Renewable Matter #9

RENEWABLE MATTER INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE ON THE BIOECONOMY AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY 09 | March-April 2016 Bimonthly Publication Edizioni Ambiente

Amory Lovins: From PIGS to SEALS • Joseph Beuys: The Consciousness of Trees

Dossier on the Netherlands/ Bioeconomy: Amsterdam in Pole Position • EU Package: The Real Game Starts Now • Better Remanufactured than New • It is 6000 Years Old But Does Not Look it

When Luxury Goes Hand in Hand with Sustainability

Euro 12.00 - Download free online magazine at www.renewablematter.eu

• • • •

Message in a Can Trash Islands Under Investigation Cement Factories in the Battle for Fuels In the Village of Materials

Priceless but Invisible • Algae Prefer Fabrics

www.eiha-conference.org

13th International Conference of the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA)

International Conference of the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) rence.org

www.eiha-confe

1 – 2 June 2016 Rheinforum, Wesseling / near Cologne (Germany) Conference language: English ++ Cultivation ++ Processing ++ Economy ++ Sustainability ++ Innovation ++

Source: Hempro Int., Hemcore Ltd., Hemp Technology Ltd. (2), NPSP Composites BV.

Don’t miss the biggest industrial hemp event in 2016 – worldwide!

The conference will focus on the latest developments concerning industrial hemp and other natural fibres as well as hemp seeds, oil, proteins and pharmaceuticals.

Applications

Spectrum of Participants

Fibres & Shives Bio-Composites Insulation Construction Textiles Hemp Seeds, Oil and Proteins • Pharmaceuticals (CBD)

• Natural Fibre Industry • Hemp Food and Feed Industry • Cultivation Consultants • Engineers • Traders and Investors • Research and Development

• • • • • •

Sponsor

Partners

Media Partners

Hempro Int.

BIB BOOK YOUR PAGES NOW!

Production Sales Consulting www.hempro.com

www.hempro.com

www.hemptrade.ca

www.internationalhemp building.org

www.bio-based.eu/ibib

www.bio-based.eu/news www.bio-based.eu/news

In co-operation with EIHA

www.eiha.org

www.thehia.org

http://dnfi.org

www.bio-based.eu/news

www.renewablematter.eu

GAIN ACCESS TO TWO LOCATED SHOWS WITH ONE PASS

COLOCATED WITH

24-25 MAY 2016, AMSTERDAM

TAKING BIO-BASED CHEMICALS FROM THE LAB TO THE MARKET COMMERCIALISE BIO-BASED CHEMICALS WITH EXPERT INSIGHT FROM:

René Backes Global New Business Development, Chemical Intermediates, BASF

Alex Miles Director, Commercial Development, Europe Enerkem

Molly Morse CEO Mango Materials

Hans van der Pol Director Strategic Marketing Bio-Based Innovations Corbion

Marcel Lubben President Reverdia

Robert Wedinger CEO Rennovia

Marianna Ralli Scientific Affairs Manager Korres Natural Products

Caroline Laurie Head of Sustainabiltiy Kingfisher Plc

SUCCESSFULLY SCALE UP OPERATIONS AND ATTRACT INVESTMENT

ENSURE VALUE AND PERFORMANCE BENEFITS VS TRADITIONAL PRODUCTS

UNCOVER INNOVATION AND DISCOVER PARTNERSHIPS TO ENSURE ADOPTION

PUT BIO-BASED CHEMICALS AT THE HEART OF THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Companies represented include:

PLEASE VISIT: WWW.BIOBASEDCHEMICALSWORLD.COM/EUROPE

The National Technology Cluster of Green Chemistry SPRING has the objective of triggering the growth and the development of biobased industries in Italy, through an holistic approach to innovation, aimed at revitalising Italian chemistry in the name of environmental, a holistic and economic sustainability and to stimulate research and investments in new technologies, in constant dialogue with the actors of local areas and in line with the EU’s most recent policies on bioeconomy.

www.clusterspring.it

Partners

ADI Design Index 2015 Selection

Media Partners

RENEWABLE MATTER Networking Partners

Supporters

Technical Partners

Printed by Geca Industrie Grafiche using mineral oil free vegetable-based inks.

