Sevilla is 10% circular (2020)
- Input circularity 10% 4%
- Output circularity 47% 29%
- Processed materials 1,746,864 tonnes/year 2,845,296 tonnes/year
- End of Life (EoL) waste 369,600 tonnes/year 375,991 tonnes/year
- Secondary materials 174,176 tonnes/year 108,645 tonnes/year
Sevilla needs some 3,259 kt of raw materials and other materials annually. The main entry point are imports, as local production is quite limited (607 kt). At internal urban circuit, it processes 1,750 kt in materials, of which 375 kt are added to the stock of buildings and urban equipment and the rest are destined for domestic consumption in the city. It manages to reinject 174 kt of secondary materials recovered from waste into its economic circuit.
Construction sector
The main conclusions from the Sankey diagram analysis are:
- Virgin sand & gravel, Gypsum & Limestone and other stone material are easily available for concrete manufacturing and for construction of roads and buildings.
- There are significant manufacture of bricks, metals and timber products in Seville and considerable parts of these are exported outside of the area.
- However, other construction materials like aluminium, glass and insulation materials are imported to Seville.
According to the calculation illustrated in the Sankey diagram, all the data related to local CDW collection and treatment is not currently available. The municipal waste management company Lipasam only collects CDW from small producers and citizens throughout the "Clean points". Even almost the total amount of CDW collected by Lipasam is recycled, it shows a limited impact on the whole picture of the city. The greatest potential for developing the circular economy of the construction sector in the city is to utilise materials collected as waste in upcycled higher-value products, which could replace virgin materials in the construction sector.
There are still many assumptions behind the distribution of material flows visualised in the Sankey diagram. In the future, the information may be updated based on possible new and more detailed data.
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Domestic material consumption1,554,971 tonnes/year
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End of Life recycling rate0.53%
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Amount of sector waste445,042 tonnes/year
Biomass sector
The Sankey diagram of the City of Seville shows that almost all the materials of the biomass sector come from Extraction/Harvesting, but there is a significant contribution from import activity. This means that several measures should be implemented to promote more circular flows in the city, as well as to upscale the ongoing circular projects i.e., municipal organic waste collection and its valorisation. For instance, the ones related with separate collection of bio-waste (associated with the cogeneration valorisation) and explore other local initiatives such as urban farming, food waste reduction initiatives, food donation networks or sustainable food procurement.
The current circular initiatives in the biomass sector have currently a small impact on the circularity of the city, despite all the efforts already done by public and private entities. But it needs to be taken into account that some of these initiatives are very recent, like the new municipal separate collection of bio-waste.
The food donation projects, linking sectors such as the retail sector with institutions from the social sector, helping families with low-income or in a situation of social exclusion needs to be upscaled to assure a higher impact than it happens today.
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Domestic material consumption19,047,323 tonnes/year
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End of Life recycling rate99.21%
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Amount of sector waste144,110 tonnes/year
Urban context
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:
- Urban Circularity Assessment - Method
- Urban Circularity Assessment - Handbook
- Exisiting urban circularity assessment reports - bottom of the page
- Sector-wide Circularity Assessment - Method
- Sector-wide Circularity Assessment - Handbook
- Exisiting sector-wide circularity assessment reports - middle of the page
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.