Global Recycling Day: discover HaDEA-managed projects advancing circular economy solutions in Europe

Each year on 18 March, Global Recycling Day seeks to raise awareness about the significance of recycling and the role it plays in the sustainable development of our planet. As the EU continues to move towards a climate-neutral economy that is circular by design, it is essential to support innovative ideas contributing to the reduction of waste materials while maximising the lifespan and reuse of resources.

Through the Horizon Europe programme, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) is committed to supporting projects that play an important role in the transformation of industrial value chains while moving towards circular production patterns. Discover some examples below. 

• The ICARUS project is dedicated to upcycling industrial residues from process industries to valuable resources for new applications, especially for the construction sector. The project aims to explore new possibilities for upcycling materials like lithium aluminosilicate residues, urban waste cellulose, and steel slag, to the same or higher quality as those derived from raw materials. Hence, the ICARUS project contributes to strengthening the circular economy for the process industries, while reducing raw material dependence.
• CIRCULess is a project that seeks to solve the problems resulting from a substantial amount of construction, demolition, and manufacturing waste in Europe, especially those derived from concrete and timber-based products. This project promotes innovative processing routes and circular product concepts, transforming these waste streams into high-quality secondary raw materials for industrial use. It is also important in ensuring that these reclaimed raw materials are, at least, of the same quality and safety as newly manufactured raw materials, while minimising environmental effects.
• The W2W (Wood-to-Wood) project aims at enhancing the cascade valorisation of wood waste from various industries like construction, demolition, and furniture manufacturing. This project involves the utilisation of innovative technologies like advanced sorting and treatment, as well as digitalisation techniques, like digital product passports (DPP), and optimisation platforms. It includes demonstration cases on clean wood fractions, biocomposites, biopolymers, polyols, detergents, and nutrient recovery.

Background

The above featured projects are funded under Horizon Europe, a research and innovation programme lasting until 2027 with a budget of €95.5 billion. The programme tackles climate change, helps to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU’s competitiveness and growth while strengthening collaboration in research and innovation.