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Waste

EU

  • EU waste policy aims to contribute to the circular economy by extracting high-quality resources from waste as much as possible. 

The Waste Framework Directive (2008) is the EU’s legal framework for treating and managing waste in the EU. It introduces an order of preference for waste management called the “waste hierarchy”.

Certain categories of waste require specific approaches. Therefore, as well as the overarching legal framework, the EU has many laws to address different types of waste: batteries and accumulators, end of life vehicles, landfill waste, mining waste, packaging waste, PCBs/PCTs, RoHS, sewage sludge, ships, waste containing POPs, waste shipments, WEEE.

Papers, books

The guideline helps “policy makers evaluate expiring waste prevention programmes, national or regional. The guideline addresses all main elements of a prevention programme. It provides targeted suggestions on how each of the elements can be reviewed, summarised in a practical checklist at the end of the document.”

“In this publication, C40 Cities have mapped out areas under municipalities’ jurisdiction, where there is significant potential to embed circular economy principles into systems and value chains in the urban environment. The case studies are themed in the following categories: city-level strategies, urban refurbishment, public procurement, utilities and civic waste. Through this presentation of successful case studies – as well as providing the context for these successes – we anticipate that further opportunities can be identified in urban areas.”

Search via Google Scholar – e.g. circular economy waste hierarchy – leads to a huge number of articles _ e.g.

Worldwide

Focus areas are: food waste, electronic waste, packaging waste, recycle right, circular economy.

“Initiated under the patronage of the German Development Minister, the PREVENT Waste Alliance was launched in May 2019. It serves as a platform for exchange and international cooperation. Organisations from the private sector, academia, civil society and public institutions jointly engage for a circular economy.

The PREVENT Waste Alliance wants to contribute to minimising waste, eliminating pollutants and maximising the reuse of resources in the economy worldwide.”

Policy briefs

Projects / networks

Interreg Europe

  • CONDEREFF _ Construction & demolition (C&D) waste management policies for improved resource efficiency (Interreg Europe: Jun 2018 – May 2023)

“The project will enable the participating regions to advance their goals for resource efficiency and green growth through the proper management of C&D waste, which can boost demand for C&D recycled materials and support both sustainability and recycling in the construction sector.”

  • ECOWASTE4FOOD _ Supporting eco-innovation to reduce food waste and promote a better resource efficient economy (Interreg Europe: Jan 2017 – Dec 2020)

The “ambition is to address the crucial issue of food waste, not only to stop an unacceptable situation which causes the loss of up to 50% of the agricultural production that keeps not consumed or is consumed in a wrong way regarding health concerns, but also to demonstrate that food waste could be at source of a resource efficient and environmentally friendly economy for the territories.”

  • INTHERWASTE _ Interregional Environmental Integration of Waste Management in European Heritage Cities (Interreg Europe: Apr 2016 – Mar 2021)

“The aim of INTHERWASTE is European Heritage Cities to exchange experiences and policies for efficient and sustainable management of municipal waste and in order to contribute through mutual capacity-building, policy learning and drafting action plans – to the environmental performance of waste management in EU cities.”

  • LINDANET_ European Network of Lindane waste affected regions working together towards a greener environment (Interreg Europe: Aug 2019 – Jan 2023)
  • OptiWaMag _ Optimization of waste management in urban spaces and in households (Interreg Europe: Aug 2019 – Jan 2023)

“The project OptiWaMag aims to demonstrate how the development of the current waste infrastructure in urban spaces and in households can deliver sustainable solutions through the exchange of good practices.” 

  • PLASTECO _ Supporting EU regions to curb plastics waste and littering (Interreg Europe: Aug 2019 – Jul 2023)

“PLASTECO, in line with the “European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy”, will support participating territories to take the steps necessary for a transition towards a “new plastics economy”. The focus of the project will be on advances in waste management, eradication of single-use plastics from regional value chains, and spurring growth through eco-innovation. PLASTECO will cover the areas of waste management, public procurement, funding/investments, secondary raw materials, and awareness raising.”

  • SMART WASTE _ Innovation in Waste Management Policies (Interreg Europe: Aug 2019 – Jul 2023)

“Local, regional, and national authorities are working hard to manage in an always more sustainable way their waste and implement a comprehensive and circular approach. They consider new approaches and technologies to reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover waste. They attempt to fit these into a comprehensive and circular approach.”

”The project aims to understand the real impact that innovative policy measures have on the effectiveness and sustainability of waste management procedures.”

  • WINPOL _ Waste Management Intelligent Systems and Policies (Interreg Europe: Jun 2018 – Nov 2022)

The project aims to improve „policies for waste management so that they increasingly foster and promote the use of intelligent equipment and planning derived of it, significantly contributing to waste minimisation in European cities and regions, through improved management procedures and awareness campaigns.”

