To this day, many techniques, tools and approaches have been developed and tested either on a lab scale or in pilot buildings around Europe. These demonstrations have served as great showcases for circular built environments, but they are yet to be demonstrated at higher level. Copenhagen, Hamburg, Helsinki region (City of Vantaa) and Greater London have teamed up with partners from the entire built environment value chain. The results will have a direct uptake in the value chain and enable cities to initiate circular transition. CIRCuIT will demonstrate three innovative solutions in the four cities: dismantle buildings to reuse materials; transformation and refurbishment; and design for disassembly and flexible construction. CIRCuIT will develop urban planning instruments to support cities in implementing circular construction solutions and initiate changes at system level; implement a Circularity Hub, a data platform to evaluate progress of circular economy and regenerative capacity; and set up a knowledge sharing structure, the CIRCuIT Academy, to promote upscaling of solutions. London, Hamburg, Helsinki region and Copenhagen have the ambition to bridge the implementation gap from individual pilots to the actual circular and regenerative city, by demonstrating the application of current and future developed tools and instruments for circular built environment at a city level in 36 demonstration projects. It is the intention to boost the regenerative capacity of the three cities and Helsinki region, and finalise the development of an advanced set of indicators for impact measurement in an effective and cross-European monitoring programme. The aim is to increase the regenerative capacity in the four cities, and to reduce the yearly consumption of virgin raw material by 20% in new built environments, and to show cost savings of 15%.

STOPP aims to STOP the ways that lead to environmental pollution, use of unsustainable virgin fossils, excess use of resources, high levels of generated plastic waste, incineration and landfilling, and climate change. We aim to do this by producing strategies for circular food plastic packaging with Refuse, Reduce, Redesign, Reuse and Recycle approaches. Our goal is to enhance sustainable and circular use of plastic food packaging and decrease the amount of generated waste while reducing the environmental impact. This is achieved via development and implementation of circular strategies together with an extensive network of plastics packaging value chain stakeholders, and citizens and consumers. Increased knowledge on the environmental and climate impacts of food packaging systems is a key driver in changing perception of reuse and recycling. We will quantify the effect of littered plastic food packaging on the environment with analysis of different ecosystems, biological organizational levels and key sentinel organisms. This deeper understanding is an important part together with different state-of-the-art and comprehensive enablers and barriers analysis for the technological developments, business strategies and consumer studies done in the project. Our technological approaches for reuse focus on safe and high-performance material development, improving return logistics, and developing consumer-centric communication strategies. For recycling, we will optimize collection systems, create safe food contact polyolefin recyclates, recycle bio-based and smart food packaging, and expand Plastics Recyclers Europe’ RecyClass certification scheme for recyclability. STOPP has a key role in supporting the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation implementation in its early stages via the developed novel solutions, providing new open access knowledge and hands-on tools for the value chain actors to start-up their sustainable circular food packaging journey as early adaptors.