Material flow analysis & City Blueprint Framework of Singapore

This report describes the desktop study aimed to identify opportunities for enhancing the circular economy, which is already developing in promising ways in the Netherlands, allowing for demonstration and implementation opportunities in Singapore, as well as generating a mutual learning between the two countries.
Singaporean Ministries and governmental agencies are currently developing a shared vision about the best way forward for a zero waste nation and circular economy in Singapore in addition to the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint. They are looking for support from the Netherlands because of our internationally recognised position as a frontrunner in this field. Moreover, there are clear similarities between Singapore and the Netherlands. Both countries have limited natural resources and land space, they are densely built, and have ageing populations. There is therefore pressure on liveability and productivity. A systematic understanding of water resources and waste flows constitutes an important step towards a circular economy.
Accordingly, in order to better understand both the Singaporean and Dutch approach to integrated water resources management (IWRM), waste streams and the potential for circularity, KWR Water Research Institute was engaged by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (rvo.nl) as part of the Knowledge to Knowledge (K2K) project under the Partners for International Business (PIB) programme to produce an updated Trends and Pressures Framework (TPF) and a City Blueprint Framework (CBF) and to perform a material flow analysis (MFA) for both Singapore and the Netherlands. These three tools (TPF, CBF and MFA) will be instrumental for the identification of opportunities in the area of the circular economy. They will also be helpful in identifying challenges that could be tackled in Singapore by businesses, governmental organisations and knowledge institutes from the Netherlands.