Circular Economy in Canadian Cities: Strategic Urban Planning to Reclaim Waste as Resource
- Gasilov Group Editorial Team
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Circular Economy in Canadian Cities: How Urban Planning Is Redefining Waste and Resources
As Canadian cities navigate growing population pressures and climate imperatives, traditional models of linear resource use—extract, produce, discard—are no longer viable. Instead, municipal leaders are turning toward circular economy principles to redefine how cities consume, reuse, and regenerate materials. Nowhere is this shift more evident than in Toronto, which has launched one of North America’s most ambitious urban circular economy frameworks.
The urgency is real. According to a 2024 report from Statistics Canada, urban areas in Canada generate over 10 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste annually. Much of this ends up in landfills, despite the fact that 80 percent of these materials are technically reusable. The environmental cost is only part of the equation. These materials also represent significant lost economic value—something Canadian cities can no longer afford to ignore.
Rethinking Construction Waste as a Resource Stream
Toronto's Circular Economy Roadmap, released in 2024, directly targets the construction sector, which accounts for a substantial portion of municipal waste. The city has implemented pilot programs that require deconstruction over demolition in select municipal projects. This allows materials like concrete, brick, timber, and steel to be extracted and redistributed for reuse, rather than crushed and buried.
The City of Vancouver is pursuing a similar approach, mandating deconstruction for pre-1910 homes and providing incentives for projects that exceed diversion targets. Municipalities are increasingly recognizing that buildings are not just structures, but future material banks.
In our experience, we’ve found that these deconstruction policies often fail without upfront procurement alignment. If the materials recovered are not matched with future city construction bids or private buyers, the supply chain breaks down, and materials return to the waste stream.
Some municipalities are going further, partnering with digital platforms that map and quantify urban material flows—what’s often referred to as urban mining. These tools track the location, condition, and recoverability of materials within city infrastructure, providing data that feeds into procurement, planning, and emissions modeling. The City of Montreal, for example, is piloting a digital material passport system that tags reusable components in public buildings slated for retrofit.
Public-Private Models to Scale Circular Systems
Policy alone is not enough. Canadian cities are beginning to leverage public-private partnerships (PPPs) to build out the circular infrastructure needed to manage complex waste and reuse streams. In Toronto, the municipal government has partnered with private firms to launch the Circular Innovation Council, which facilitates cross-sector collaboration, shared logistics systems, and financing models that de-risk early-stage circular ventures.
One standout example is the partnership between the City of Toronto and University Health Network, which has implemented reusable medical supply programs and integrated waste-to-resource planning in hospital retrofits. These kinds of embedded circular strategies—where material reuse is designed into service delivery—are proving more effective than isolated recycling mandates.
Strategic Takeaway:
Municipalities that treat circularity as a system architecture, not a single policy fix, are seeing longer-term success.
Effective circular strategies often hinge on aligning zoning, procurement, and permitting frameworks to create coherent market signals.
Public-private partnerships need shared metrics and data infrastructure to avoid fragmentation.
The window to implement effective circular urban systems is narrow. Materials embedded in today’s developments will shape the waste landscape of the next 40 years. The challenge now is not whether cities will adopt circular practices, but how fast and strategically they can scale them.
Unlocking Value from Urban Mining and Secondary Resource Markets
Urban mining is no longer a fringe concept—it is emerging as a core strategy for municipalities seeking to decarbonize and localize their material supply chains. Canadian cities are beginning to recognize that urban infrastructure, once seen as a waste liability, holds vast untapped value in the form of recoverable metals, aggregates, plastics, and timber. However, success depends on systems-level integration.
In Halifax, a 2024 pilot initiative identified over 400 tonnes of salvageable material during infrastructure upgrades in the downtown core, much of it copper, aluminum, and concrete aggregates. What’s notable is that the project coordinated with local processors before extraction began, ensuring materials were matched to downstream markets. This kind of pre-aligned planning has proven far more effective than post-demolition sorting.
In our advisory work, we often find that urban mining fails when asset registries are incomplete or not digitized. Cities need accurate, accessible inventories of what materials are embedded where—and in what condition—if they are to shift from demolition toward precision recovery. Digital twins and geographic information systems (GIS) are now playing an increasing role in these efforts, providing the data layer required for circular forecasting.
In addition, the value of secondary materials depends heavily on trust, quality standards, and regulatory clarity. Without these, resale markets stall. The National Zero Waste Council has advocated for a Canada-wide certification framework for reused materials, which would help reduce procurement risk and give municipal buyers greater confidence.
Regulatory Leverage and Financial Incentives
Municipalities are not operating in a vacuum. Federal and provincial policies are now creating momentum that cities can leverage. For instance, the Canadian Infrastructure Bank announced in late 2024 that it will include material circularity metrics in its investment criteria for large public projects. This could unlock capital for circular innovation in housing, transportation, and civic infrastructure.
At the provincial level, Quebec's Bill 102 mandates life-cycle carbon assessments in public procurement. While not explicitly circular, it creates a compliance incentive to source reused and lower-embodied-carbon materials. Municipalities that act early to build robust reuse supply chains will be well positioned to meet these mandates cost-effectively.
Actionable Insights for Municipal Leaders and Private Partners
Embed circularity into procurement from the outset. Start with tiered bid scoring that favors material reuse and digital traceability.
Invest in material flow mapping tools. Cities that know where their recoverable assets are can plan around reuse instead of relying on market luck.
Develop shared logistics and storage infrastructure. Without space and systems to manage recovered materials, reuse remains a paper policy.
More cities are recognizing that circular economy is not an “add-on,” but a structural shift in how urban systems operate. However, most efforts still remain project-based rather than systemic. The opportunity ahead lies in creating repeatable, scalable models that embed circularity into zoning, permitting, procurement, and economic development planning.
We help municipal leaders design these integrated frameworks, ensuring that circular strategy aligns with emissions goals, budget realities, and local supply chains. Whether you are looking to scale deconstruction programs, embed urban mining into redevelopment, or operationalize public-private circular ventures, our team can help you move from pilots to systems-level transformation.
Written by: Gasilov Group Editorial Team
Reviewed by: Rafael Rzayev, Partner – ESG Policy & Economic Sustainability
Frequently Asked Questions - Urban Mining:
What is a circular economy in the context of urban planning?
A circular economy in urban planning involves redesigning city systems to minimize waste, extend material life cycles, and recirculate resources back into the economy. It includes deconstruction over demolition, material reuse, urban mining, and policies that support closed-loop resource flows within cities.
How is Toronto implementing a circular economy approach?
Toronto’s Circular Economy Roadmap includes pilot deconstruction projects, cross-sector partnerships, and support for local reuse markets. The city is integrating circular principles into procurement, infrastructure planning, and innovation initiatives such as the Circular Innovation Council.
What role do public-private partnerships play in urban circular strategies?
Public-private partnerships enable cities to leverage private expertise, capital, and logistics capacity. They are crucial in building the physical and digital infrastructure needed for material recovery, reuse, and redistribution. Success depends on aligned incentives and standardized metrics.
Why is construction and demolition waste a priority area?
Construction and demolition waste accounts for a significant portion of urban landfill input and offers high potential for reuse. Materials like timber, concrete, and steel can often be recovered and reintegrated into new projects, reducing emissions and costs when systems are designed to support it.
How can cities make urban mining more effective?
Urban mining becomes effective when cities maintain digital inventories of built assets, use tools like GIS to forecast material flows, and coordinate with local buyers and processors. Regulatory clarity and market standards also play a key role in creating viable secondary material markets.
