Circular economy (CE) is integrated in many municipal departments, and many people work with CE within the Uppsala region. The region’s circular resources are managed by several entities, such as the municipal company Uppsala Water & Waste which is responsible for the region’s waste management, including recycling and reuse. The sustainability department is responsible for the overall strategy on sustainable resource management and the procurement department for including CE in procurements. The business department cooperates with innovation hubs to develop circular business models. The urban planning administration includes circular solutions and shared mobility in planning. The municipal housing company promotes reuse and recycling among residents.

Urban rural predominance

Intermediate

Vision and objectives

Uppsala set out to create a local marketplace for reusable construction materials that would make it easier to store, test and trade recovered building parts, and in doing so reduce waste and support more circular use of resources in construction. The original concept was designed to serve both industry professionals and the public, bringing together builders, suppliers, architects, planners and the municipality through the Uppsala Climate Protocol to help make reuse a normal part of how the local construction sector works. Early objectives focused on developing and testing practical operating and ownership models for the marketplace, strengthening coordination between public and private actors, and moving towards a model that could be commercially viable with minimal public support. A first step was a pilot marketplace for surplus materials based at the city’s existing building logistics centre, intended as a starting point for proving the concept in practice.

Implementation journey

The work began with a surplus-materials pilot at the building logistics centre during Q1–Q2 2023, using existing logistics infrastructure to limit additional transport and cost. That first site later closed in Q3 2024, with the roadmap noting a lack of supply of surplus materials from building projects, prompting a rethink of both the location and the scope of the marketplace. As the city learned more, interviews supported by the CCRI office highlighted that resale of surplus materials was limited by issues such as lost guarantees and CE marking requirements, which pushed prices down and made it hard to build a profitable offer aimed at professional buyers. In response, the city shifted from a narrow focus on surplus materials to a broader approach that could also handle construction and demolition waste, with the intention of enabling reuse and recycling at professional project level.

To enable this next phase, Uppsala secured ERDF funding (linked to the Uppsidan project) and moved into a stage focused on testing and validating business models for low‑subsidy marketplaces. Two key sites then opened in September 2025: the municipal Verket test bed and a privately managed reuse hub, together bringing public and private actors into a more connected system for storing, testing and redistributing materials. The municipal test bed is set up to explore different business models and material streams through a testing period running until 2027, supported by a procured logistics operator and a second contractor tasked with testing business models and engaging local innovation actors. In parallel, the privately managed hub operates through a membership model, allowing companies to both supply and purchase materials, and focuses mainly on materials from tenant adaptations in commercial buildings.

Key results

By 2025, the marketplace had expanded from a single pilot into a network of four sites, moving from “none in 2022” to “four in 2025”, including two internal municipal sites added in 2024 and the opening of both the Verket test bed and the private reuse hub in 2025. The number of companies involved through industrial symbiosis activity increased from 17 (2022) to 38 (2025), reflecting stronger engagement and coordination through the Uppsala Climate Protocol. The city also reached CCRI pilot milestones by coordinating construction reuse initiatives under the Uppsala Climate Protocol and developing a preliminary use case for two marketplaces, with work now centred on validating pathways towards self‑sustaining, low‑subsidy marketplace models. Through the CCRI pilot support scheme, research into multiple operational and ownership models and a resulting decision tree helped the city clarify options and recognise that more than one governance model can run in parallel, rather than relying on a single structure.

Looking ahead from the evidence base used in the project, modelling indicates that in a medium‑term perspective (about 3–10 years) the marketplace’s annual recycling potential could be 1,679–6,670 tonnes of building materials, with estimated reductions of 386–1,534 tonnes of CO₂ equivalents per year and potential annual revenue in the range of €200,000–€1 million.

Deliverables and outputs

The pilot produced a clear set of tangible outputs that support ongoing delivery and decision‑making, including a structured roadmap used to plan, monitor and update actions, outputs, outcomes, challenges and lessons learned during the CCRI support phase. It also produced a defined “circular solution” narrative that sets out the solution overview, background and objectives, key stakeholders, results and impact, challenges and lessons learnt, and practical tips for replication. Operationally, it delivered the move from a single surplus‑materials pilot to a multi‑site system, including the opening of the Verket municipal test bed and the private reuse hub, alongside internal municipal sites that help store and redistribute materials. Under the CCRI pilot support scheme, the work also produced targeted research on operational and ownership models and a decision tree to guide longer‑term choices about how the marketplace should be run and funded.

Vision for the future

The long‑term direction is to use the testing phase up to 2027 to refine operational and ownership models, improve market mechanisms, and move towards a commercially viable marketplace that can operate with minimal public support. Priority future actions focus on quantifying costs and revenue potential through targeted analysis, defining a governance and partnership model specifying ownership and roles beyond 2027, and bringing these elements together into a shared business case that can attract co‑investment and secure ongoing viability after ERDF support. The city also plans an evaluation of the testing phase by Q4 2027 to inform decisions on long‑term business model choices and the degree of public involvement, with an explicit intention to share lessons learned for replication and scale‑up.

Link to existing circular economy strategy and/or action plan

The key municipal policy document on CE is the 2022 ‘Programme for a Circular Uppsala with no waste’. The action plan envisions a fully circular Uppsala by 2050, where there is no waste, only resources, and outlines waste management policies and clarifies municipal ambitions. The waste plan aims to facilitate the municipality to achieve national environmental quality objectives, provide responsible parties and the public with a comprehensive overview of waste management, and highlight opportunities for improvement.

The waste plan's objectives are divided into two target areas: (1) from waste to resource and (2) human-centric waste management. The first target area focuses on recycling, reuse, and hazardous waste, while the second target area covers waste minimisation, littering, the work environment, and services.

Construction is a key sector for Uppsala and several measures related to procurement, building and construction are specified in the plan. Included in the plan are procurement requirements for the preservation and reuse of materials that cover design, construction and conversion, and the demands on minimising waste materials during construction and remodelling. The action plan also contains other specific measures regarding circularity in physical planning, building and construction.

Leading organisation

City of Uppsala

Unit/department/section

• Land and development department of the urban planning administration
• Sustainability department of the municipal management office

Participation in other relevant initiatives

• Klimatkommunerna: network of municipalities in Sweden working on climate policy
• Viable Cities: Strategic innovation programme working towards the mission of Climate Neutral Cities 2030
• NetZeroCities: Uppsala is a Pilot City under this initiative

(Other) Key resources

• Programme for a Circular Uppsala with no waste
• Uppsala Climate Protocol:
  • Building reuse working group – under the broader Focus group Climate neutral Construction and Civil Engineering of the Uppsala Climate Protocol
• SCALE UP – Systematic Climate Action to Lower Emissions in Uppsala (as part of the pilot activities under NetZeroCities)