Organic waste and other residual materials from bio-industries and households are of increasing value in today’s economy. Substances that have long represented a cost to the economy are now becoming a valuable resource. Exploiting the full potential of these resources requires increased innovation, systemic change as well as better regulation and governance.
The SusValueWaste-project addresses these issues by analysing value chains inside and across different sectors of the bioeconomy. We analyse a number of industrial cases from different parts of the bioeconomy and collaborate with highly relevant industry actors. The aim of the project is to help policymakers better govern and regulate the organic waste industry and the industry actors to identify and exploit new opportunities in the circular bioeconomy.
The project is managed and coordinated by NIFU in close cooperation with research partners in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.The project has a total budget of 40 mill NOK (4,5 mill EUR) and will run from 2015-2019
Spent grain is an organic left-over from beer production. Historically this side-stream has been given away for free to farmers as livestock feed. However, with the decline of the number of nearby located farms and challenges due to quick spoilage, currently the spent grain is often considered inconvenient waste instead of being a valuable resource. Large... Read More
Wood is a versatile resource. Trees can become building materials, chemicals, energy, feed and nutrients. The saying is “Anything that can be made from oil can be made of trees“, but tree fibres can actually be used in even more ways than oil. With 37 per cent of the land covered with forest, Norway possesses renewable... Read More
When making paper and pulp via the so called kraft process, residuals from the wood end up in a by-product called black liquor. Today the black liquor is usually burned for energy and heat at the paper mills, but what if part of it could be used to make transportation fuels instead? New report Johanna Olofsson... Read More
A quarter of the world market for waste management technology comes from Germany. One of the factors that make the country unique is the cooperation between the various actors, supported by the political and governance setting. SusValueWaste’s postdoctoral fellow, Julia Szulecka, based at TIK, UiO, just attended the 73rd International Short Course on Resource Efficiency –... Read More
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a widespread method used to measure environmental impact from products and services. Despite that LCA is well-established, there are still elements of the methodology that are debated. SusValueWaste has prepared a technical brief that addresses some of these contested elements, which are particularly relevant to the circular bio-economy. When using LCA as a policy... Read More
How is waste best handled? Although the debate often revolves around whether public or private waste management is the best option, a SusValueWaste study reveals that both public, private and hybrid ways to organize is probably most preferable. The different actors play complementing roles that collectively lead to innovative and sustainable waste handeling. The public actors are often facilitators for technological and infrastructural development, while private... Read More
