Published on 17.07.2024
Written by Jelizaveta Krenjova-Cepilova, FinEst Centre for Smart Cities
TREASoURcE project focuses on developing systemic circular economy solutions in cities and regions in three key value chains: unused plastic waste, end-of-life electric vehicle batteries and bio-based waste and side streams.
Currently, the project is midway in terms of its implementation. The following sections present our major achievements so far.
In the bio-based waste and side streams focus area the Finnish digital marketplace has been established: KiertoaSuomesta.fi. It is a marketplace that connects sellers and buyers of biomaterials, such as manure, grass and plant waste as well as logistics optimization possibilities are being investigated.
To support and increase circular economy understanding, training and info materials will be developed for the platform. The website currently works in Finnish, Swedish and English.
As the project continues, it remains to be seen how many users the platform attracts and what impact it creates for the bio-waste and side streams circularity.
When it comes to EV-batteries, TREASoURcE project evaluates the potential for the use of second life EV-batteries as energy storage systems and demonstrates their functionality and sustainability in three demo sites of energy storage in Norway and Finland. The battery systems were installed into the following sites:
The demonstrations aim to increase knowledge of the batteries’ second life and their functionality and how stationary batteries can be used to balance electricity demand. The intended result is to accelerate the market uptake of this technology.
The battery systems will be operating and collecting data for research until 2026. The operation of the systems will be optimized throughout this period based on the data and experience.
After the project period, the battery systems will likely still be operational to fully utilize the resources, and the system can be easily relocated if necessary.
In the circular plastics value chain TREASoURcE aims to improve the recyclability of the targeted plastic waste streams (agricultural plastics, municipal waste industrial waste) by complementary mechanical and chemical recycling approaches.
Feedstocks from various providers gave a selection of plastic fractions to optimise new regional plastic recycling value chains. These included:
In TREASoURcE project we investigate collection, pretreatment as well as recycling stages for plastics value chain. More specifically, we would like to understand which types of waste (industrial, municipal, agricultural) would be suitable for which route of recycling (mechanical or chemical).
We also test new technologies and processes of recycling and pretreatment. One of these processes is MODIX – a novel extrusion process (developed by project partner – VTT) with a large feeding zone that allows the direct feeding of bulky materials without any pre-treatment.
Last, but not least, TREASoURcE works intensively on stakeholder engagement activities as these are aimed to underpin the work in three key value chains presented above. These include various fix and repair festivals, toy swap events, plastic waste collection events to name a few. Finnish circular economy stakeholder mapping was done and similar overview is upcoming for other project countries.
Since TREASoURcE activities and practices are foreseen to be replicable in other countries, especially in the Baltics, Poland and Norther Germany, the Replication Handbook was already launched.
It will become the main source for all materials that are created during the project. The Handbook has a special focus on replicability and will introduce some best practices from the project with the main elements and steps for replication. Use cases in the Handbook will explain how we executed the practices.
For instance, visit the case of the Finnish Digital Marketplace presented above and see what it takes to replicate this platform somewhere else. The Replication Handbook is a living document and will be supplemented throughout the project.
TREASoURcE project consortium meeting in Tallinn, June 2024TREASoURcE is a four-year project (2022-2026) receiving funding from the European Union under the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme. It focuses on developing systemic circular economy solutions in cities and regions in three key value chains: unused plastic waste, end-of-life electric vehicle batteries and bio-based waste and side streams.
