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The session “Industrial(-Urban) Symbiosis: Urban Waste and Wastewater as a Resource” at the Waste Management Europe Conference in Bergamo (Italy) highlighted CIRCULAR BIOCARBON as a great example of how using the concept of Industrial-Urban Symbiosis (I-US) can contribute to the necessary transition towards a circular economy.

During the session, Brenda Insonne, environmental engineer and project partner Gruppo CAP, explained that the project has designed a first-of-its-kind biorefinery to valorise the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) and Sewage Sludge (SS) into high added-value end products. There are two sites with such a biorefinery, Zaragoza (Spain) and Sesto San Giovanni (Italy).

Insonne highlighted that the site in Sesto San Giovanni is the result of a collaboration of Gruppo Cap, CORE Group and a number of Italian municipalities that began in 2018. They decided to transform the waste-to-energy plant in Sesto San Giovanni into a biorefinery dedicated to the creation of a carbon neutral circular economy. Through the I-US processes in CIRCULAR BIOCARBON the biorefinery should create environmental benefits, cost savings and innovation and collaboration.

Insonne also noted that the potential replicability is another benefit of CIRCULAR BIOCARBON. As the biorefinery is implemented in two different locations, it can be tested against different waste management schemes, ecosystems, and practices. This should enable the further uptake of I-US (the exchange of underutilised resources from industry to another) in Europe.