Viken County Council has taken the initiative to establish a circular map in collaboration with Avfall Norge. This is a digital map solution that provides an overview of all actors who have circular business models, with the main emphasis on small/medium-sized players within conversion, rental/lending, repair and more. The map will be regularly updated.
See the map here.
Important for climate goals
Waste prevention and increased reuse play a decisive role in the transition to a circular economy. According to the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan, today’s linear economy entails a large consumption of resources and an estimated 90 percent of the loss of biodiversity, and half of the total emission of greenhouse gases is linked to the extraction and processing of natural resources.
Economic growth and consumption contribute to increased amounts of waste in Norway. Norwegians throw away significantly more waste than the average European. This happens despite the fact that more and more players want to buy used.
Based on this, Viken county, in collaboration with Avfall Norge, wishes to highlight all actors in the county who contribute to a circular economy. The map will increase awareness and use of existing initiatives. The map must be able to be shared with others and entered on the municipality’s own websites. Examples of this are shoemakers, tailors, second-hand shops, electronics repairers, players in rental and more.
Avfall Norge and Viken have approved some criteria that the actors must fulfill to be included in the map.
The project is led by Waste Norway, with Viken as the initiator, and Klima Viken as the reference group. Klima Viken is a regional partnership with all the municipalities in Viken, with the aim of strengthening work on climate and energy.
“Highlighting the good, circular solutions we have is an important part of Avfall Norges new strategy from 2023-2026. The strategy emphasizes that the waste and recycling industry must be a driver for society’s conversion to better use and utilization of raw materials and materials, and a circular map is a useful tool for consumers who want to make use of circular offers”, says Runar Bålsrud, general manager of Waste Norway.
Avfall Norge and Klima Viken want to look at the possibilities of expanding the circular map to more counties and even to the national level.
27.9.2023 | Martin Norderhaug (Viken), egiln@viken.no
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