Geca production system does not produce exhaust and all waste of our manufacture is introduced into a process of collection and recycling. www.gecaonline.it

Printed on Crush ecological papers by Favini, made using process residues from organic products to replace up to 15% of virgin pulp: cover Crush Grape 250 gsm, text Crush Grape 120 gsm. www.favini.com

Events

Editorial

The Mirror of Waste

by Antonio Cianciullo

Nature got rid of waste because it found customers interested in any form of residue; the twentieth century multiplied waste because it did not find them. It kind of hurts our pride as Homo sapiens, but it all boils down to a delay in our knowledge.

The evolution of life created efficiency because the measure of success has occurred over a long time – over three billion years of evolution – and on such a long time span there is no cheating.

Market evolution started over the short term and along the way our vision has deteriorated: now we can only focus on a period of a few months, enough to guarantee stock options for those in power.

These macro themes – from the financialization of the economy to eco mafias – have generated a heated debate that in this Renewable Matter’s issue it is not possible to tackle. But the focus on remanufacturing enables us to take stock on one of the main tools we have to stand against the rampant proliferation of waste. Guido Viale’s article gives us an overview on the values at stake and on the need to create industrial mechanisms supporting the redesigning of the life of everyday objects. Fabio Iraldo, Irene Bruschi and Gianni Silvestrini focus on the benefits of the recovery process of goods from an energy saving viewpoint (up to 90%), on lower water consumption, of final costs (from 35 to 90% lower compared to manufacturing from scratch), on employment (in Europe, towards the end of the next decade, 175,000 jobs could be created), on prices (20-50% lower compared to non regenerated products).

Also, Edo Ronchi – Chairman of the Foundation for Sustainable Development – expands on “measures generating benefits and market opportunities for companies”.

Looking at ourselves in the waste mirror, we see our society’s profile and can find out how to improve it. It is not only about increasing the percentage of separate waste collection or that of recycled materials. The key issue is the well-structured nature of the idea of remanufacturing. We are talking about a reconsideration of the production system as a whole, which requires a series of actions: improving ecodesign of sold goods to simplify the fight against waste; keeping the information

content of some goods (which is higher than the sum of the components); organizing a structured system of restocking the production chain involving the whole society; revisiting the tax system in order to reward virtuous processes by enacting the polluter pays principle and releasing economic resources to invest in order to promote employment.

All this would lead to tangible benefits: a drop in the environmental impact of production even in terms of global warming; better security, because the supply of materials that for various reasons (ranging from price instability to geopolitical tensions) could no longer be available, is guaranteed; increased collective awareness of social cohesion; synergy with the sharing economy’s processes. This is what Rossella Muroni – Legambiente’s president – defines as “Copernican revolution” because it puts strain on the one-way relationship between producer and consumer and opens up to a process similar to that described, in the energy realm, by distributed generation: a horizontal development model restoring social balance as well.

But in order to reach these goals a legal framework promoting such process is necessary.

From this perspective, the European vision, that for a few decades guaranteed the leadership to the old continent with regard to environmental policies, seems a little blurred. The package on the circular economy was re-presented by the Junker Commission as a watered down version compared to the former Commission’s proposal.

Now it’s the European Parliament’s turn and let the battle begin. We acknowledge Simona Bonafé’s criticism – reporter of the package on the circular economy – where she talks about lack of ambition, the same term used by PD’s (Democratic Party) Chiara Braga, in charge of the environment. Junker’s version toned down the recycling targets; it eliminated anti waste obligations; it lowered the importance of anti landfill measures; it weakened the obligation of separate collection of the organic fraction; it did not lay down specific norms for the elimination of toxic substances from products that hinder their recycling. The European parliament debate is the right place to make the voice of the citizens’ representatives heard and to show that the Union is not the equivalent of the taxman but the soul of our continent.

