On October 6 the webinar "Turning organic urban waste streams into value–added products", organized by ICLEI EUROPE, was held online in the framework of Circular Week 2022, the international campaign that promotes the idea of circular economy, supports sustainable business models and establishes cooperation between interested stakeholders in Europe. 
 

The event represented an important occasion to explore the CIRCULAR BIOCARBON approach and its biorefinery model for waste valorisation. The project, funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, aims at realizing a first-of-a-kind flagship biorefinery designed to valorise the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) and Sewage Sludge (SS) into added-value products. Moreover, this flagship project offers additional opportunity for a better valorisation of organic waste along virtuous value chain in synergy with municipalities and multiutility companies, such as URBASER and CAP. 
 

Patrizio Salice, New Materials and Technologies Researcher and CIRCULAR BIOCARBON Project Manager, participated as speaker to illustrate NOVAMONT’s activities within the project, highlighting a significant opportunity for the bioplastics industry to promote circular bioeconomy models and fostering the interconnection between the urban and rural dimension through the valorisation of urban waste into compostable bags for organic waste collection and biodegradable in soil mulch films. In particular, he illustrated the Milan organic fraction collection model as a successful Italian case study and circular bioeconomy demonstrator. Thanks to the use of compostable bags for the collection of biowaste and to the national law for the reduction of disposable bags, over years Italy has in fact successfully decreased organic waste, which was then correctly separated and converted into high-quality compost.  
 

Among the speakers also Simon Gresset, Circular Economy Officer ICLEI Europe, Maria Luísa Álvarez, R&D Project Manager Urbaser, and Joan Colón Jordà, Scinetific Coordinator BETA Technology Centre UVIC.