Large quantities of green waste, food waste and sewage sludge accumulate in every city and municipality. Tapping into these biogenic residues as a source of raw materials and optimising their use as materials and energy is an important cornerstone on the path to a sustainable and cycle-oriented bioeconomy. Stuttgart now wants to drive forward the transition to a bio-based circular economy in a targeted manner. The state capital of Baden-Württemberg is the first municipality in Germany to draw up its own urban bioeconomy strategy. The starting signal for the implementation of the ‘Circular Bioeconomy Strategy of the City of Stuttgart’ was given at the beginning of July in the administrative committee of the municipal council.

Contribution to Stuttgart's climate neutrality

‘Our city's biological resources offer great opportunities for a good future for Stuttgart,’ says Martin Körner, Head of the City Council's Policy Department for Climate Protection, Mobility and Housing. ‘If we make better use of our biological resources, this will make an important contribution to Stuttgart's climate neutrality.’

According to the authors, the greatest bioeconomy potential for the Swabian metropolis lies in the intelligent management of all regionally generated biogenic residues such as biowaste, green waste and wastewater in the sewage treatment plants. The aim is to utilise all of these residual materials locally. Raw materials such as phosphorus or nitrogen are to be recovered in order to manufacture new products. Only when this is no longer possible will these residues be utilised for energy, it is said. In this way, the state capital wants to prevent resources in waste or even environmental pollutants such as nitrous oxide from leaving the urban area.

22 concrete measures formulated

The city of Stuttgart has set out how this can be achieved in its bioeconomy strategy in a catalogue of measures. The catalogue lists 22 specific measures for various areas such as the garden and forestry department, the building and civil engineering department, waste management and the climate protection department. The measures range from planting new trees on roads, setting up decentralised collection points for fats and oils, CO₂ reduction in concrete production, the use of eco-asphalt and recycled asphalt to networking the production and research infrastructure for start-ups.