Planning for place-based circularity in mid-sized industrial cities: Accommodating industrial-scale and vernacular food waste trajectories

There is growing recognition of the tension between industrial/top-down and vernacular/bottom-up circular economies, as well as the need for place-based approaches to sustainable transitions policy. Yet how to reconcile place-based policy with divergent forms of circularity remains unclear. Rather than viewing such tensions as requiring resolution, we examine the place-based conditions under which industrial-scale and vernacular food waste trajectories can productively coexist, and the conditions under which they cannot. Mid-sized industrial cities (MSICs) are a favourable setting for coexisting forms of place-based circularity, yet they are often overlooked in circular economy research, despite being tasked with managing the heavy, polluting, and industrial metabolic functions upon which larger metropolitan regions depend. Drawing upon longitudinal research over a 15-year period in an exemplary MSIC – Wollongong, NSW, Australia – this article develops a framework of intersecting circularities foregrounding the co-constitution of place-based circularity and city context. Applying this framework reveals the sociomaterial qualities of circularities, the spatial reconfigurations that enable them, and the co-presence of industrial, top-down and smaller-scale vernacular approaches. From multiple qualitative research projects, we outline three drivers of place-based circularity: diverse and flexible land-use planning and zoning; logistical infrastructures that support proximity of actors; and innovative and resourced consumer engagement with food waste’s visceralities. We argue that MSICs offer distinctive sociomaterialities for hybrid circularities, that are not captured by centralised governance and planning models, nor grassroots sufficiency. Realising the potential for place-based approaches in MSICs demands acknowledgement of the regulatory, material and cultural pre-conditions that make circularity possible.