Circular City Labs - Tirana
Testing Reusable Packaging Systems in Cities
A journey of innovation and collaboration to develop economically viable reusable packaging solutions while empowering women in local circular economies.
Open Call 9 May - 5 June 2024
Deadline Extended to
10 June 2024!
What is Circular City Labs?
Circular City Labs (CCL) – Testing reusable packaging systems in cities is a project that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through waste prevention by promoting economically viable reusable packaging systems in cities and strengthening women participation in local circular economies. The selected Partner Cities for this challenge are Tirana (Albania), Tbilisi (Georgia), and Medellín (Colombia).
The project is carried out by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ Germany). It is funded through BMZ Initiative for Climate and Environmental Protection (IKU), for a period of 01/2023 - 12/2025.
About Circular City Labs - Tirana
To accelerate the transformation of Albania into an innovation-driven, circular, and knowledge-based economy, the Municipality of Tirana is exploring and testing reusable packaging systems in the city. Driven by the mutual goal to support the city of Tirana in this endeavour, the European Union, Germany and the Swedish Government joined forces with the municipality via three projects (1) Circular City Labs Project (2) EU for Circular Economy and Circular Economy for Sustainable Urban Development and (3) EU4Innovation programmes.
Circular City Labs - Tirana is implemented by a consortium of three local entities: Destil Creative Hub, Co-PLAN (Institute for Habitat Development) and POLIS University, in collaboration with international experts CrazyTown Finland, which put efforts into supporting innovation & entrepreneurship promotion in Albania.
All involved partners mobilized their respective resources to create an end-to-end support scheme covering awareness raising, facilitation, technical support, training of leadership training, circular economy, reusable packaging systems etc., networking, and pilot funding.
Whom for?
Circular City Labs-Tirana is a programme for local businesses in the sectors of HORECA, retail & grocery, E-commerce and IT, logistics, event management, etc, that are interested in integrating reusable packaging into their business models; start-ups /entrepreneurs with innovative ideas of solutions to reusable packaging system in the city, city administration, academia and researchers, as well as civil society.
Circular City Labs – Tirana will be implemented considering the feminist development policy. The programme has a special focus on supporting female founders and women– led businesses.
How to join?
Apply by
June 5, 2024
Call & Selection
CCL Tirana selects a maximum of 20 teams for the program based on your application.
Mid June
CCL Tirana Hackathon
33 hours of intense development with partners, stakeholders and mentors. Jury selects teams to continue in the accelerator.
June -
December
2024
Accelerator
4 months of accelerator program of trainings, workshops, mentoring.
January –May 2025
Pilot implementation and Monitoring
Selected solutions will undertake practical implementation and testing of the proposed reusable packaging systems in Tirana.
The specific objective represents a multifaceted approach to sustainability involving:
Identifying, prototyping, connecting and piloting packaging solutions with materials that can be used multiple times rather than discarded after a single use. The testing aspect implies thoroughly evaluating these reusable packaging systems' economic viability, effectiveness, durability, and practicality.
Strengthening and empowering women's participation in local circular economies. Women are responsible for 70-80% of household purchases, and they count on the need for legacy in re-use and circularity practices in Albania (minimising waste and maximising the use of resources). Strengthening women's participation could involve creating opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship, or leadership roles within circular economy initiatives.
Contributing to the municipality of Tirana's environmental goals through an innovative response in preventing waste (aligned with the broader waste management plan and policy in place) and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Tirana for a better urban inclusive life (simultaneously, contributing to Government of Albania (GoA's) commitments outlined in the Fourth National Communication of Albania on Climate Change).
The challenge we are solving
Cities are generating increasingly more waste due to high densities of population, restaurants, businesses, and industry.
Reusable packaging systems are an important part of the circular economy. Reusable packaging is designed to be used multiple times for the same purpose for which it was conceived.
They address the root of the problem by ensuring that less packaging is used, and less waste is produced. Solving the challenge of reusable packaging is a global market of over 100 billion euros, growing each year – and it’s well worth taking.
If you have an idea/product for developing reusable packaging solutions while empowering women in circular economies,
you are invited to be part of the journey with us.
CCL-Tirana Open Call
Circular City Lab – Tirana Project challenge spans from March 2024 to September 2025, comprising four main phases
Open Call 9 May - 10 June 2024
What´s in it for you?
For those teams that make it through to the accelerator stage
4 months
accelerator program
from June - November 2024 tailored to your needs.
1-to-1 mentoring sessions
and training provided by local and international experts.
Community support
& Coworking membership at Destil Creative Hub in Tirana.
Access to Polis University
Innovation Factory equipment.
Access to piloting opportunities
with the City of Tirana and other CCL city platforms.
Financial support
and grants to develop your prototypes and pilot your solution.
Networking opportunities
Access to startup tools,
innovative methodologies and development tools.
through Circular City Labs, EU4Innovation, GIZ and other partners activities.
Marketing
and PR support
to improve your startup’s communications
and visibility in the market.
Visibility and access to network
such as Tirana Startup Ecosystem, academia, national and international corporates.
merita_toska@co-plan.org & info@destil.al
Funded by:
Implemented by local consortia:
In collaboration with:
Disclaimer:
This website was created and maintained with the financial support of the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Its contents are the sole responsibility of Circular city Labs - Tirana and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union and BMZ.