Other Interreg Programmes

  • CE-HEAT _ Waste heat – Free energy (Interreg Central Europe: Jun 2016 – May 2019)

“CE-HEAT project aims to improve the governance of energy efficiency by focusing on field of waste heat utilization in Central Europe space and through increased exploitation of endogenous RES – waste heat. This field was identified as one of the most pressing issues at the regional and local scale – with little success in the past. At the same time the waste heat utilization is recognized as important issue in latest Energy efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU). In order to improve governance in waste heat utilization, better and comprehensive planning, but also monitoring tools are needed.”

  • CIRCE2020 _ Expansion of the CIRcular Economy concept in the Central Europe local productive districts (Interreg Central Europe: Jul 2017 – Dec 2020)

“CIRCE2020’s original goal was to close the loop of 10 secondary raw materials that – at the time of project submission – were still open or not totally exploited.

This goal was achieved and made the project a complete success: 11 circular economy PILOTS were implemented between the years 2019 – 2020 (…). Each pilot was supported by a POOL OF TOOLS (material flow analysis, life cyclanalysis, costing, technological maturity index, one standardized business plan) that provide a significant support and are put at disposal to further practitioners.”

  • ENTeR _ Expert Network on Textile Recycling (Interreg Central Europe: Jul 2017 – Nov 2020)

“ENTeR has developed a system capable of enhancing the value of industrial textile waste based on the characterization and classification of their properties and using an online platform (M3P) for the matching of ‘materials and waste’.”

  • STREFOWA _ Strategies to Reduce Food Waste in Central Europe (Interreg Central Europe: Jul 2016 – Sep 2019)

Results are: guidelines, handbook, factsheets and training materials, food hackathon manual.

The project ended September 2019, but the network continues in the

#reducefoodwaste competence network for food waste prevention and management

“The creation of a new umbrella organization focused on the prevention and management of food waste aims, on the one hand, to create an active platform for networking and exchange of all interested organizations and individuals, and, on the other hand, to link the expertise of the private, public and scientific sectors. The umbrella organization sees itself as a cooperation project between the Institute of Waste Management and a strong international network based on the Interreg project STREFOWA. The goal is to build an international multi-stakeholder platform that also sees itself as a think tank, project incubator and a hub for innovative initiatives.”

  • GREENCYCLE _ Introducing circular economy system to Alpine Space to achieve low-carbon targets (Interreg Alpine Space: 2019 – ongoing)

„GREENCYCLE project aims to achieve low-carbon objectives of participating cities and AS through introduction of holistic system of circular economy into urban management. It provides implementation system that integrates all relevant sectors of urban management (energy, waste, mobility, construction…) into circular economy system

URBACT

  • Innovato-R _ Everyone’s an Innovator action (URBACT network: 2018 – 2021)

“The Innovato-R Transfer network builds upon the Innova.TO project, which is a competition open to Municipality employees aimed at developing innovative projects improving the Administration performances, reducing wastes and/or valuing resources. Proposals can be focused on service quality, goods/services acquisition, costs rationalization, energetic optimization, bureaucratic impact reduction and increase in data and in digital tools management.”

  • RESOURCEFUL CITIES _ Spaces for circular co-creation & action (URBACT network: 2019 – ongoing)

This network “seeks to develop the next generation of urban resource centres, so they can serve as catalysts of the local circular economy, by adopting a participative and integrated approach. The resource centres strive to promote the positive economic, environmental and social impacts, notably for the circular economy. Thus, the network facilitates waste prevention, reuse, repair and recycling. The centres also work as connection points for citizens, new businesses, researchers and the public sector to co-create new ways to close resource loops at the local level. By bringing together interested actors to work alongside, the goal is to promote the change of values and mindset.”

  • TROPAVERDE _ Rewarding recycling (URBACT network: 2018 – 2021)

“Tropa Verde is a Transfer network to encourage environmentally responsible behaviour that empowers citizens to reuse and recycle. Combining web platform and low cost campaigns, it is considered as a “civic movement fully committed to sustainability and circular economy”. Citizens get vouchers and exchange them for rewards from the City Council and local retailers. It connects 

places where disposing waste (green points, civic and social centres, etc.) with local businesses providing gifts or discounts.”

HORIZON 2020

  • COLLECTORS _ Waste collection systems assessed and good practices identified (Dec 2017 – Dec 2020)

“The project aimed at harmonising and disclosing available information on different waste collection systems for Paper and packaging waste (PPW), Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and Construction and demolition waste (CDW). The project sheds light on the overall performance of the collection systems and provides practical tools to decision makers that are keen to shift to better-performing systems. The website features an inventory of waste collection practices, 12 case studies, implementation guidelines for the collection of the three waste streams and a set of policy recommendations.”

