Urban circularity in South American cities: A multidimensional index to assess regional performance

Abstract

The circular economy has emerged as an alternate strategy to the current linear economy, aimed at mitigating the depletion of resources caused by current patterns of production and consumption. Therefore, in recent years, the South American region has begun to implement strategies to transition to this model with the aim of building sustainable cities. Hence, this thesis seeks to evaluate and compare progress in the transition to a circular economy among the cities of Buenos Aires, Santiago, Bogotá and Lima, the most committed cities in the region. This evaluation is based on measuring progress using a framework of indicators across five relevant dimensions: governance, waste, food, sustainable production and responsible consumption. According to these indicators, Bogotá emerged as the city with the best overall performance in its transition to a circular city, closely followed by Santiago, which performed particularly well in the Responsible Consumption sector. Buenos Aires demonstrated strong performance in strengthening its governance in line with the circular model, whilst Lima was the city with the lowest performance. This study sought to highlight best practices by sector and city in order to serve as examples across the region, thereby promoting a faster and more sustainable transition in cities.