Plastics are pointed out as the main culprit, something to be urgently eliminated. But is it really the materials that are at fault? And what can we do, writes senior research scientist Helena Dahlbo from Finnish Environment Institute.

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.

"Circular economy will play a key role when the societies of the future migrate toward more sustainable production and consumtion", envisions Finnish Minister of the Environment Kimmo Tiilikainen.

“Finland wishes to be the leader in circular economy by 2025. Real-life measures have been in demand to support discussion and visions, and the Circwaste project addresses this demand", says Tuuli Myllymaa, the project manager of Circwaste.

Projector. Video projector. Sound reproduction equipment. Spotlights. Fog machine. Mirror balls. The cultural and arts producers in Central Finland borrow equipment from each other if it were too expensive to buy them alone.

People in Finnish households throw 20-25 million kilos of food away, totalling 120-160 kilos. In the Circwaste project, the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (LUKE) promotes the circular economy of the food system: reduced food waste, better utilisation of co-products and recycling of nutrients.

The new Kangas residential area in Jyväskylä will integrate smart functions in waste management in the city’s Circwaste sub-project. Locked, deep collection container groups that open with residence-specific sensors are supplied by Molok Oy. Information is obtained on the amount of waste produced by the households, and it can then be utilised in waste invoicing, for example, that encourages sorting.

Kompotek Oy is building a pilot plant in Lappeenranta, next to the Etelä-Karjalan Jätehuolto waste management facility, to manufacture bio-composite products from recycled materials. In the Circwaste project, the company can test the technology at an industrial scale.