“The guidelines provide recommendations for local waste collection systems to better assess their situation and improve their performances. They include practical recommendations as well as more concrete illustrations on how local players succeeded in tackle local challenges and improve their performances.”

  • DECISIVE _ A DECentralIzed management Scheme for Innovative Valorization of urban biowastE (Sep 2016 – Oct 2021)

“DECISIVE project proposes to change the present urban metabolism for organic matter (foods, plants, etc.), energy and biowaste to a more circular economy and to assess the impacts of these changes on the whole waste management cycle. In this objective DECISIVE project offers to demonstrate the ability to decrease the generation of urban waste flows (from household or assimilated) and increase recycling and recovery by focusing efforts on decentralised management and valorization of the biowaste, through anaerobic digestion and solid-state fermentation within the urban and peri-urban areas in relation with urban and peri-urban agriculture.”

  • EMBRACED _ Establishing a Multi-purpose Biorefinery for the Recycling of the organic content of AHP waste in a Circular Economy Domain (Jun 2017 – Nov 2023)

“A sizeable category in terms of organic content within MSW is represented by Absorbent Hygiene Products (AHPs; e.g. nappies, adult incontinence products, feminine hygiene items, wipes, etc.) waste, which is currently considered as non-recyclable fraction of MSW and finds its way to landfills or incineration, leading to important environmental concerns. Within EMBRACED project, a first-of-its-kind multi-purpose integrated biorefinery will be established in order to valorize in a relevant environment scenario the cellulosic fractions obtained from AHP waste towards the production of bio-products of significant commercial interest, and – concurrently – high added-value co-products, such polyolefinic plastics and SAP (superabsorbent polymers).”

  • FORCE _Cities Cooperating for Circular Economy (Sep 2016 – Feb 2021)

“The overall objective is to minimise the leakage of materials from the linear economy and work towards a circular economy. Specific objectives are to: 1. Engage cities, enterprises, citizens and academia in 16 participatory value chain based partnerships to create and develop eco-innovative solutions together. 2. Develop 10 viable end-markets by demonstrating new applications for plastic waste, metals (EEE devices), biowaste and wood waste. 3. Develop a governance model for cities based on value chain based partnerships. 4. Develop decision support tools and assess the actual impact by use of Big Data. 5. Ensure replication through the FORCE Academy aiming at enterprises, citizens and policy makers. The eco-innovative solutions will be demonstrated across four cities (Copenhagen, Hamburg, Lisbon and Genoa).”

  • PERCAL _ Chemical building blocks from versatile MSW biorefinery (Jul 2017 – Dec 2020)

“PERCAL will exploit Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as feedstock to develop intermediate chemical products at high yield and low impurity level with huge industrial interest. These will be complementary to the bioethanol (current PERSEO technology), to achieve a cascade valorisation of the MSW components, i.e.: Lactic acid (LA) to produce: 1) Eco-friendly ethyl lactate solvents by reactive distillation from lactic acid & bio-ethanol to be used in cleaning products and inks and 2) hot-melt adhesives for cardboard and other non-food applications in combination with maleic anhydride by reactive extrusion; Succinic acid (SA) as an intermediate building blocks to production of polyols for the polyurethane industry; Biosurfactants by chemical and/or microbiological modification of protein and lipid fraction from remaining fraction of MSW fermentation.”

  • REPAIR _ REsource Management in Peri-urban AReas: Going Beyond Urban Metabolism (Sep 2016 -Dec 2020)

“The objective of REPAiR was to provide local and regional authorities with an innovative transdisciplinary open source geodesign decision support environment (GDSE) developed and implemented in living labs in six metropolitan areas. REPAiR developed the first geodesign software that includes waste and resource flows. REPAiR addresses five preliminary flow categories: construction & demolition waste, biowaste, post-consumer plastic waste, electrical waste and electronic equipment, and municipal solid waste. To further extend the concept of urban metabolism and make it applicable to support the development of place-based eco-innovative solutions, REPAiR developed an activity-based material flow analysis (AS-MFA). In order to be able to assess eco-innovative solutions a sustainability framework was developed, that is holistic and comprehensive in the sense that it covers social, economic and environmental aspects, and considers local to global impacts, based on a life cycle perspective.”

  • URBAN WASTE _ Urban strategies for Waste Management in Tourist Cities (Jun 2016 – May 2019)

“In comparison with other cities, tourist cities have to face additional challenges related to waste prevention and management due to their geographical and climatic conditions, the seasonality of tourism flow and the specificity of tourism industry and of tourists as waste producers. The project UrBAN-WASTE has developed eco-innovative and gender-sensitive waste prevention and management strategies in 11 pilot cities with high levels of tourism to reduce waste production and improve the re-use, recycle, collection and disposal of waste.”

