ROOTS - circular policies for changing the biowaste system

The circular economy has a huge potential to make our societies more sustainable and decarbonised, with a reduced impact on the planet’s resources. The European Union (EU) has made a significant commitment to this model and several initiatives and projects have been launched since the approval of the first Circular Economy package (2015). As 34% of European municipal waste is organic, valorisation of biowaste is a key tenet of a circular economy. Indeed, the EU Bioeconomy Strategy (2018) sees cities becoming major circular bioeconomy hubs, where biowaste is a feedstock for safe and sustainable biobased products. Changes in the EU waste legislation are expected to lead to more quality biowaste becoming available for use in biorefineries from 2024. The deployment of innovative solutions in the field of urban biowaste valorisation and reuse is still hindered by numerous bottlenecks, such as technological readiness, funding and financing tools availability, quality and quantity of biowaste and regulatory barriers. The European Green Deal and associated legislative initiatives provide the opportunity to overcome the last ones.