This was the first public-sector competitive bidding process for recycled equipment in Finland. A laptop computer was needed for each lower secondary school student, and the City of Forssa sought a more economical and environmentally friendly solution than acquiring new computers.

The State Property Service (DRZ), part of the Dutch Ministry of Finance, conducted a project to find data safe alternatives to destroying ICT equipment. The number of saleable devices proved lower than estimated (only 25%), uncovering key lessons for the reuse of computers and other ICT in the circular economy.

The Province of Utrecht wanted to conduct a pilot project to purchase circular computers for 1,000 workstations. However, no supplier was found which could meet the requirements set by Utrecht, uncovering important lessons about market consultation and dialogue.

Historically, the majority of waste mattresses and pillows from Her Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS) were sent to landfill or incinerated (costing money and damaging the environment). HMPS worked with the DTI/DEFRA Environmental Innovations Advisory Group and OGC in the first Forward Commitment Procurement (FCP) demonstration project to deliver an innovative solution to this problem.

Public Health Wales adopted a new mindset when moving office in 2016, and instead sought suppliers who could reuse and remanufacture as much already owned furniture as possible. The winning tender provided an attractive, functional office design, in which 94% of furniture was reused or remanufactured.

Pļaviņu Municipality (Latvia) wanted to sustain good quality catering in their school for a reasonable price. They also wanted to include circular aspects in the procurement in order to be more sustainable.

In 2012 the Council wished to put in place a new contract to deal with redundant computer equipment. The principal GPP objective was to ensure that redundant computer equipment was re-used or recycled to the greatest extent possible, not only meeting the Council’s obligations under the EU’s WEEE regulations, but also minimising environmental impact by diverting waste from landfill. In addition, it was hoped that further social value would be delivered by making refurbished computer equipment available for community projects.

The Venlo Region, located in the southeast of the Netherlands, has expressed its ambition to become pioneers in the transition to a circular economy by developing several initiatives supporting the implementation of circular economy principles in the manufacturing and construction sectors.

Ghent has spent the last 10 years progressively greening its municipal cleaning services to achieve the use of 100% environmentally sound products. Ghent purchases products meeting the European Ecolabel criteria, as a minimum, and was the first city to use Cradle-to-Cradle Certified products through their contracted cleaning services for all of its buildings and facilities. There are 340 locations in the city (ranging from office buildings, schools, nurseries, museums, etc.) which benefit from the City’s cleaning services and/or products (such as those used for providing public catering services), which involve 350 external collaborators. The City’s annual spend on cleaning products and services is 14.4 million euro.