just like they do in nature.
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We choose to fix the world’s climate by cutting out carbon: building a carbon neutral economy that lets every culture, community and country thrive.
This Earthshot focuses on three main areas of interest:
