Dear Antonis,

very interesting question ! From my point of view, generally is still very difficult to adopt the concept of Circular Economy as we are still not able to completely close the loops. And this is even more true for an island.

We worked in the integrated waste management projects in Cyprus, and we tried to find out the potential of integration of all waste cycles with the overall scope of an optimised management. We arrived to the point that in this stage of science and technology we will still have waste, what means there will still be needed some kind of solution like as disposal, even this volume is smaller after waste treatment. And we found out that this is even much more difficult in an island area, as there are quite limited options in terms of recycling. As we tried to understand, why is this, we found out that the reason is the logistics. Usually, you can not have recycling facilities for all types of waste on an island, but when you need to transfer special waste streams for recycling through shipping, in practice it doesnt work economically because the shipping to the mainland is more costly than the disposal. From my point of view for a small Municipality the difficult waste streams even in the future will be especially hazardous waste, end of life vehicles e-waste, sewage sludge and animal by-products.

I do not want to want to dampen your optimism, but from my point of view Circular Economy is not possible on an island now, but maybe in 30 years, when the open questions to close the loops have been solved.

Best regards,

Petra

Dear Petra

I’m very surprise that you worked on a project in my County (Cyprus). I am asking this as I am also working on that field (circular economy, waste prevention, strategy development the last years) and my next speech in the international conference of ORBIT 2016 (http://www.orbit2016.gr/) which will be take place from 24-28/5/2016 (Heraklion – Crete) focus on that and the subject that I will present will be  “Perspectives And Barriers Regarding The Adoption Of Circular Economy Concept, In Small Municipalities In Cyprus In The Framework Of Waste Management”. I have designed with my team the Prevention Strategy Plan for Cyprus covering the period from 2013-2020.

Beside logistics there are also many other reasons.

Yes is correct and I agree with you that we can not have recycling facilities for all types of waste on an island BUT we must/can set up priorities as a result of strategic planning NOT in centralized level, but in Municipalities. Each Municipality in an Island has several activities which that activity varies from the next Municipality which is less than 5 km from the other. Moreover and this is true micromanagement in local level is considered to be the main reason as well as other politics from several political parties in local; and more centralized level affect the whole planning. Educational programs also plays significant rules on that and this is a result from a waste compositional analysis as during our research in 3 Municipalities (2 acts mainly in hospitality industry and the other in agricultural) we found out that if prevention activities were involved they will save up to 55% of the total gate fees that they have paid for their waste. For example we have found that in the household waste exists huge quantities of PMD, papers, green waste that can be composted (you may find more results in my publications (a) Antonis A. Zorpas, Katia Lasaridi, Irene Voukkali, Pantelitsa Loizia, Christina Chroni «Household waste compositional analysis variation from insular communities in the framework of waste prevention strategy plans», Waste Management, Vol 38, 3-11, 2015. (b) Zorpas A.A, Lasaridi K, Abeliotis K, Voukkali I, Loizia P., Fitiri L, Chroni C, Bikaki N. «Waste prevention campaign regarding the Waste Framework Directive» Fresenious Environmental Bulletin, Vol 23 (11a), pp 2876-2883, 2014 (c) A.A. Zorpas, I. Voukkali, P. Loizia «Cyprus Strategic Prevention Plan in Relation of the Waste Framework Directive», Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, Accepted, 2016 (d) A.A. Zorpas, K. Lasaridi, I. Voukkali, P. Loizia, C. Chroni «Promoting Sustainable Waste Prevention Activities and Plan in Relation to the Waste Framework Directive in Insular Communities», Environmental Processes, DOI 10.1007/s40710-015-0093-3, published on Line 14-8-2015, pp 1-15, 2015

Before I will answer to your final comment I will wait to this debate to see if there is something other and I will be back again

Thanks for your effort

Antonis

Hi Antonis,

I very much appreciate your question, as well as the answer from Petra!

I have worked for more than a decade in MSWM in Southeast Asia with more than 20 pilot municipalities that tried to establish enhanced MSWM systems in developing country context. The best result from our (official development) work by Integrated approaches was a 'recovery rate of 50%' , mainly through low cost approaches that channeled out organic waste prior to disposal. I have to admit that the organic recycling component was 'subsidized' in all cases, meaning without the supporting local policies to provide project subsidy this 50% recycling rate could not have been achieved. Recovery rates for 'sellable items' (hard plastics, selected glass, metals, paper cartoons) usually had a share below 15% of total collected waste. We have tried several approaches for value adding with the informal sector (handicraft items, alternative fuels, briquettes for household consumption, etc but most of these projects remained small and could not be replicated. Looking on the accomplishment from a simplified perspective: Tackling the organic waste fraction (presented at the ORBIT 2012 for San Carlos City) solved many issues related to waste disposal but is hardly a 'self-running/self-sustaining' activity. Organic waste recovery on a small scale (as is typical for most islands) in view of circular economy demands to provide a sustainable business models that is (lastingly and reliable) supported by the municipality. We have documented this approach in a special GIZ Publication "Eco-Center" (2013) in the Philippines. Please feedback to me if you like to get an e-copy, as well as other related papers.

In summary: It would indeed be interesting to consider a review paper that summarizes to what degree other researchers / developers / island states were able to implement 'circular economy' for island contexts and what were success factors respectively barriers. 

Johannes Paul

Dear Paul,

please be so kind and sent me a copy of this publication

more over i realized now from Petra and you that the problem is not easy to be solved as there are many barriers that must be taken into consideration regarding the concept of circular economy in insular communities

A PhD student of me works on that subject (review paper) but mostly on the metabolism of cities regarding the concept of circular economy. Is quit difficult subject 

Dear Antonis and Paul,

thanks for the sharing the experience in that interesting way.

@ Antonis: we have not been in contact when I worked in Cyprus, because I worked in the Northern Part of Cyprus for the European Comission in the Project "Supervision of works contracts on waste management infrastructure in the northern part of Cyprus, EuropeAid/126761/C/SER/CY". Regardless of the fact that our project was located in the North, I learned in the project that the waste management system of Cyprus which is proposed and financially supported by EC, is designed for the whole island. Main scope of our project was the supervision of the construction of the new landfill, some recycling facilities and the closure of an old landfill as well as a stock taking study on the future investment needs in the waste management sector. In the frame of the stock taking study we investigated also the local (means on the whole island) recycling capacities and the strength and weaknesses of the system. We further used the occasion and visited also the MBT in Larnaca as main treatment facility for the island (as far as I know the facility went bancrupt as it didnt receive enough waste). What we also understood is the need for flexibility of the system due to the highly fluctuating waste streams in the time when the tourists are coming. In case you are interested in the project I can send you some presentations (I do not have publications on that subject). We observed that the percentage of biodegradable waste disposed in the landfill is still much too high, and composting facilities do not yet exist in the north but they are planned. The hazardous waste is currently temporarily stored (at the landfill site), and this waste stream will be probably shipped out of the island.

@Johannes: I have also worked in MSWM in South East Asia (Vietnam) as well as Eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria), and I agree with your experiences. What I learned is - at least for Europe - that the challenges of the organic waste treatment and the covering of the collection rate will be solved as those subjects belong to the main implementation targets of the integrated waste management systems in Europe, and they are realised step by step. 

As summary of my experiences I agree that the problem is not easy to be solved - but I am still optimistic :-). I saw strong progress in the field of integrated waste management in the last years, and for me the "integrated waste management" as a necessary "temporary" solution towards the implementation of the circular economy approach. Infact I do not believe that we can go to circular economy without the integrated waste management as supporting step, because it is necessary time to build the needed awareness among the population (in Germany this took 20 - 30 years).

Best regards,

Petra

Dear Petra and Antonis,

interesting idea exchange indeed. Although I share your opion Petra that "there is some reason for optimism' I like to confirm your perspective of '20-30' years time need as well, to gradually change the prevailing "collection / no-collection to controlled / uncontrolled dumping systems" via an ISWM approach towards Circular Economy (CE). The measures needed to be succsesful may vary and demand country-specific approaches (e.g. National SWM strategy) and gradually set development targets (e.g. facing out dumping of organic waste, increasing recycling quota etc). It may appear that CE could be much more steered through policy making (e.g. on the input side), but my experience is that the knowledge and awareness needed on all intervention levels is not available to understand the concept, unfortunately leapfrogging may only be possible for some aspects but most aspects need to be learned by all involved stakeholders in a 'gradual manner'.  I observed that many countries propose 'ambitiuos laws in the first place' but withdraw later because of the slow developments and comprehensiveness of the related tasks. As we go deep into the details, we may agree that it is in fact "very difficult" for most municipalities to change towards CE. I assume that it would be helpful to again study the "real evolutionary steps of SWM" in countries that now perform as "best practicse" and to elaborate which measures proved most relevant and crucial in time to gradually install system enhancement. I am aware that e.g. the EU approach to ban organic waste disposal was very crucial to increase organic waste recovery, however, the CDM mechanism that awards incentives for methane recovery may have inspired to 'produce more methane' in certain landfills on a global scale. The question of 'stakeholder motivation' to drive certain developments during their SWM development path would also be an interesting topic for further research. I realize, I provide you more new questions, instead of the answer you were looking for?

Kind regards,

Johannes 

 Dear Antonis

I share a paper on CE in a costal region that you might find useful.

With regard to the wider conversation, I'd say that it might still be early to concentrate all our attention on achieving 100% closed loops. Instead, as technological advancements (and more importantly collective mind change) bring us forward in this transformation, we should focus on extending the cycle: delay for as long as possible the circular flows of products, components and materials at their highest utility. I believe this should be the focus!

Best regards

Nice Contribution Johannes Paul

J. Paul raised a critical question ' to what degree can circular economy be practised '? I feel that is critical, because while some communities can boast of having integrated circular economy, in real and practical sense, some of such communities can't fully and 100% transform all waste into useable materials/ service. And if this is the case, ' total or complete circular economy ' can not be said to have been achieved (since it is a system based in feedback loops). Thus, translating circular economy from paper to reality is difficult for many communties, particularly in developing countries