Challenges of applying circular economy principles in urban planning practice in Pécs (Hungary)

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how development plans and other activities present the challenges of the circular transition in the city-region of Pécs, Hungary, an Eastern-Central European city. The analytical framework of performance management is used as inspiration to assess the performance of the circular economy in the region. Creating a more circular economy is an aspiration for the city although there is no specific plan for its delivery at the time of writing. The findings show that despite a long-term commitment to circular economy, barriers in the legal framework, autonomy of local government and a distorted construction and waste management market impede progress.

KEYWORDS:

• Circular economy
• transition
• Pécs
• Hungary
• performance management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The main results of the living laboratory were the establishment of a platform for stakeholders and actors, a new approach to waste stream management by using GDSE, and partly based on this, the elaboration of new – eco-innovative – reducing solutions according to the principle of circularity. (More information in (Varjú et al., 2022).

2. GDSE, the Geo-design Decision Support Environment is a GIS-based tool presenting the most important waste flows from producers to treatments. This tool also includes a module where different alternative scenarios with eco-innovative solutions for the given waste streams can be inserted to modify/decrease the flow amounts. (c.f Vittiglio et al., 2018; Arciniegas et al., 2020). The tool was elaborated during the H2020 REPAiR project between 2016–2020.

3. In our analysis, we distinguish between the roles of the participants in the decision-making process. We define stakeholders as the team that includes the urban decision-making community, e.g. municipal decision-makers and decision-makers in the local public service sector and authorities. From these, we differentiate actors involved in decision-making, such as relevant experts and professional organizations, advisory boards, and NGOs.

4. https://netzerocities.eu/2022/04/28/the-european-commission-announces-the-100-selected-cities-to-join-the-cities-mission/

5. In the REPAiR project, the living lab was called Peri-Urban living lab (PULL), as it focused on the city and its peri-urban areas.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the project ‘The feasibility of the circular economy during national defense activities’ of 2021 Thematic Excellence Programme of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office [under grant no.: TKP2021-NVA-22], led by the Centre for Circular Economy Analysis of MATE.The work was partly supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), [grant number: K142121].