Six Baltic Sea Cities Show How Creative Industries Can Drive Circular Change

Pilots in Aarhus, Gdynia, Kiel, Riga, Tallinn and Turku engaged thousands of people and led to changes in city strategies, as the three-year project concludes with recommendations for policymakers

Kiel, Germany – After three years of work, the Interreg Baltic Sea Region project Creative Circular Cities (CCC) has presented the results of six city pilots and a Policy Roadmap showing how local, national and EU decision-makers can support culture-led circular economy. The results were shared at the project's final conference in Kiel on 29–30 September.

The pilots in Aarhus (DK), Gdynia (PL), Kiel (DE), Riga (LV), Tallinn (EE) and Turku (FI) tested whether designers, makers and community organisations, working with local authorities, can make circular choices easier to understand and join.

Gdynia tackled bulky waste with a two-month pilot that received 32 submissions and collected 34 pieces of furniture, giving 52% of them a second life. It became the prototype for the "Pass It On" service, open to other municipalities. In Kiel, two Repair & Upcycling Festivals welcomed more than 1,300 participants, an open letter backed by over ten organisations asked the city for repair centres, and a design course produced over 20 products from discarded materials.

Riga opened a community garden built from reused materials in Bolderāja in May 2026 and nominated for the Latvian Architecture Award; the city's Circular Economy Strategy 2040 now integrates creative sectors. Tallinn engaged more than 1,500 participants through training, incubation and study trips.

Turku's ReTurku Circular Economy Carnival ran more than 30 events for around 1,000 visitors, and over 80% of surveyed participants left with new ideas for sustainable everyday actions. The city's Climate Plan now names the creative industries as co-builders. Aarhus hosted 180 events in its community spaces in 2025, while its Lifestyle Hub connected around 40 designers and businesses.

"We chose to work small because small is where cities can try things, adjust them and share what they learned. Each pilot shows how creative practice can make circular choices easier to join, and each can be adapted by another city without starting from scratch," says Indra Levite, Project Manager of Creative Circular Cities.

Policy Roadmap targets structural gaps

The pilots also exposed two structural gaps. Cooperation between culture and sustainability departments often depended on individual officers, and cross-sectoral projects fall between funding schemes, leaving them reliant on project money or volunteers.

The CCC Policy Roadmap names a first step for each audience: ministries can include cultural and creative sectors in national plans, cities can give coordination and services a named owner and a budget, and funding bodies can open their calls to culture-led circular work. The EU Circular Economy Act proposal is due before the end of 2026.

"There isn't one approach that will change how we see materials. All levels – policy, business, creative, non-governmental and lifestyle – are needed. How we fund circular initiatives in the long term remains the open question," says Maija Krastiņa, Board member at Zero Waste Europe.

The Policy Roadmap and other CCC resources are available at creativecircularcities.com.

About Creative Circular Cities (CCC)

Creative Circular Cities is a transnational project co-funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme and the European Union. It explores how culture and the creative industries can help cities move from linear consumption to circular lifestyles.

Media contact:

Laura Gundega Kristapsone, Communications Manager

Creative Circular Cities, Danish Cultural Institute in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

Email: lgk@danishculture.com