6

R M

09|March-April 2016 Contents

RENEWABLE MATTER

www.renewablematter.eu ISSN 2385-2240 Reg. Tribunale di Milano n. 351 del 31/10/2014 Editor-in-chief Antonio Cianciullo Editorial Director Marco Moro

Think Tank

INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE ON THE BIOECONOMY AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Acknowledgments Antonella Brianza, Claudio Busca, Ilaria Catastini, Federica Cingolani, Maria Luisa De Petris, Eleonora Finetto, Gennaro Galdo, Carlo Montalbetti, Anna Pellizzari, Michele Posocco, Giovanna Sicignano, Stefano Stellini Managing Editor Maria Pia Terrosi

Policy

Contributors Leonardo Becchetti, Gianfranco Bologna, Emanuele Bompan, Mario Bonaccorso, Chiara Braga, Rudi Bressa, Irene Bruschi, Angelo Consoli, Beppe Croce, Lucrezia De Domizio Durini, Francesco Degli Innocenti, Alessandro Farruggia, Sergio Ferraris, Roberto Giovannini, Marco Gisotti, Daniele Gizzi, Fabio Iraldo, Stefania Lallai, Giorgio Lonardi, Amory Lovins, Marco Morra, Rossella Muroni, Ilaria Nardello, Federico Pedrocchi, Marco Ravasi, Matteo Reale, Roberto Rizzo, Edo Ronchi, Gino Schiona, Gianni Silvestrini, Tom van Aken, Arno van de Kant, Yvonne van der Meer, Marco Versari, Guido Viale, Silvia Zamboni

Antonio Cianciullo

5

The Mirror of Waste

edited by Emanuele Bompan

8

Reinventing the Fire. Again Interview with Amory Lovins

edited by Matteo Reale

12

Joseph Beuys: Recognizing Nature’s Intelligence Interview with Lucrezia De Domizio Durini

Guido Viale

18

Gianni Silvestrini

23

Focus on Remanufacturing Awakening the Sleeping Giant

Fabio Iraldo and Irene Bruschi

28

Focus on Remanufacturing Better Remanufactured than New

Giorgio Lonardi

33

The Match is still to be played

edited by Alessandro Farruggia

36

Time for a Copernican Revolution Interview with Rossella Muroni

Mario Bonaccorso

40

Dossier: Netherlands The Bioeconomy: The Netherlands in Pole Position

Silvia Zamboni

46

Quo Vadis Sharing Economy?

Beppe Croce

50

6000 Years Old and Still Going Strong

Roberto Giovannini

54

How to Eradicate the Trash Islands

Focus on Remanufacturing Remaking Will Change the Economy of Tomorrow

Editorial Coordinator Paola Cristina Fraschini Editing Paola Cristina Fraschini, Diego Tavazzi Design & Art Direction Mauro Panzeri Layout Michela Lazzaroni Translations Laura Coppo, Maddalena Gerini, Wendy Huning, Valentina Legnani, Franco Lombini, Roberta Marsaglia, Mario Tadiello

7

Executive Coordinator Anna Re

Sergio Ferraris

Case Studies

Rudi Bressa

58

62

Focus on Wine When Luxury Goes Hand in Hand with Sustainability Focus on Wine Repairing Your Teeth with a Bunch of Barbera

Sergio Ferraris

66

Focus on Wine DeVine Land

Emanuele Bompan

70

Tyres Galore

Roberto Rizzo

74

Fuels: The Battle of Cement Factories

Roberto Giovannini

78

27 Million Messages

External Relations Manager (International) Federico Manca External Relations Managers (Italy) Federico Manca, Anna Re, Matteo Reale Press and Media Relations ufficio.stampa@reteambiente.it Contact redazione@materiarinnovabile.it Edizioni Ambiente Via Natale Battaglia 10 20127 Milano, Italia t. +39 02 45487277 f. +39 02 45487333 Advertising marketing@materiarinnovabile.it Annual subscription, 6 paper issues Subscribe on-line at www.materiarinnovabile.it/moduloabbonamento This magazine is composed in Dejavu Pro by Ko Sliggers Published and printed in Italy at GECA S.r.l., San Giuliano Milanese (Mi)

Columns

Copyright ©Edizioni Ambiente 2015 All rights reserved

Marco Gisotti

82

In Italy Glass Generates €1.4 Billion

Marco Gisotti

84

Successful Granules

edited by Marco Moro

88

The Village of Materials Interview with Emilio Genovesi

Gianfranco Bologna

92

Natural Capital Priceless and Unnoticed

Ilaria Nardello

93

The Blue Yonder Turnkey Seaweed Farms

Federico Pedrocchi

94

Innovation Pills Go Sailing, for a Change

Cover The sun on 18th February 2012, in extreme ultraviolet spectrum.

