Circular Glasgow: A vision and action plan for the city of Glasgow

The City of Glasgow is on the road to becoming one of the world’s first circular cities. The city has taken its first steps in creating a stronger more sustainable economy by completing the Circle City Scan. Commissioned through a partnership between Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, Zero Waste Scotland and Glasgow City Council, an analysis of the city’s material flows was executed by Circle Economy.

This pioneering study of Glasgow’s economy, identified leading industries through which the city’s economy can become more ‘circular’ and defined implementation strategies and opportunities for the region’s business community. The goal of the Circle City Scan is to pinpoint areas in which the city of Glasgow can benefit from new collaborations, create market opportunities and increase profits, while reducing the city’s environmental impact. The resulting report highlights sectors in which circular business models can be applied and specifies strategies to accomplish the practical and scalable implementation of these circular solutions.

The real benefits of the circular economy, recognised by Glasgow, is that it allows economic growth, prosperity and security by reducing the city’s unhealthy and harmful dependency on scarce natural resources. Circular thinking will inspire companies to increase their raw material efficiency by keeping the resources they use in circulation for as long as possible and to recover products when they are no longer being used by the consumer to act as inputs in a new cycle. Glasgow sees this new approach as a solution to create improved product quality, economic growth, jobs and ultimately a future proof, more resilient city.