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REGIONAL COOPERATION NETWORK
What’s new in circular economy? The Service Center provides help for regional monitoring The Circular Economy Service Center provides information and expert assistance in promoting the circular economy in Finland. One of its missions is to develop and enable regional monitoring.
The Circular Economy Service Center
Text Tiina Karppinen The progress of the circular economy and the development of waste management are mostly measured by national indicators. However, local decision-making and the development of the circular economy require monitoring locally. When municipalities invest in waste management by increasing the possibilities for separate waste collection or when new companies are set up in the sharing economy, the effects are first visible on a the local level. The Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) is developing regional indicators for monitoring the circular economy. The lack of local data is a major challenge, but there is a demand for increased monitoring. Regional monitoring of the circular economy can only be developed in cooperation with companies, municipalities and other actors in the region. SYKE collects information on, for example, regional waste volumes and they are recycled, as well as on how well the circular economy is being applied in day-to-day practice in various parts of Finland. Everyday choices are key to keeping
The picture shows the accessibility of regional collection points for textiles and plastic packaging waste as a driving distance along the road network in Finland. Source: SYKE, Circwaste project, 2020. the generation of waste to the minimum and sorting it efficiently. People’s concern about the environment and more ambitious targets for increasing recycling do not meet if sorting waste is difficult and collection points are too far away. Recently, SYKE has investigated how easily regional collection points are
accessible to residents all over Finland. Although the waste collection network covers almost the entire country, many of those how live in Eastern and Northern Finland have to use their car to drive to collection points for the recycling of clothing and textiles and plastic packaging waste.
• Promotes the circular economy by producing information and offering expertise (materialitkiertoon.fi) • Supports regional circular economy actors and municipalities that lead the way to the circular economy. • The Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) coordinates the Circwaste project and the work of the Service Center. • Turku University of Applied Sciences, the Regional Council of Pirkanmaa and Digipolis Oy are co-operation partners for the Service Center • Develops indicators for the circular economy • Assesses environmental, cost and employment impacts. • Shares information on material-efficient public procurements, harmful substances, industrial symbioses, funding opportunities for the circular economy, and the assessment of material-efficiency in municipalities. • Provides visibility for the activities of the project’s core areas, sub-projects, the municipal network and companies and projects promoting the circular economy elsewhere in Finland. • Collects good practices in the circular economy on a website (energialoikka.fi/en/luokka/ material-leap)
Companies can apply for a subsidy for projects in the circular economy Companies can receive a subsidy for their investment and development projects in the circular economy. The Government approved a decree on this on 6 August 2020. The subsidy is intended to ramp up investments in the circular economy in Finland and to promote employment. The subsidy may be for technological investments promoting the circular economy, for studies and networks needed to launch investments that benefit the circular economy, and for circular economy solutions that improve employment. A total of EUR 2 million will be allocated for 2020-22. The subsidy is distributed by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. The subsidy is available to companies
registered in Finland and, in the case of employment-supporting solutions, to public or private actors whose main purpose is other than economic activities or whose primary purpose is not to make a profit. The maximum amount for an investment project is a quarter of the total eligible costs of the project and a half of the total eligible costs for non-investment projects. The amount of a lump-sum
financing may not exceed EUR 50,000. The application must be submitted to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy prior to the start of the project. The regulation entered into force on 15 August 2020. More detailed application guidelines and forms will be available later on the Ministry of Employment and the Economy’s website.
Read more: tem.fi
