Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resource efficiency are high on the agenda in most countries in the world to ensure climate change mitigation and environmental impact. These challenges have been primarily handled between a limited number of partners (often companies).
Through the introduction of the concept of circular hubs (Hub4Circularity), the EU has pointed to symbioses across companies and society at large in relatively limited geographical areas as important for increasing the pace of development towards a more sustainable society.
Central to the project is systemic work to increase the number of realized symbioses, combined with concrete technical solutions for recycling and reuse in a number of fields, such as sorting of textiles and waste, recycling of glass waste, recycling of demolition waste into building materials, recycling of textiles and reuse of water.
One example is the global demand for building floor area that is projected to double between 2015 and 2050, with fired clay brick production expected to increase by 50 %. At the same time, the generation of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) accounts for over 25 % of global solid waste – representing a enormous material resource.
In the project, several pilots are being carried out, and there are two replication hubs (Nordland and Malmö).
SINTEF Helgeland heads the replication hub in Nordland. In the replication hub, we have two main activities:
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Together with Kunnskapsparken Helgeland and the local partners, we will test different ways to stimulate the formation of more symbioses between companies and between companies and society. Here we will both work based on how we are already working to identify new symbioses, but also learn from the other hubs how we should work. The goal is to arrive at a systemic approach to symbioses, and through that create 5 new symbiosis cases per year.
2. SINTEF Helgeland will develop and use a systems dynamic model to study the potential for industrial and industrial-urban symbiosis in Nordland.
SINTEF Community works with application of C&DW and waste glass that will be refined with both mechanical and wet separation technologies to develop different combination of alternative raw materials for fired clay brick production and concrete production.
Based on the results, a pilot will be run at Helgeland Ferdigbetong in Mo.
