Policy CC/CE: Supporting a circular economy and sustainable resource use

4.56. Avoiding waste and designing places in such a way that facilitates material and component reuse helps to prevent the need for the manufacture of new materials, which is an important element in achieving a net-zero carbon future. Furthermore, efficient recycling of waste places fewer demands on natural resources, thereby helping to conserve the environment and limiting residual waste in line with the Government’s Waste Hierarchy.

4.57. Sustainable resource use and sustainable waste management are supported by the integration of a circular economy. Circular economies have three core objectives:

• Eliminate waste and pollution (i.e. designing products, materials, and infrastructure for durability and recyclability to avoid creating unnecessary waste or pollution).
• Circulate products and materials (i.e. keeping materials in use through reuse, repair and recycling thereby preventing them from becoming waste).
• Regenerate natural systems (i.e. focusing on sustainable resource management and using nature-based solutions to help with day-to-day functions, for example, water treatment).

4.58. To achieve these objectives, the following circular economy principles should be viewed as fundamental to and taken into account during the early stages of the design process:

1. Building in layers – ensuring that different parts of the building are accessible and can be maintained and replaced where necessary;

2. Designing out waste – ensuring that waste reduction is planned in from project inception to completion, including consideration of standardised components, modular construction, and reuse of secondary products and materials;

3. Designing for longevity;

4. Designing for adaptability or flexibility;

5. Designing for disassembly; and

6. Using systems, elements or materials that can be reused and recycled.

4.59. A significant proportion of a building’s whole-life greenhouse gas emissions are locked into its fabric, with emissions stemming from material manufacturing, the transportation of materials and components, and physical construction and demolition – these emissions are commonly referred to as “embodied carbon”. The effective application of circular economy principles to the built environment creates places where buildings are designed for adaptation, reconstruction and deconstruction, which reduces the need to extract raw materials and manufacture new building components. To avoid the unnecessary wastage of embodied carbon emissions in existing buildings, proposals must make every effort to refurbish, retrofit and re-use existing buildings and building materials, where possible. It is recognised that retrofit or refurbishment may not be the most sustainable option for the development of a site or may not be viable, but applicants must present a clear case that demolition and reconstruction is the only viable option for the development of the site or, in exceptional circumstances, would deliver significant public benefits.

4.60. The Councils will also expect applicants to use Circular Economy principles to shape the day-to-day functionality of a development. Developers should consult the adopted RECAP Waste Management Design Guide (or successor documents), to ensure developments support the practicalities of waste management and promote recycling. Innovative solutions, such as underground waste management and smart waste management systems, will be encouraged and supported.

4.61. Compliance with Circular Economy principles, for the majority of development, should be demonstrated in a planning statement, design and access statement or Sustainability Statement proportionate to the scale and type of development. Following the guidance in the Sustainability Checklist.

4.62. Justification is required of demolition of a building in full, or a significant part, this will depend on the scale and type of development but generally would be considered to the majority of the building, or a proportion of the building with significant carbon content, due to its scale or composition or type of material, i.e. concrete.

4.63. Where required, Circular Economy Statements can be used to demonstrate how materials, resources, and infrastructure will be reused or recycled to reduce the environmental impact of development and provide ongoing economic benefits. Circular Economy Statements should include details of how:

  a. Circular economy principles have informed the design of building(s) and/or structures, and the overall site layout;

  b. The proposal’s design and construction will reduce resource demands and enable building materials, components and products to be disassembled and re-used at the end of their useful life;

  c. The local sourcing of materials has been considered and the steps taken to secure local materials and components;

  d. Materials arising from demolition and remediation works will be re-used and/or recycled;

  e. Opportunities will be taken to ensure as much construction waste is managed on site as possible, and how all waste will be managed in accordance with the waste hierarchy;

  f. Operational waste storage and collection systems to be introduced as part of the development have been designed such that they are easily accessible and support recycling and re-use for the lifetime of the development; and

  g. Performance will be monitored and reported.

4.64. For other scales of development, Circular Economy details should be set out in a Sustainability Statement, with the level of information proportionate to the nature and scale of development. For example, for householder and minor development this could be the reuse of existing materials on site, sustainable sourcing of materials and designing for flexibility, adaptability and deconstruction.

4.65. This policy should be read alongside the adopted Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Minerals and Waste Local Plan (2021) (or successor documents). Policies that promote circular economy principles include Policy 8 (Recycled and Secondary Aggregates, and Concrete Batching) and Policy 14 (Waste Management Needs Arising from Residential and Commercial Development), which can apply to residential and commercial / employment.

4.66. The Minerals and Waste Local Plan identifies Sand and Gravel and Chalk Mineral Safeguarding Areas. Where these resources exist, circular economy statements should acknowledge their presence and seek to make best use of the resources as part of the development, or within other developments. 

For further guidance on how to submit comments, please see the Representation Guidance Note.

All comments must be received by 25 September 2026 at 5pm.