The Vision for a Circular Charlotte

Charlotte leads the way to become a zero waste city

What if we were able to eliminate waste? What if we could take things we through away now and use them for another purpose while creating more jobs and revenue?

These ideas are the core of Circular Charlotte, a new regenerative economic model the City of Charlotte launched this week.

The City of Charlotte worked with Metabolic and Envision Charlotte to create the study, Circular Charlotte: Toward a Zero Waste and Inclusive City. The study analyzed Charlotte’s waste stream and found Charlotte’s 900,000 tons of annual waste represent a potential residual value of roughly $111 million per year. By simply adopting a comprehensive waste diversion strategy, Charlotte could create hundreds of jobs by harnessing material instead of dumping it into ever-growing landfills.

On Thursday, City Manager Marcus D. Jones and Solid Waste Services Director Victoria Johnson, together with Mayor Pro-Tem Julie Eiselt, and Council Members Larken Egleston, LaWana Mayfield and Gregory Phipps attended an interactive event where they could learn first-hand about some of the Circular Charlotte initiatives and visit Johnson C. Smith University where students were already creating a sustainable food source with their aquaponics farm.

Student shows how they were able to grow organic lettuce at the aquaponics farm.

The farm has tanks where tilapia create nutrient-rich water which helps fertilize plants. The plants also help purify the water for the fish. The students then can move the plants to a green house and sell fresh, organic local vegetables like lettuce at local farmer’s markets.

“We are thrilled to implement the circular economy strategy in Charlotte,” said Marcus D. Jones, Charlotte city manager. “The Circular Charlotte initiatives will help Charlotte address key issues impacting the entire city — economic and social mobility. We fully expect Circular Charlotte, along with the work we do, to help us become the epicenter for people and cities to learn how to experiment, create and innovate.”

City Manager Marcus D. Jones talks about Circular Charlotte with Council Member Egleston.

The circular economy school of thought disrupts the linear path of consumer consumption — from purchase to waste — to create a closed-loop model where products are not only recycled or upcycled, but are used in a way that maximizes the product’s worth, essentially creating its own mini economy.

Think of it like this; in a liner model of consumption, a consumer may discard or compost an old tomato, devaluing or breaking even on the item’s worth. In a circular economy, that same tomato can be used to create a higher valued item, like a tomato sauce, to be used in a restaurant. This not only extracts the tomato’s maximum value, but potentially creates employment opportunities within the restaurant where the sauce is made and sold.

By catching fly larvae, we can create pellets to use as feed at farms.

To begin work, the City of Charlotte is going to start with four out of five business cases:

• The creation of 300 jobs by developing a circular industry based on feeding 50,000 tons of food waste to black soldier fly larvae, which can be converted into pellets to use as feed on North Carolina poultry farms;
• The saving of 345,341 gallons of water by developing a closed-loop textiles chain for linens and uniforms used in hotels and hospitals, cutting demand for environmentally damaging cotton and polyester production and offering opportunities to work in a whole new industry;
• The provision of entrepreneurs (who might not otherwise be able to afford to develop their circular economy business ideas) with equipment, expert advice, and commercial feedback to develop circular economy business ideas at a startup incubator based at the Innovation Barn;
• The aversion of 41,186 in CO2e emissions by transforming concrete from demolition sites and powder created from discarded glass into new concrete, also creating new jobs.

Some of the work is already starting with the city’s $2 million investment into Envision Charlotte’s Innovation Barn which will feature a sustainable restaurant that utilizes food waste and space for local entrepreneurs who are testing Circular Charlotte ideas.

The future looks bright for Charlotte, which will be the first city in the United States to make a commitment to adopting the circular economy as a public sector strategy.

For more information visit our Circular Charlotte web page.