Up to date with the ValueWaste project

In November 2018, the ValueWaste project began its path towards an integrated system for urban biowaste valorisation into key strategic products for the EU. During the past few years, the partners of the consortium have engaged in a series of events and campaigns to help with the communication and dissemination of the project. Furthermore, the Pilot Plant in Murcia is almost ready for its inauguration.

In the following sections, you can find a brief timeline of the key moments of ValueWaste to date

Pilot Plant

Back in January 2020, INDEREN successfully delivered and installed 2 digester tanks, an important milestone for the Work Package 4: Nutrients recovery from urban biowaste.

9 months later, in September 2020, NURESYS shipped the Pilot Unit from Belgium to Murcia. Once there, it was coupled to the anaerobic digestor previously installed. The project coordinator, CETENMA, Ferrovial and INDEREN were present to welcome the Pilot Unit and its installation.

Fast forward a month, Entomo Agroindustrial delivered its pilot unit in November of 2020. This unit is designed to grow Black Soldier Fly larvae, which later will be used to produce protein powder.

Finally, in January 2021, local policy officers from the Region of Murcia visited the facilities of the ValueWaste project in Cañada Hermosa (Murcia).

Altogether, the different pilot units will work to carry out processes developed and designed by the ValueWaste project. This system will be replicable across other cities throughout Europe, maximising the potential impact of the work done.

Murcia +1

In December 2019, the Murcia City Council officially launched one of the main Communication Campaigns that are part of the project. The campaign seeks to engage citizens, restaurants, and food markets with biowaste collection and separation practices.

A list of activities took place:

In January 2020, one of the first steps was the organization of the “Organic Biowaste Patrols”. They are a team of informers that went to fixed information points, homes, businesses, schools, etc. to inform about the new waste management system.
In February 2020, the Murcia City Council also organized neighbourhood meetings in “La Flota”.
Later, CETENMA and Ferrovial joined the City of Murcia to present the brown container, used to collect said biowaste.

Due to COVID-19, offline activities had been paused since April 2020. Nonetheless, Murcia+1 continued to spread the work online in social media, webpages, etc. Luckily, in September 2020 the campaign went back to the streets with new activities such as the engagement of local food markets with selective collection of biowaste.

Events and Interviews

All through 2019 and the beginning of 2020 ValueWaste partners participated in a series of events around Europe. Some of them being meetings with foreign delegations or taking part in events such as:

Food Festival
Ecofira
Dansk Bioøkonomi Konference
Waste Management in the Circular Economy Event, etc.

Nonetheless, ValueWaste partners adapted to the situation and also took part in online events such as the eWorkshop on Upcycled Proteins in May of 2020.

Moreover, ValueWaste project coordinator, CETENMA, did radio interviews with Onda Cero and in Onda Regional. Through these interviews they talked about the situation of the project, the brown container, and the progress of the selective collection of biowaste.

ValueWaste is working on new milestones!