Circular Procurement for Cities
  • Circular public procurement: a framework for cities
    • Disclaimer
  • INTRODUCTION
  • How to use this framework
  • Framework overview
  • The benefits of circular public procurement
  • PART 1: SETTING YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS
    • Set and communicate the level of ambition
      • Set the level of ambition
      • Communicate your ambition
    • Build internal capacity and collect data
      • Learn from other cities
      • Form a working group
      • Align and build internal capacity
      • Conduct market research and collect data
      • Conduct market dialogues
    • Identify opportunities for pilots
      • Identify opportunities for pilots
  • PART 2: ADAPT CRITERIA AND REQUIREMENTS
    • Develop circular criteria
      • Criteria for products
      • Criteria for food
      • Criteria for plastic packaging
      • Criteria for mobility
      • Criteria for buildings
  • PART 3: RUN A CIRCULAR TENDER PROCESS
    • Assess needs and review assets
      • Assess needs and consider the use of services
      • Review assets
      • Assess risks and opportunities
    • Engage relevant departments
    • Adapt selection and evaluation
      • Evaluation and performance review
      • Adapt the tender procedure
      • End-of-use
  • PART 4: MAINSTREAM CIRCULAR PUBLIC PROCUREMENT
    • Learn and improve
    • Support innovation and emerging innovators
    • Align business support with circular objectives
    • Create an enabling regulatory environment
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    • Thank you
    • Core team and contributors
  • Glossary
Powered by GitBook
On this page

Was this helpful?

  1. PART 2: ADAPT CRITERIA AND REQUIREMENTS
  2. Develop circular criteria

Criteria for plastic packaging

Promoting a circular economy for packaging based on the learning of the New Plastics Economy experience

PreviousCriteria for foodNextCriteria for mobility

Last updated 3 months ago

Was this helpful?

In a circular economy plastic packaging is designed to never become waste. Addressing the root cause of plastic pollution, city governments can deliver economic, environmental and societal benefits by leveraging public procurement strategies. By applying circular economy principles when selecting packaging and packaging materials, cities can look at eliminating the plastic items that are problematic or unnecessary in the first place; secondly, cities can facilitate the adoption of innovative reusable solutions (through reuse, refill and return models); and lastly, make sure that the plastic that is being used is actually circulated (eg. through recycling or composting) and not sent to landfill, burnt or lost to the environment. Furthermore, in order to decouple plastic use from the consumption of finite resources, it is essential to promote the use of recycled content (where legally and technically possible) and to shift the remaining virgin plastic input (if any) to renewable feedstocks.

Questions to consider:

  • Can you avoid the procurement of: + Unnecessary packaging? + Packaging that has a high likelihood of being littered or ending up in the natural environment? + Packaging that may hinder or disrupt recycling of other plastics or materials? + Packaging that contains hazardous chemicals? + Packaging that is not reusable or recyclable?

  • Can you procure: + Solutions with new delivery models (e.g. refill, reuse, or returnable models)? + Packaging made out of recycled content to reduce the need for further virgin material? + Packaging made out of renewable feedstock (e.g. seaweed and other plant derived materials) to reduce reliance on fossil fuel derived plastics?

Examples

1) To reduce the consumption of single-use plastics, the has mapped all purchases of plastic products across the municipality. In procurement agreements of medical supplies, the city has decided to replace plastic cotton swabs with ones made out of paper.

2) In 2016, the banned the municipal use of single-use items such as plastic coffee capsules, bottles, and utensils. The cafeterias of the public administration and police academy are now using reusable cups. This public procurement decision has helped to prevent the use of up to 675,000 single-use cups each year.

3) The encourages organisers of events taking place in Paris to adopt practices that limit waste and negative environmental impacts. The charter promotes the use of recyclable packaging and reusable cups and cutlery. The has the ambition of organising the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics as an event free of single-use plastics.

4) In the , recycling and recyclability criteria for packaging have been included in their tender for cleaning services: 75% of material used for bags must be recycled or biodegradable; non-reusable packaging must be easy to separate into single material types; mono materials are to be used if possible; only recyclable materials must be used; and use of dark colours must be avoided.

Resources

  • The by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is packed with practical guidance and real-world examples, this handbook has been designed for anyone directly or indirectly influencing the packaging that is put around a product.

  • The guide by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation provides a framework to understand reuse models, identifies six major benefits, and maps 69 reuse examples.

  • The by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has identified 21 specific and urgent actions for flexible packaging that need to be commenced immediately by businesses and policymakers in order to make significant progress towards 2025 targets and beyond.

City of Oslo
City of Hamburg
charter of eco-responsible events
City of Paris
Danish municipality of Lolland
Upstream Innovation Guide
Reuse - Rethinking Packaging
flexible packaging resource suite