Circular Wallonia

The circular economy offers many opportunities for Wallonia: to gain in prosperity while addressing the societal challenges it faces, such as poverty, climate change, biodiversity loss or the depletion of natural resources.

With this in mind, on February 4, 2021, the Walloon Government adopted its first Circular Economy Deployment Strategy, Circular Wallonia.

This Strategy aims to promote and strengthen the circular economy in Wallonia, stimulating economic recovery and development, creating jobs and responding to major environmental challenges.

A Global Strategy for Wallonia

Circular Wallonia is structured around 5 action areas: the production and supply of circular goods and services, the demand and consumption of circular goods and services, the mobilization of all stakeholders, waste management, and priority value chains.

Circular Wallonia intends to coordinate, reinforce and increase the regional dynamic in circular economy. The strategy comprises 10 goals translated into 60 specific measures aimed at facilitating the circular transition of Wallonia's economic players. It is based on participative and flexible governance to ensure the effective implementation of actions.

Through its Circular Wallonia strategy, the Walloon Region is tackling today's environmental, economic and societal challenges. Against a backdrop of resource scarcity, supply risks and volatile raw material prices, it plans to move towards an economy that is:

• carbon-neutral; 
• regenerative in its use of resources and through preserving biodiversity; 
• resilient and inclusive; 
• stimulating for innovation and digital transition.

A circular economy offers numerous opportunities for Wallonia: gaining prosperity while addressing the societal challenges it faces, such as poverty, climate change, biodiversity loss, or the depletion of natural resources.

With this in mind, the Walloon Government adopted Circular Wallonia, the first circular economy deployment strategy in the Walloon Region, on 4 February 2021.

This Strategy aims to promote and strengthen the circular economy in Wallonia, stimulating economic recovery and development, creating jobs, and addressing major environmental challenges.

Towards a circular, competitive and resilient industry
 

After laying the foundations in 2021 that structured the regional circular economy dynamic, this new phase marks a change of scale: the aim is no longer to launch the momentum, but to deploy it on a large scale.

Wallonia is entering a new key stage of its transition with Circular Wallonia 2.0. Aligned with major European frameworks, this new phase focuses on strategic industrial value chains in order to accelerate decarbonisation, strengthen regional sovereignty and boost the competitiveness of the productive fabric.

A policy mix serving industrial transformation

Through this policy mix, the objective is to coordinate support, funding, training, innovation and regulatory tools, in order to channel regional resources towards projects with the highest impact. The aim is to make public action more readable, integrated and responsive, while removing regulatory barriers for all companies, including micro-enterprises and SMEs.

Structuring projects to accelerate change

The most structuring projects will act as true industrial demonstrators and play a catalytic role. They will aim to scale up initiatives, relocate industrial value-chain segments, create sustainable jobs, and enhance workers’ skills.

Strengthened governance

The implementation of Circular Wallonia 2.0 also relies on enhanced governance, involving in particular the Circular Wallonia Unit, a Steering Committee and sector federations, ensuring close coordination between public authorities, economic players and field actors.

Four priority value chains

In line with the Regional Policy Statement, the Walloon Government, following a proposal by the Minister for the Economy, has defined four priority sectors within the framework of the Circular Wallonia 2.0 strategy:

• Construction
• Metals and Critical Materials
• Agrofood/Bioeconomy/Water
• Chemisty

These value chains were selected based on their economic importance, their potential for circularity, and their role in material sovereignty in Wallonia.

In this new strategy, textiles are no longer considered a standalone value chain, but remain an essential cross-cutting resource. They are now integrated into the four identified value chains, notably through chemical recycling or the development of innovative materials for construction. Textile companies will therefore continue to play a key role within these value chains.

To go further

To learn more about the circular economy in Wallonia, explore the legislation, partners & stakeholders, inovative circular initiatives, as well as support, financing, and training mechanisms. 

Evaluation of Circular Economy in Wallonia

Regular evaluations allow us to measure the impact of initiatives, optimize resources, and create sustainable jobs. Discover the results of the latest evaluations and key performance indicators to track progress towards a more circular economic model.