Our work

Helping green communities to create local wealth

CCC’s approach is community-focused. A circular economy with practices and principles aligned with the needs of the social and foundational economies. CCC is establishing proven models run by practitioners across our global networks. We work with reuse organisations wishing to diversify their social and environmental offering and the income from it whilst at the same time making arrangements to embed the liquidity saving measures of Wales’s new mutual credit system, the Celyn.

Proven exemplars of community ingenuity are now moving forward globally. CCC is connected to a number of international zero waste organisations that are involved at the front line of service delivery. Our mapping of the social economy reuse sector in 2019 shows that the sector has not been able to take enough of the new opportunities to fulfil contracts with local authorities, to establish new services and reach further into our communities.

With early seed funding, CCC has developed partnerships to bring new services to fruition.

With strategic investment, CCC aims to broaden, deepen and build on its innovative work and accelerate progress:

  • A stimulus to locally grown and organic food by helping the social economy produce products to stimulate regenerative farming in their communities.
  • Community-owned micro-reprocessing services for upcycling glass, plastics and wood; to turn these material streams into useable product desired that are saleable to community members
  • Collaborating to create a unified online marketplace (a REBAY if you will) for products made in Wales.
  • Embedding the redistribution of all surplus food into Welsh culture, via small scale but numerous, non-stigma and non-means-tested Community Fridge services
  • The Foundational Economy Challenge Fund backed Celyn, being rolled out by CCC, is a global first for Wales; a liquidity saving measure that closes the loop on recycling/reuse initiatives by further circulating the wealth it generates in the locality. (Mutual Credit is part of Switzerland’s economic success story, see section 4)

Read more

We must radically change the way we think about and consume our goods and materials, and we must do that now. A circular economy is the blueprint for a more equal and sustainable planet and it is great to see the pioneering work of Circular Communities Cymru CIC taking root and providing a foundation block on which to build a better society with community action at its heart.

Our work in Scotland on the circle economy has shown that not only does the shift to more circular thinking bring huge environmental and economic benefits, there are significant social benefits in terms of engagement, community cohesion, training opportunities and local job creation. The circular economy after all is about people and people doing things differently. It is the citizens of our planet who will decide what future we want for our children and as attitudes to tackling climate change gather pace it will be community efforts which will have the most telling impact.

Iain Gulland - CEO of Zero Waste Scotland

In a world needing to build community resilience and local market economies Town Councils have an exciting potential role. In Llangollen, a Cittaslow town since 2013, we are very active in looking for new ways and means to contribute to a resilient and sustainable future for Wales. Llangollen Town Council's Cittaslow Committee would therefore like to continue exploring with Circular Communities Cymru ideas and programmes around surplus food and plastics and also to examine how their ‘Celyn Mutual Credit’ could help Llangollen’s businesses.

Robyn Lovelock, Chair of Llangollen Town Council’s Cittaslow Committee

Mae angen cydlynu ein sector a sicrhau bod sefydliadau yn gallu cyflawni tu hwnt i'w nod a'u gwasanaethau creiddiol. Mae angen hyn er mwyn diwallu anghenion lleol, a chyfrannu tuag at Economi Gylchol yng Nghymru. Mae angen rhwydwaith ag adnoddau da er mwyn cyflwyno ein hanghenion ar y cyd i Lywodraeth Cymru, y sector gyhoeddus a'r sector breifat. Hefyd, hwyluso, gwella cyfathrebu a rhannu arbenigedd.

Dylai Sector Ailddefnyddio Cymru ddod ynghyd mewn seminarau a chynadleddau i ychwanegu at arbenigedd y sector, a chyflwyno syniadau a chyfleoedd newydd o bob cwr o'r byd.

Rwy’n edrych ymlaen at weld Economi Gylchol Cymru yn cael yr adnoddau sydd eu hangen i allu cynnig y gwasanaethau hyn. Mae yna lawer o gyfleoedd i sefydliadau fel Antur Waunfawr ailddefnyddio er mwyn cyfrannu yn helaeth tuag at ddyfodol di-wastraff, a diwallu angenion cymdeithasol ar yr un pryd.

Menna Jones, CEO Antur Waunfawr -Gwynedd
Get in touch
Are you part of the community facing circular economy or would like to be?

Together we can transform Wales

Be the first to know about the latest in community facing circular innovation.

Join Our Network Free Today