The changing legal, political and economic situation for municipal actors in waste prevention is diverse and dynamic. This results in a number of challenges if they want to fulfill their role as key actors in the transformation to a circular economy and, in particular, support the topic of waste prevention.
The overall objective of the project "Circular Cities NRW" is to create a solid knowledge base and develop recommendations for action for municipalities and the state government.
Significantly above-average quantities of household and bulky waste in almost all of NRW's cities point to deficits in circularity and, in particular, in waste prevention. Against the backdrop of new climate policy ambitions, considerable pressure to act arises for municipalities and states. So far, there is no systematic knowledge about the status of circular economy approaches and waste prevention policies in the municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia, their institutional structures, conditions, success factors, etc. The project aims to close this knowledge gap and to develop policy recommendations for municipalities and the state government.
Systematic findings on characteristics, causal factors and conditions for effectiveness and efficiency of waste prevention measures will be obtained for 22 independent cities in NRW – in comparison with five reference cases outside North-Rhine Westphalia.
The Wuppertal Institute cooperates with the FernUniversität Hagen, which is in charge of the data collection of the 22 case studies in NRW and the causal analysis. The Wuppertal Institute is responsible for the analysis of 5 reference cases and the evaluative assessment of efficiency and efficiency conditions. Furthermore, a supporting tool for municipalities and the conception of a potential funding program will be developed. A stakeholder workshop and final conference will be conducted.
