Presentation

The Biocircularcities project aimed to unlock the circular economy potential of unexploited bio-based waste streams by exploring the development of economically and environmentally efficient models for organic waste (food and kitchen waste, garden waste, agricultural waste from agrobased industrial sector, wood waste and forestry residues, etc.) in three pilot areas.

Duration: 2021 - 2023

The bioeconomy relies on renewable biological resources from the land and sea, such as crops, fist, animal, micro-organism, or forests, to produce food, energy, or materials. It promotes a sustainable production of natural resources from biomass rather than fossil and mineral-based resources.

Bioeconomy has a strong potential to move forward a more circular and low-carbon economy, by switching from fossil-based resources to bio-based resources. On the other hand, circular economy aims to make a better use of material resources by extending life products, reducing losses, and recycling and recovering materials as much as possible. Therefore, it is important to better align both bioeconomy and circular economy, to ensure that bio-based resources are used in a sustainable way, as bioeconomy projects are not automatically circular.

Could bioeconomy be more circular? Although bioeconomy relies on renewable resources, there is still much potential to make bioeconomy strategies more circular. This transition starts from a change of mindset. The first step is to perceive biowaste as a resource, and not a discarded material. Besides, reducing losses in the different bioeconomy value chains has to be regarded as a priority. It also requires reconciling legislation, waste management, and circularity with the bioeconomy.

How to improve biowaste management? There is significant room for improvement in biowaste management, notably through the identification of streams with high potential as key resources to obtain potential bio-products, the improvement of collection, and focusing more on increasing the quality of biowaste to ensure its proper recovery.
Food waste prevention must be the priority of local bioeconomy strategies.

For two years, Biocircularcities explored the development of economically and environmentally efficient models for organic waste (food and kitchen waste, garden waste, agricultural waste from agro-based industrial sector, wood waste and forestry residue, etc.) management to foster the transition to a circular bioeconomy.

For that, it rolled-out three pilot studies in urban (Barcelona Spain, and Naples, Italy) and rural contexts – (Pazardzhik, Bulgaria). Researchers and experts in waste management joined forces with the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, the Metropolitan City of Naples, and the Province of Pazardzhik, to analyse more sustainable future scenarios and investigate how to make the following three different value chains more circular: municipal biowaste management, agro-industrial organic waste, and forestry residues. 

In addition, the Biocircularcities partners identified existing best practices for circular use of bioresources across Europe and analyse case studies in which bio-waste is underexploited. Lessons learnt from these practices and insights into circular bioeconomy regulations and policy instruments will enable partners to map barriers and opportunities that will in turn feed guidelines and policy recommendations supporting the implementation of “Biocircular cities” first at local and then at the European level.

Activities

Biocircularcities aimed to:

• Improve the uptake of bio-based solutions by the market, and especially SMEs, by:
  • Aligning the bio-based industry’s R&I with relevant regulation, enabling especially SMEs without large in-house strategic departments to achieve pan-European value chain integration and market reach;
  • Providing opportunities for early-stage projects to evaluate their business case against current and upcoming regulations;
  • Helping bio-based alternatives to take advantage of the regulatory framework to compare their impact with fossil-based solutions;
  • Preventing knowledge gaps on regulation hindering the market entry of bio-based processes and products.
• Promote the development of successful circular bioeconomy strategy in EU territories by:
  • Incentivising the recovery of bio-waste in line with the principles of the circular bioeconomy by providing useful and accurate information on existing Best Practices for circular use of bioresources.

To investigate possibilities to make local bioeconomy more circular, Biocircularcities rolled-out three pilot studies focusing each time on a dedicated challenge and a specific value-chain.

• Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (ES): the aim is to incentivise quality and quantity of biowaste separately collected in the urban context represented by the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and exploring the feasibility of producing added value bioproducts.

• Metropolitan City of Naples (IT): aims at improving the current waste management system of a territory encompassing urban, agricultural and industrial areas with important biomass production activities and an important food supply chain.

• Region of Pazardzhik (BG): aims at involving local stakeholders for the larger deployment of circular bioeconomy in a rural region to tackle unexploited bio-waste from agriculture and forestry sectors.

Biocircularcities unfolded on two interrelated levels: the local levels of three pilot territories and the European (or international) level where the results of the project could be replicated. Activities were developed in three directions:

• Analysing the bioeconomy situation in pilot territories: Biocircularcities studied the situation in the pilot territories to understand to which extend biowaste is underexploited and could be brought better in line with the principles of the circular economy. Partners selected relevant sectors producing and managing biowaste and mapped relevant stakeholders involved in biowaste management chains. Following this, they identified potential improvements of biowaste chains.

• Boosting circular bioeconomy in pilot territories: after a first situational analysis, partners identified and analysed circular bioeconomy best practices that could be successfully implemented in the pilot areas, mapping opportunities and obstacles to the introduction of such processes.

• Facilitating the replication in other EU countries: to help transfer the learning from the three pilot areas to other European territories and support the implementation of a circular bioeconomy, the project partners worked on a matrix/decision tree and guidelines which are at the basis of a web-based tool designed to assist both policy makers and industry in designing biowaste management strategies. Partners also presented the fruit of their work at different events.

Read more on the project's results here.

ACR+ was the leader of the activities aiming to promote the project, ensure that its results are spread, and create a good ground for its replication. We also supported and provided expertise for the organisation of the Living Labs and capacity building activities. Local Living Labs gathered key stakeholders involved in biowaste management (such as large waste producers, waste collectors and processors, end-users of recovered materials, etc.) to share views and challenges, discuss the development of the project and how its activities can have a positive impact on local circular bioeconomy in the three pilot areas. They were organised by pilot territories to ensure that Biocircularcities effectively addresses the local needs and explores relevant solutions to develop a circular bioeconomy on the territory.