The city of Mataró, together with all its socio-economic community and citizens, aims to accelerate the transition towards a circular model by 2030 to become a benchmark city on a regional and national scale, and to place itself on the map of circular European Mediterranean cities.
As a society we face a major challenge: to rethink and transform the current linear economic model based on "extract-manufacture-use-throw away", which makes us vulnerable and not very resilient, in order to evolve towards a model that allows us to live prosperously within the physical limits of the planet.
Mataró, a city of services with industrial roots, aims to change course towards a more responsible and sustainable economic model. This transformation of the city towards circularity is promoted under a systemic and holistic perspective with the complicity and participation of the local administration, companies, citizens and academic centres.
The city brings together many of the key ingredients to move towards circularity. Firstly, political leadership and the will of the local administration to promote and facilitate circular transformation. Secondly, the uniqueness of the territory that makes up the city, which has an urban and industrial fabric, an agricultural and forestry area, and the maritime strip. Thirdly, the ecosystem of diverse and proactive agents that have already promoted several projects and plans that contribute to accelerating the circular transition
For this purpose, the specific circularity strategy feeds into and is integrated under the umbrella of the Mataró Urban Agenda 2030 strategy within the framework of the Spanish Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. In addition, the city has already begun to position itself internationally through its adhesion to the European Circular Cities Declaration, which helps European cities to accelerate their transition to the circular economy.
What is the circular economy?
Today, humanity needs 1.7 earths to provide the resources it uses while absorbing its waste and emissions. For this reason, we need to drive a profound transformation by rethinking the city to produce and consume according to the limits of our environment and planet.
The circular economy is a new model of production and consumption capable of generating value with fewer resources based on three key principles:
- Design products, services or systems to eliminate waste and pollution at source.
- Maintain products, their components and materials in use as a source of value.
- Regenerate and preserve natural systems which, at the same time, provide us with a source of renewable resources.
This economic model can help address many of the challenges facing our city, such as economic dynamisation and job creation, attracting investment and new projects, reducing the consumption of resources, waste and emissions, boosting talent, collaboration and innovation, and strengthening the city's regional capital and image as a city.
“The circular economy is the biggest revolution in the global economy in 250 years”
Structure of the strategy
The city’s circular strategy is based on 6 priority axes (food, textile and fashion, other consumer goods, built environment, health system, and retail and hospitality). These axes are deployed through 13 aspirations and 43 lines of action, which will be subsequently materialised through specific circular projects to be included in the three-year action plans.
Food
Mataró's ambition is the development of short food chains, the consumption of local and sustainable products, the reduction of food waste and the high quality management of organic waste. Considering that almost 53% of household consumption is food, changing consumption patterns towards healthy, local and climate-responsible products would have a major positive impact on the environment.
Textile and fashion
The city wants to become a reference in business innovation in textiles and fashion, aims to promote local and sustainable textile consumption, and to learn how to recover textile waste.
Other consumer goods
This focus area includes consumption and the maximization the useful life of goods circulating in the city, such as electrical and electronic appliances, furniture, etc. The city’s goal is to be a reference for responsible consumption, to encourage reuse and repair, and other consumption models based on circularity, such as servitization.
Built Environment
The city aims to make the construction sector a reference in sustainability, for its public infrastructures (municipal equipment, housing park...) be known for their sustainability and circularity, and to adopt a more sustainable and healthy mobility model.
Health system
The city’s goal is for all health-related stakeholders to incorporate the circular economy into their agenda, optimizing resource use and waste reduction (especially of water, energy, single-use products and hazardous waste).
Retail and hospitality
It includes the promotion of local commerce, the promotion of a change in citizens' habits, and the attraction of quality tourism linked to the environment. The commerce and hospitality sectors are at the intersection between production systems and consumers and, at the same time, are interrelated with the rest of the prioritised axes. Therefore, these sectors can act as a lever for change.
To enhance the cross-cutting nature of the strategy, these six sectoral axes are complemented by four major cross-cutting themes that are highly influential in moving towards circularity.
Digital transformation as a lever to move towards better resource efficiency
Alignment of efforts across the territory’s entire set of agents to move from a systemic vision to a transformative and circular economy
Awareness, training and entrepreneurship to drive the adoption of the circular economy model
Circular public procurement as an instrument to boost new production and consumption models
The six sectoral axes and the four cross-sectional themes are integrated under the natural environment, which supports all human activity.
Below is the overall scheme of the strategy, as well as the map of aspirations and lines of action.
General scheme of the strategy Mataró Circular 2030.
Map of aspirations and lines of action for the 2030 Circular Mataró strategy.
For the full document of the Mataro’s Circular Strategy 2030 click here.
Material flow analysis (MFA)
Mataró is a pioneering city that has carried out an analysis of its metabolism with a method called Material Flow Analysis (MFA) which allows to trace how resources, products and materials or waste, flow through the economy of Mataró to meet the needs of the city and the region.
This analysis has provided insight into the main characteristics of the city's urban metabolism. Firstly, it has highlighted the city's dependence on external resources, with more than 99.2% of resources being imported, which is a common pattern in urban environments. In this sense, the circular economy can contribute to improve the city's self-sufficiency and thus increase its resilience. The MFA also highlights the high consumption of products, water and energy in the city. However, in the case of water consumption, it should be noted that 19% comes from locally sourced resources (the aquifer) and therefore Mataró has a high level of water self-sufficiency. Finally, the analysis also shows that Mataró is a clean provider of services, especially waste treatment. Therefore, it has a high potential for positive impact both inside and outside the city’s borders if it adopts circularity principles.
Visual result of the analysis of material flows in the city of Mataró.
Action plan 2022-2024
The aspirations and lines of action will take shape and materialize into circular projects. Some projects will be designed to be executed during this first triennial action plan (2022-2024), while others will maintain a long-term vision that will require actions from now until 2030.
The 2022-2024 Action Plan sets out, on the one hand, some of the most important singular initiatives in terms of circularity already underway in the city and, on the other hand, a set of proposals for circular projects that will contribute to materialising the milestones and lines of action defined in the strategy. The list of projects is shown below.
To consult the full document of the 2022-2024 action plan of the Mataró Circular 2030 strategy click here.
Click to access the executive summary of the strategy Mataró Circular 2030 here.