  • Urban-Wins _ Urban metabolism accounts for building Waste management Innovative Networks and Strategies (Jun 2016 – May 2019)

“Urban_Wins develops and test methods for designing and implementing innovative and sustainable Strategic Plans for Waste Prevention and Management in various urban contexts that will enhance urban environmental resilience and guarantee progress towards more Examples of Horizon 2020 and Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking’s projects on circular economy and circular bio-based economy with local and regional components sustainable production and consumption patterns together with improvements waste recovery and recovered materials use.”

  • RES URBIS _ REsources from URban BIo-waSte (Jan 2017 – Dec 2019)

“The overall objective of the project is to integrate into a single facility and to use one main technology chain for the conversion of several types of urban bio-wastes into valuable bio-based products, while also minimizing any residual or consequent waste to be disposed of.”

  • SCALIBUR _ Scalable technologies for bio-urban waste recovery (Nov 2018 – Oct 2022)

“SCALIBUR creates a holistic consortium to cut urban biowaste and replace it with a new production chain of biomaterials, forming a partnership of end users to recover and transform biowaste from three municipalities, namely Madrid (ES), Albano (IT) and Kozani (EL), into value added products. In SCALIBUR, HORECA waste will be transformed to proteins, lipids and chitin from insect rearing, while the organic fraction of MSW will generate biopesticides and bioplastics by high-solid enzymatic hydrolysis followed by fermentation. The resulting biogas from MSW and USS will be upgraded by bioelectrochemical treatment to produce commodity chemicals and bioplastics, such as PHBV.”

  • URBANREC _ New approaches for the valorisation of URBAN bulky waste into high added value RECycled products (Jun 2016 – Nov 2019)

“URBANREC project aims to develop and implement an eco-innovative and integral bulky waste management system (enhancing prevention, improving logistics and allowing new waste treatments to obtain high added value recycled products) and demonstrate its effectiveness in different regions. URBANREC project also improves the separation and disassembling of bulky waste – implementing advanced fragmentation techniques to obtain high quality raw materials, promoting innovative valorisation routes for those considered more problematic (PUR foam, mixed hard plastics and mixed textiles), not recycled due to lack of eco-innovative cost-effective solutions.”

  • URBIOFIN _ Demonstration of an integrated innovative biorefinery for the transformation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) into new BioBased products (URBIOFIN). (Jun 2017 – Sep 2022)

“The aim of URBIOFIN project is to demonstrate the techno-economic and environmental viability of the conversion at semiindustrial scale (10 T/d) of the organic fraction of MSW (OFMSW) into: Chemical building blocks (bioethanol, volatile fatty acids, biogas), biopolymers (polyhydroyalkanoate and Examples of Horizon 2020 and Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking’s projects on circular economy and circular bio-based economy with local and regional components or additives (microalgae hydrolisated for biofertilisers). By using the biorefinery concept applied to MSW (urban biorefinery), URBIOFIN will exploit the OFMSW as feedstock to produce different valuable marketable products for different markets: agriculture, cosmetics. URBIOFIN will offer a new feasible and more sustainable scenario alternative to the current treatment of the OFMSW.”

  • VALUEWASTE _ Unlocking new VALUE from urban biowaste (Nov 2018 – Oct 2022)

“VALUEWASTE will implement three new value chains that will use urban biowaste as raw material for its valorisation into high-value end products in a cascading process, generating economic, social and environmental benefits: food & feed proteins and other ingredients, and biobased fertiliser. VALUEWASTE will be developed at two very different European locations, Murcia (ES) and Kalundborg (DK) with the purpose of finding a solution both technical and socially adapted to the different socio-economic contexts exiting across Europe.” 

  • Waste4Think _ Moving towards Life Cycle Thinking by integrating Advanced Waste Management Systems (Jun 2016 -Feb 2020)

“WASTE4Think seeks to design solutions based on the use of information and communication technologies that would enable the improvement of all waste management stages, adopting a global approach and particularly focusing on citizen participation in order to build more sustainable, eco-friendly cities. The main objective of this project is to move forward the current waste management practices into a circular economy motto, demonstrating the value of integrating and validating a set of 20 eco-innovative solutions that cover all the waste value chain. The benefits of these solutions will be enhanced by a holistic waste data management methodology, and will be demonstrated in 4 complementary urban areas in Europe.”

  • WaysTUP! _ Value chains for disruptive transformation of urban biowaste into biobased products in the city context (Sep 2019 – Feb 2023)

“Value chains for disruptive transformation of urban biowaste into biobased products in the city context. The project is set to showcase a rash of new products produced from urban biowaste-to-bio-based processes starting from different feedstocks, including fish and meat waste, spent coffee grounds, household source separated bio-waste and used cooking oils. In its implementation, WaysTUP! will develop a behavioural change approach with citizens and local communities, improving and changing longstanding perceptions on urban bio-waste. It will also help promote active participation of citizens in the collection of urban bio-waste.”

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