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Type: Interview

Meet the CCRI stakeholders: Päijät-Häme (CCRI Fellow)

Published on 29.01.2025

In this interview, we speak with Riika Kivelä, Regional Development Manager at Päijät-Häme, Finland, a Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI) Fellow, about the region’s work with SMEs to advance the circular economy in Finland. 

 

As a Fellow of the CCRI, Päijät-Häme is a region that shares and expands their knowledge of the circular economy with other stakeholders to promote the circular transition and preserve natural diversity. 

 

Following the introduction of its new Green Transition Roadmap in 2024, Riika tells us about the challenges the region has faced and its ambitious target to become climate-neutral by 2030. Riika also explains how the region is reusing local demolition materials as a circular solution to construction waste. 

Countries: Finland

What lessons from implementing your circular solutions can you share with other CCRI regions looking to replicate similar solutions?

In the region, a circular economy concept for the built environment is being piloted with companies, where cement is replaced in concrete-like products from demolition materials utilising waste materials like mineral wool, gypsum, glass, concrete, and brick. This pilot is led by regional business development company Ladec Oy.  

 

The goal is to create a new construction circular economy concept through a public-private partnership model. This has enormous potential to utilise construction and demolition waste streams in a new way. 

 

For example, in Päijät-Häme, recycled plastic waste is being transformed into high-quality outdoor furniture. This not only reduces plastic waste but also creates a product that has significant market value and contributes to the local economy. 

Päijät-Häme works with partners like the University of Applied Sciences but also with SMEs. How do you collaborate with these different stakeholders?

We now need to take concrete actions to promote the circular economy. Our best contacts with companies are at LAB University of Applied Sciences, LUT University, and the regional business development company Ladec Oy, as well as municipalities and business associations. 

 

In our programme and strategy work, we also strive to involve companies, especially in the smart specialisation spearheads of sports, food and beverage, and sustainable manufacturing, some companies are represented in the theme groups. The goal is to involve more SMEs in particular. 

What challenges has Päijät-Häme encountered in its circular economy journey so far and its broader aim to become carbon neutral by 2030?

Päijät-Häme is an example of a region where 1% of the community’s waste ends up in landfill, but there is still work to do to increase sorting and recycling and especially to reuse recycled materials to create more added value in the process. To do this, regional investments in industrial symbiosis and in bio- and circular economy clusters must utilise both industrial and agricultural side streams more fully. This requires stronger, systematic, and coordinated collaboration between various actors. 

 

Economic growth and improved well-being cannot be based on the wasteful use of natural resources or on the manufacturing and ownership of new goods. We need smart economic operating models that do not stop consumption but instead steer it in a more sustainable direction. On the frontline, we must transition to a fair and competitive circular economy in which we create and economically use services based on sharing, renting and recycling. 

 

We must now focus on measures that strengthen municipalities’ role in circular economy development, and which promote the creation of new innovations, sustainable research and development activities, growth, employment, and international business. 

 

Closing material cycles and material efficiency are essential. Products and materials must be kept in the cycle for as long as possible, and the amount of waste must be minimised. 

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