Projects

Circular Public Procurement

In the Circular Public Procurement project in the Baltic Sea Region, partners from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Russia and the Netherlands worked together to develop the market for circular products and services through public procurement. The project ended in 2020.

Results from the project can be viewed in this summary. In the project knowledge and skills were developed. Cities and municipalities in Denmark, Sweden and Latvia carried out pilot projects. Research on circular procurement was done in Denmark and Finland and Rijkswaterstaat disseminated knowledge and experiences through:

workshops and training courses for buyers
guidance for the pilot projects
seminars
lectures
market meetings
Baltic Circular Procurement Congress

Why

On behalf of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Rijkswaterstaat is building an international network for circular procurement. This is important because it is not only the Netherlands that must take steps towards a circular economy. Other countries must also work on this to create critical mass.

In the countries around the Baltic Sea, government buyers are starting to understand the importance of the circular economy, and they want to learn from the experiences that we have had in the Netherlands. This is why we are sharing our knowledge and experience in various European projects, so circular procurement becomes the norm. This is also good for Dutch companies that offer products and services that fit in with the circular economy.

We are sharing our knowledge and experience in various European projects, so that circular procurement becomes the norm

Rijkswaterstaat is building up an international knowledge network in the field of circular procurement. We also want circular procurement to be on the agenda in Europe. We can learn from the experiences gained in the pilot projects in Aalborg, Malmö and the Latvian municipalities. We are disseminating these experiences elsewhere (the Netherlands, EU, UNEP).