To broaden dissemination efforts, four EU-funded projects under the Horizon Europe banner joined forces to seek synergies between each other and pave the way for future collaboration at Ecomondo, one of Europe’s largest green technology exhibitions, held from November 5-8, 2024 in Rimini, Italy. The International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), a communications and dissemination partner for the EU-funded Reclaim and Wood2Wood projects, organised and managed the collaborative efforts at the exhibition through a workshop and a special booth day. By coming together, the projects had the opportunity to exchange technical knowledge and explore potential collaboration opportunities that will hopefully increase the ambit of project impact.
In the workshop titled “From Waste to Resource: Innovative Approaches to Material Recovery and Sustainable Waste Management”, four projects, namely Reclaim, Grinner, Wood2Wood and EcoRefibre brainstormed on effective, efficient and sustainable pathways to advance circularity imperatives of the European Union (EU).
The four projects presented their technological innovations in material recovery, using Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Advanced Imaging, across different waste streams, such as municipal solid waste, Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and wood waste from construction and demolition (C&D), and furniture waste.
Grinner Project representatives Simonetta Cota and Andrea Centurioni spoke about tackling battery-related fires and improving e-waste management through AI and Robotics. Wood2Wood Project representatives Kostas Chatziioannou and Vasilikis Tzelepi delved into their wood-to-wood cascade upcycling valorisation approach, and the three Use Cases in the project.
EcoRefibre’s representative Gerard Deroubaix and his team focused on how to recycle wood waste back into fibreboards and novel building products, also focusing on practical use cases.
And finally, Reclaim project discussed the development of an AI-powered portable robotic material recovery facility for decentralised waste sorting in hard-to-reach areas that are underserved by centralised material recovery facilities.
After the presentations, ISWA facilitated a Q&A session to allow the projects to identify technical synergies among each other for future collaboration and answer any questions project representatives might have on specific innovations that resonated with them.
For example, participants asked questions on imaging models used in the RECLAIM project for waste identification, X-ray technology in Grinner project to identify different properties in batteries, price of recovered materials to make fibreboards in EcoRefibre project, and the functioning of Cobots (collaborative robots) in the Wood2Wood Project, among others.
Simonetta Cota from ERION, representing Grinner Project, informed Michalis from Reclaim Project on the interlinks between their projects, especially in relation to advanced imaging for waste identification. While Grinner uses a combination of RGB and X-Rays to identify and sort materials embedded in batteries, Reclaim uses RGB and Hyperspectral imaging to identify, locate and categorise the same for municipal solid waste (MSW).
“So, how can we get more information on how to develop this model?” asked Simonetta.
This is what Michalis said in brief:
“We categorise images and assess the accuracy to identify areas where our model underperforms. With help from citizens, we pinpoint specific images that challenge our model, and then ask RECLAIM experts to examine these cases in detail."
Following Michalis’ answer, EcoRefibre’s Gerard Deroubaix asked Kostas Chatziioannou from the Wood2Wood project if W2W is setting any standards for sorting and separation of wood waste.
Kostas said: “We have different solutions for different types of wood. For example, we have robotic arms that can move different materials to sorting bins, and we are using air nozzles of wood and smaller chips.” Michalis also followed up with a question on COBOTS in W2W, and Kostas had an interesting reply which can be found in this article on Wood2Wood website.
Furthermore, Gerard asked if W2W is using X-Ray sensors and any pre-sorting tasks like shredding in the project. “Not in this project,” said Kostas.
Overall, the workshop was filled with curious questions and insights from other projects with the aim to identify synergies for future collaborations. And to this end, the workshop fulfilled its main objective, that is to bring EU-funded projects under one roof to discuss potential joint activities in future on material recovery solutions across different waste streams, using AI, Robotics, Advanced Imaging, and data analytics, but not only these.
Grinner and Reclaim found common ground in the areas of AI, Robotics, and Advanced Imaging for waste identification and sorting, while W2W and EcoReFibre discovered similarities in relation with developing commercially viable methods for recycling and upcycling wood waste to increase wood availability in Europe. But synergies across projects too were identified as advanced robotic technologies are being used in all four projects for sorting and separating waste.
Based on the synergies identified, the four projects agreed to work more closely for webinars, conferences and related thematic events to increase the visibility and impact of EU-funded projects.
EU Projects at ISWA booth
The workshop was intended for networking within the four projects, and the ISWA booth was the place to showcase the projects to a wider audience at the exhibition.
At the ISWA booth, project brochures and rollups were on display, but also the Recycling Data Game from the Reclaim project developed by consortium partner Institute of Digital Games (University of Malta) in collaboration with ISWA, Forth-Hellas, and others.
The booth witnessed a steady stream of visitors inquiring about ISWA and EU Projects. For example, a consultant representing interests from Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan, who works primarily in the beverage industry, shared valuable insights into decentralised waste management solutions. This individual was particularly interested in understanding how the project could support decentralised waste initiatives in rural areas and was keen to learn more about the integration of informal waste pickers in these solutions.
A representative from the Waste Management Association in Finland, was present to discuss the association’s event, the Waste Management Days, which they organise annually, and requested the projects to be a part of this annual event in Finland.
The Reclaim Data Game was also on display, and we invited booth visitors to play the game to understand how the project is using citizen science to increase public awareness on material recycling but also using citizen-fed data to ethically train the Artificial Intelligence (AI) to better detect, locate and categorise waste materials for sorting.
In summary, the workshop and booth day was conducted to highlight the collaboration aspect among EU-funded projects with similar objectives, and the technologies used to reach those objectives.
Both the workshop and booth day led us to mull over the question: “What does collaboration mean in EU projects?”
Beyond just the happy faces in the picture, it is a rollercoaster ride trying to bring the research and innovation efforts within projects to fruition. But, more importantly, a much more challenging task is to explore synergies with other like-minded EU-funded projects to expand the ambit of project impact.
EU-funded projects on sustainability typically aim at creating an enabling environment to support the transition to a circular economy across sectors through their research and innovation efforts. While the projects are funded by the EU, they have a global ambition to disseminate their project results beyond the bloc.
Horizon Europe funding for research and innovation projects in the EU are a resolute step in that direction.
This was the intention behind the EU projects workshop organised yesterday by ISWA International Solid Waste Association on behalf of the RECLAIM project, and Wood2Wood Project, which also involved GRINNER Project and EcoReFibre for a knowledge sharing session on their technical innovations and how it could help each of the four projects individually and collectively achieve impact.
Thanks to all four projects for the participation at Ecomondo, and look forward to realising some of the technical cooperation in future.