Apeldoorn is 6% circular (2018)

Hover over sankey flows to see more details. Values given in kilotonnes.
Biomass
Metal ores (gross ores)
Non-metallic minerals
Fossil energy materials/carriers
  • Input circularity 6% 6%
  • Output circularity 10% 9%
  • Processed materials 692,850 tonnes/year 664,635 tonnes/year
  • End of Life (EoL) waste 436,862 tonnes/year 427,502 tonnes/year
  • Secondary materials 41,683 tonnes/year 40,588 tonnes/year

The Dutch municipality, located in the province of Gelderland has a population of 166,306 people that are spread over an area of 341.15 km2. Its local economy is mainly based on "Health and Welfare care" (17.8%), "Trade" (14.5%) and "Public Administration, and Government services" (12.7%) economic activities in terms of employees.

It was possible to illustrate that Apeldoorn is a linear and carbon-rich city (90-95% linear), processing yearly approximately 650 kt of materials, adding 13 kt in the building stock and reinjecting just 4 kt of secondary materials in their economy. From these numbers, the magnitude of the efforts becomes visible. In addition, the "weight" of Apeldoorn can be illustrated through its building stock which amounts to 15,000 kt (or 95 t per capita), which requires continuous flows for both its operation and construction.

Given the land use of Apeldoorn (78% covered by vegetation), this provides a considerable opportunity to develop a circular bioeconomy. For instance, a significant share of biomass demands of Apeldoorn could be covered by local production of food. In addition, a part of this biomass could be used for energetic use, reducing the demand of imports and partly GHG emissions.

Material stock map

Construction sector

The municipality of Apeldoorn has a binding contract with a single concrete processor/provider, located in Nijmegen. For demolishing, the realisation of pathways, roads, etc. or other infrastructural projects there is a multitude of contractors both situated inside and outside of Apeldoorn, any of which will be selected through procurement.

Apeldoorn has its own land bank, providing contractors with soil/sand if necessary. Contractors will need to acquire concrete through Apeldoorn's concrete processor, other materials can be freely imported. Reuse/recycle requirements per project are defined by Apeldoorn's procurement officers, this is specified in e.g. tonnes of concrete/asphalt that needs to be made from recycles materials. Responsibility of further recycling/reuse of materials is put in the hands of the contractors themselves. While steps have already been taken to ensure a certain reuse/recycling minimum, there is a demand for upcycling methods of CDW materials into higher-value products, which could prove to be a more efficient reuse method.

  • Domestic material consumption
    853,422 tonnes/year
  • End of Life recycling rate
    9.28%
  • Amount of sector waste
    44,314 tonnes/year

Biomass sector

There is a large opportunity to make some flows more circular. These numbers indicate that there is willingness for circularity in the city. With the project CityLoops, Apeldoorn hopes to get more control of these bio-waste flows. Apeldoorn needs to invest more time into collecting the different flows of biomaterials in order to get better insights for reuse and recycling.

  • Domestic material consumption
    771,610 tonnes/year
  • End of Life recycling rate
    0%
  • Amount of sector waste
    146,288 tonnes/year

Urban context

Apeldoorn
164,781
341 km2
Veluwe
700,975
1,860 km2
Gelderland
2,096,603
5,136 km2
Netherlands
17,475,415
41,543 km2

Do you want to learn more about the methods, reports or are keen to carry out an urban or sector-wide circularity assesssment for your or a different city and build your own Sankey diagram? Then check out the resources from Metabolism of Cities:

Apeldoorn Data Hub Urban Circularity Assessment online report Construction sector circularity report Biomass sector circularity report

Do you have any questions about the dashboard, data or want to get in touch with a contact person from the city? Please email Metabolism of Cities at info[at]metabolismofcities.org for assistence.