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Researchers are looking for ways to utilize waste that could be recycled and reused.

Central Macedonia plays a significant role in food production, accounting for a quarter of the country’s agricultural output and being the source of much of Greece’s table olives, peaches, wine and dairy products. However, this rich productivity also results in large amounts of agricultural waste. According to a report by Eri Driva on economix.gr, researchers from Greece and Europe are looking for ways to utilize this waste, which under certain conditions could be recycled and reused to develop a wide range of useful bio-based products, including fertilizers, agrochemicals and even nutritional supplements.
Spanish environmental engineer Pedro Villanueva Rey is coordinating a team of researchers from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, aiming to transform various biowaste streams across Europe into new and desirable resources. “Introducing these secondary raw materials into the supply chain could help drive the transition towards a bio-based economy,” Villanueva Rey was quoted as saying by the EU’s Horizon magazine for Research and Innovation. He is a senior project manager at Cetaqua, a water technology research organization in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
For this to happen, however, industry and consumers will need assurances that biowaste is safe and suitable for reuse. While much of our household waste is now separated and recycled, unwanted biological by-products from industrial and agricultural processes are still widely dumped. There is also the added dilemma of how to dispose of them. One of the barriers to reuse is the need for quality control and certification.
The research team is combining its expertise in a three-year collaborative effort called BIORECER. Researchers are monitoring and evaluating the potential for broader reuse of biowaste as a substitute for materials derived from fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. They are also looking at ways to ensure the consistency and safety of a variety of potential biowaste feedstocks.
Exploitation of potentially new resources
In Greece, researchers will focus on possible scenarios for the reuse of biowaste from sources such as pruning of tree crops, residues from olive and grape processing, or plant residues from cereal crops. Researchers participating in the project will also examine three other possible scenarios for the reuse of biowaste in Spain, Italy and Sweden.
In Galicia, Spain, an important fishing hub for the EU, reuse options are being considered for the huge amounts of fish waste and cooking water produced by the canning industry. The BIORECER team will work closely with Galician bio-based companies to develop value chains for potential products from these specific waste sources, as well as from algae and urban sewage sludge.
The research in Lombardy, Italy, will focus more on municipal biowaste, mainly from sewage and organic municipal waste, as well as food waste from large businesses. Potential products that could be derived from these raw materials include bio-based chemicals and fertilizers.
Meanwhile, in the Västernorrland region of northeastern Sweden, industrial forestry—which accounts for about 10 to 12% of Swedish industry in terms of employment and sales—produces large quantities of what Swedes call grot (residue consisting of branches, roots, and tree tops), sawdust, bark, and sludge. Researchers are looking into whether green chemicals and materials could incorporate materials derived from this waste.
Adding value
In Greece, the BIORECER case study is at a critical stage, where real data is being integrated with findings on raw material sustainability criteria. “We want to be able to provide data-based recommendations for the sustainable use of these biological resources,” said Dr. Sotiris Patsios, a postdoctoral chemical engineer at the Institute of Chemical Processes and Energy Resources of the Hellenic Center for Research and Technology (KEELPNO) in Thessaloniki, which is conducting the case study.
One goal is to help farmers increase the economic value of their activity by encouraging more biocyclical use, where materials traditionally considered waste are reused, further used or recycled in a cycle without leaving the economy. “For example, farmers may burn waste from activities such as pruning or use it for lower-value economic activities such as biogas or biofertilizer production,” said Mr. Patsios. “We want to develop value chains with higher economic value, such as those for broader biomaterials and biochemicals.” One example is the production of wood-based building products, such as particleboard, from composite biomaterials.
Data-driven guidance
However, collecting reliable data can be a challenge. This is something that concerns Dr. George Banias, research director at the Institute of Bioeconomy and Agricultural Technology of CERTH. “To facilitate the transition from a linear economy that leaves behind a lot of waste to a circular, bio-based economy, it is vital to fill some of these data gaps,” he said. According to Mr. Banias, the development of tracking and tracing systems is essential for the existence of reliable data. If the BIORECER collaboration can achieve this, it will also help combat misleading environmental tactics, or greenwashing. This is when companies use advertising that makes false environmental claims – a practice that the European Parliament has banned.
“One of the areas of application of the project is the mitigation of greenwashing, about which there is a huge debate in the EU,” said Mr. Banias. The aim is to make it more advantageous for businesses to reuse the resulting recycled materials, thus creating a win-win-win situation, as bio-waste will gain a new life, the use of non-renewable resources and the total amount of waste will be reduced.
Market development
“It could be a starting point for the development of a real market related to all these products,” said Villanueva Rey. As part of these efforts, the team aims to develop guidelines to improve certification systems for organic products.
One criterion is the environmental impact during their lifetime, taking into account factors such as carbon dioxide emissions, the presence of toxic compounds, transportation and storage. They believe that better certification could boost the level of acceptance by industry and society, leading to the use of recycled biowaste in a wider range of products. The team reviewed several existing certification schemes to inform their research. These include ISCC PLUS, which has a globally applicable voluntary certification scheme for the bioeconomy. This mainly refers to alternative feedstocks such as biomass (e.g. cellulose and agricultural residues) and wastes such as used cooking oil, animal fats and municipal solid waste. The researchers also looked at certification schemes such as those of the Forest Stewardship Council and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials.
Certification System
The BIORECER team aims to develop a comprehensive framework to complement and strengthen existing certification systems for biochemicals and biomaterials, in addition to the current systems that focus mainly on the energy, food and feed sectors.
Lucía González Monjardin, project manager at Cetaqua, helps identify gaps. “If, for example, you use a solvent to produce bioplastics, there may not be a certification system that confirms that the solvent is of biological origin,” she said. “By adding one like this, you provide assurances to people using these raw materials that the product complies with regulations and achieves the same results as conventional options.” Their goal is to help producers, traders and consumers monitor the sustainability of biofluids and to strengthen the connection and cooperation between organizations that manage certification systems and companies that want their products certified.