SCALIBUR Project Kick Off: Promoting the Recycling of Urban Bio Waste for a Circular Economy @SCALIBUR_H2020 In the EU over 100 million tonnes of bio waste are thrown away each year – around 200 kg per person.* The majority of this waste goes to landfills, causing major environmental problems. This practice wastes valuable nutrients, energy and resources. The SCALIBUR project promotes a circular economy approach to curb urban bio waste. The H2020 project is a joint effort of leading waste management companies, technology developers and research organisations, as well as four European cities – Madrid (Spain), Albano Laziale (Italy), Kozani (Greece), and Lund (Sweden) as a mentor and example of a city with less than 1% of biowaste being landfilled. Together, we will demonstrate innovative solutions to transform urban bio waste into high value-added products and help cities increase their recycling rate, creating new circular economy business opportunities. The CSCP will engage stakeholders along the entire bio waste value chain. A first step in these stakeholder dialogues will be the involvement of households to raise citizens’ awareness for the importance of waste separation and to raise the acceptance of products made from bio waste. To implement better waste separation schemes, the Spanish company FCC will advise cities on the infrastructure required for collection, transport, sorting and pre-treatment of bio waste, while the City of Lund will mentor the municipalities on technical and social aspects. Thus far, bio waste is commonly used for energy or composting, but SCALIBUR will demonstrate a range of innovative technologies to produce high value-added products, such as bioplastics and biopesticides. Three demonstration lines are planned: Commodity chemicals, bioplastics and biopesticides from household waste (Spain’s National Renewable Energy Centre (CENER), ASA, Novamont, AERIS) Proteins, lipids and chitin from HORECA and retail waste (Kour Energy, University of Modena, Reggio Emilia, ITENE, Nutrition Sciences, Zedatec) Bioplastics from urban sewage sludge (Aqualia, WETSUS, Waterschap Brabantse Delta, ITENE) The sustainability of the developed products and processes will be evaluated by CENER, ITENE and Exergy. SCALIBUR plans a Europe-wide expansion by inspiring a revolution in urban biowaste recycling in Europe. Greenovate! Europe will lead activities to facilitate the expanded adoption of the project’s solutions, including an e-learning training programme for municipalities and entrepreneurs. Municipalities looking to improve bio waste recycling in their city are invited to join an Early Adopter Club, which will organise activities to share best practices from the SCALIBUR pilots. Recycling of bio waste into bio-based products creates many new business opportunities. 10 entrepreneurs and businesses will be mentored to enter this market. All information will be available via an online Stakeholder Platform, developed by IRIS. The project will run for four years and is funded by the European Union. There are 21 project partners who held a kick off meeting for the project in Valencia, Spain, on 14 – 15 November. For further questions, please contact Carina Diedrich. *https://www.greenovate-europe.eu/sites/default/files/SCALIBUR%20kick%20off%20press%20release.pdf Photo by Fahmi Ariza on Unsplash