URBANREC

The URBANREC project – new approaches for the valorisation of URBAN bulky waste into high added value RECycled products – aimed 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.

Project co-funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme, 2016 - 2020.

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One of the challenging waste streams for municipal waste management is “bulky waste”, which is defined as “(mixed) waste from households and similar waste from companies that do not fit in the regular receptacle used for the collection of household wastes”. It includes furniture, mattresses, upholstery, garden and outdoor or other large fixtures and fittings, representing a European generation of 19 Mt/year.

Bulky waste is a challenging stream for various reasons. First, its bulky nature makes logistics complicated. Second, bulky waste encompasses very heterogeneous products and materials, which requires either an effective source separation system or a proper sorting technology. Many products managed as bulky waste are also composite products (e.g. a sofa composed of wood, textiles, and foam), that require a dismantlement process to allow the recovery of the various materials included. Other challenges are the lack of stringent regulation, and the lack of market outcomes due to, amongst others, the inexistence of cost-effective valorisation methods. This implies significant environmental impacts and a loss of resources that could be valorised. A comprehensive solution that allows a circular economy approach is required.

The URBANREC project aimed to improve 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.

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The guidelines developed in the frame of the project are meant for public authorities and waste companies in charge of managing urban bulky waste. They present the main outputs of the URBANREC project in a comprehensive way and provide information for the implementation of URBANREC’s bulky waste management solutions. The guidelines provide an overview of bulky waste in Europe, present data and information collected during the project, and detail its different outcomes that can help improving bulky waste re-use and recycling rates.

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The waste treatments considered in the project include:

• rebonding and chemical glycolysis for the PUR materials, to prepare renewable adhesives;
• needle felt to obtain isolation panels from textiles;
• fibre reinforced composites from textiles;
• wood-plastic composites (WPC);
• catalytic hydro-gasification with plasma for mixed hard plastics to obtain chemicals or fuel.

These treatments were optimised and implemented at industrial level thanks to the collaboration of the URBANREC partners which include top EU level research institutes, and companies interested in obtaining novel eco-friendly products from waste, under a circular economy approach.

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The project consortium also produced a list of policy recommendation covering six important aspect of bulky waste management: 

General framework:

-Harmonised definition;

-Promoting preserving collection.

Quantitative targets:

-Separate target for preparing for reuse;

-Minimum recycled content.

Designing sustainable bulky items:

-Extending Ecodesign Directive;

-Addressing hazardous substances.

Quality standards, certification, information and warranty:

-Extended warranty for products;

-Mandatory information;

-Standards and certification;

-Extending EU Ecolabel.

Collection and handling of bulky waste by reuse professionals:

-Access to reusable items;

-Exemption to environmental permitting.

Public procurement and other economic instruments:

-Support to GPP criteria for bulky items;

-Social clauses in tenders;

-Using VAT.

Full policy brief available here.

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ACR+ was involved in the collection of information on bulky waste management and coordinated the development of a guide on the implementation of a bulky waste strategy. Furthermore, ACR+ organised and animated a working group on bulky waste legislation to produce concrete recommendations for improved legislation at EU level.

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Four different geographical areas – Northern, Mediterranean, Eastern and South-Eastern – are represented by the 21 organisations which are partners to the project. The partners also represent the whole bulky waste value chain and include research organisations, SMEs, larger industrial organisations and local authorities.

URBANREC’s project coordinator is AIMPLAS (Asociación de investigación de materiales plásticos y conexas, ES) and its project partners are:

• FHG, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Forderung Der Angewandten Forschung EV (DE)
• CENTEXBEL, Centre Scientifique & Technique de l’industrie textile Belge (BE)
• IOS – PIB, Instytut Ochrony Srodowiska – Panstwowy Instytut Badawczy (PL)
• IYTE, Izmir Institute of Technology (TR)
• ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for Sustainable Resource Management (BE)
• IZNAB Sp. z o.o., Iznab Spolka Z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnoscia (PL)
• ECOFRAG – ECORETORNO, Ecofrag-Mentation Europe S.L.(ES)
• BPP, Blueplasma Power S.L. (ES)
• RAMPF, RAMPF Ecosystems GmbH & Co. KG (DE)
• RESCOLL Technology Centre of Materials, RESCOLL (FR) Eurospuma, Eurospuma - Sociedade Industrial de Espumas Sintéticas SA (PT)
• DELAX, Colchones Delax SL (ES)
• PROCOTEX, Procotex Corporation SA (BE)
• Vanheede Environment Group (BE)
• IMOG, Intergemeentelijke Maatschappij voor Openbare Gezondheid (BE)
• CVI, Consorcio Valencia Interior (ES)
• OVAM*, Oprnbare Vlaamse Afvalstoffenmaatschappij (BE)
• Diputación Provincial de Valencia (ES)
• URZAD - City of Warsaw*, Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa (PL)
• Bornova Municipality (TR)

*ACR+ members

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More information: https://urbanrec-project.eu