Introduction of circular business cases to transform company waste into resources is a key enabler for the transition to a circular economy. Circular measures like re-design of products and processes and green procurement bring EU companies economic benefits of 3–8% of annual turnover.

SMEs in particular experience difficulties in adopting circular practices, due to limited organisational, technical and financial capacity. Only 25% of SME waste is currently repurposed. There is growing demand from SMEs for:

• Knowledge of their waste streams and corresponding circular business cases
• Demonstrated solutions and tools to improve resource efficiency
• Better cooperation among companies to organise sufficient scale and develop processes to upcycle waste
• Local authorities and business park managers can enable SMEs at local level to join this transition by facilitating SMEs to build their knowledge base, get organised & incorporate circular business cases and waste processing practices.

The objective of Upcycle Your Waste is to accelerate the adoption of circular business cases by SMEs that transform waste flows into resources at local level. We aim to achieve this by developing and introducing knowledge, tools and facilities that enable SMEs and local authorities to make this transition.

The overall result of the project is an increased adoption of circular business cases by SMEs in the partner areas, quantified as:

• 360 SMEs adopting circular business cases
• 20% of the pre-existing waste stream being upcycled on a structural basis.

Additionally, the project will lead to an improved capacity of local authorities, business district managers and SMEs in other parts of the 2 Seas region to introduce circular business practices, through our capacity building and dissemination and transfer activities. 

More information on the project aims can be found here and for further information please email us at lowcarbon@kent.gov.uk.