Emblematic of industrialization , these ports, entry points and flow points for raw materials and energy were at the heart of the industrialization of the 20th century , through the heavy industries that were developed there. After the years of reconstruction and strong growth, the ports had to face many economic challenges (reduction in demand, restructuring, deindustrialization, globalization and increased competition), environmental (heavy and polluting industry) and social (working-class profile of the workforce, growing unemployment). However, since the beginning of the 2000s, the circular economy, in particular industrial ecology, has emerged as a new lever for sustainable development and economic diversification, a source of new activities and the creation of more qualified jobs.
Our reflection thus focused on the impacts of the implementation of the circular economy in the industrial-port territory of Dunkirk, which is currently the third French port. In 2019, it was ranked sixth in the Northern Range which extends from Le Havre to Hamburg. It is the leading French port for importing ores and spain phone number list coal (see the presence of the ArcelorMittal steelworks site), and for importing fruit in containers. It is the leading French rail freight port and the second French port for trade with Great Britain. Finally, it is the leading river port in Nord/Pas de Calais.
In France, the territory of Dunkirk occupies a pioneering position in terms of circular economy, particularly through one of its pillars, industrial ecology . Since the creation of the heavy industrial complex after the Second World War, the reuse of fatal heat from steel production (by the French steelworks Usinor) has been considered and gradually implemented . Gradually, numerous substitution flows (the waste and co-products of some become the raw material of others) and pooling (joint purchase of inputs, joint recovery of waste) have formed and enriched the industrial symbiosis of Dunkirk. Like many territories, the industrial trajectory of Dunkirk has been marked by periods of strong growth and hopes of renewal, and by periods of crisis and questioning. As the crisis associated with deindustrialization raged at the turn of the 21st century , Dunkirk seized upon the circular economy to revive its economy, modernize its industry and infrastructure, and build common governance geared towards a more… sustainable industry, in every sense of the term.