WaysTUP!- Value chains for the disruptive transformation of urban biowaste into biobased products in the city context

Project aim:
Projects’ goal is to demonstrate that circular economy needs to go far beyond the pursuit of waste prevention and waste reduction to inspire technological, organizational, and social innovation across and within value chains. It demands a system change with parallel actions along the value chain rather than a purely sector and / or product focused approach, as well as regulatory, institutional, and cultural changes. WaysTUP! will address these issues by demonstrating innovative technologies and new business models, as well as contributing to a change of mind-set of citizens and policy makers through an interdisciplinary framework.

About the project: WaysTUP! aims to demonstrate the establishment of new value chains for urban biowaste utilization to produce higher-value purpose products (i.e.biobased products, including food and feed ingredients), through a multi-stakeholder approach in line with the circular economy. The project will showcase a portfolio of new ‘urban biowaste to biobased products’ processes starting from different feedstocks i.e. fish and meat waste, spent coffee grounds, household source separated biowaste, used cooking oils, cellulosic waste derived from municipal wastewater and waste treatment plants, and sewage sludge.

Pilot demonstration will take place in several European cities i.e. Valencia (Spain), London (UK), Alicante (Spain), Prague (Czech Republic), Athens (Greece), L’Alcúdia (Spain), Terni (Italy) and Crete (Greece). The processes will result in the production of food and feed additives, flavors, insect protein, coffee oil, bioethanol, biosolvents, polyxydroxyalkanoates, ethyl lactate, long-chain dicarboxylic acid, bioplastics, and biochar.
End-product characterization and safety assessment will be implemented. Life Cycle Assessment of the value chains will be conducted to assess their environmental impact. WaysTUP! will develop and implement a behavioral change approach with citizens and local communities by improving the current perception of citizens and local communities on urban biowaste as a local resource; enhancing the active participation of citizens in the separate collection of urban biowaste and improving customer acceptance of urban bio-waste derived products. New profitable business models will be developed preparing market entry of the technology solutions demonstrated as well as of the end-products resulting from them. Finally, the project will provide guidance for city managers on adopting new organizational models supporting the valorization of urban biowaste, as well as evidence-based EU level policy recommendations for decision-makers.