Image by NASA Dynamics Observatory ©NASA/SDO

8

renewablematter 09. 2016

Think Tank

Reinventing the Fire.

Again

Interview with Amory Lovins edited by Emanuele Bompan, from Boulder

Natural capitalism can grow everywhere. So thinks Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute. Renewable Matter has travelled to Colorado to meet him to discuss sustainable long-term development.

Amory Bloch Lovins is an American physicist, environmental scientist, writer, and Chairman/ Funder of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

He is widely considered among the world’s leading authorities on energy and a fertile innovator in integrative design and in superefficient buildings, factories, and vehicles.

He was named

by Time magazine one of the World’s 100 most influential people in 2009.

It is a slow and beautiful drive up to Snowmass, Colorado. Cars drive at 20 miles per hour, due to icy roads. External temperature is -25°C, and everything looks pale white, like in the tale of the Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen.

Rocky Mountain Institute, www.rmi.org

Given the landscape seems impossible that someone can grow bananas indoor, in a elegant north American mansion. But impossible is something that does not exist for mr Amory Lovins, president of the famed Rocky Mountain Institute, leading american institute for business innovation.

The house, which Mr. Lovins dubbed the “Banana Farm,” used one-tenth the energy of a typical US house of its size. “It is passive solar, superinsulated, and semi-underground – built back into the hill near the north lot line, then bermed over the north wall for aesthetic and microclimatic reasons” explain Lovins.

The mansion, that dates back to 1984 (upgrades have been done over time) is the telltale of mr. Lovins effort to show the world that doing radical green business is the way to go, save the planet, live better and make money.

business book, showing how the US can run a 2,6 times bigger economy in 2050 than 2010, using no oil, no coal, no nuclear and a third natural gas; tripling efficiency and quintupling renewables. An economy 5 trillion dollar cheaper than BAU; with 82-86% lower carbon emission, requiring no new invention and no act of Congress, because the policy changes needed to be done can be done at the administrative or subnational level. We wanted to show that it can be done.”

Are the US on that trajectory?

“In fact the US are approximately on that trajectory and renewables have expanded faster and gotten cheaper than we expected. Thus, it almost seems that in the book we have been conservative!”

In this house, Amory wrote Reinventing Fire, a book that has transformed hundreds of multimillion dollars companies across America, and many billionaires, CEO and CFO has travelled these roads to pay him a visit and be inspired. We sit in his warm studio.

In the book you talk about many sectors of the global economy. Can you specify which sectors have developed in a sustainable fashion the most and the fastest?

“Electricity for sure. We got the number for 2015: wind and photovoltaic alone had hit almost 121 Gigawatts and all renewable – except big hydro – have got 329 billions US$ of global investment. From an electrical capacity perspective, half of the world’s market has been taken over by renewable energy. As 2013 efficiency, renewable and co-generation, were worth over 630 bln dollars of investment.

Large forces are at work.”

What did you want to achieve with Reinventing Fire?

“Reinventing Fire is a rigorous scenario-analysis

Which sector hasn’t transitioned as hoped in your book?

“Well, you can analyze different criteria.

9

10

renewablematter 09. 2016 But I think we did quite a good job in each of the four sectors the book analyze, transport, building, industry and electricity. Industry was the hardest to make generalization about because it is so heterogeneous, so we have been very conservative in our assumption.

We have, however, underestimated the potential considerably. In the building sector we overestimated the gas demand and underestimated the co-generation (counting it only in industry) and we did not count solar heating.”

Now you are working on Reinventing Fire China. What are the challenges for the Red Dragon?

“Several years ago, we assembled a consortium with the National Development and Reform Commission, energy analysts, with the NDRC-funded NGO Energy Foundation China and the China Energy Group – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Together we have spent 2,5 years with 50-odd people, figuring out what’s the most efficiency and renewables China could practically end profitably deploy by 2050, with a coherent strategy. Meanwhile, at the end of 2014, the Chinese leaders called for a ‘revolution’ in production and consumption of energy.

We wrote the road map for that revolution.

To be honest, we has already filed ¾ of the roadmap when they contacted us. Timing was good. We have included the result in the 13th Five-year Plan that will be presented in march 2016 to the National People’s Congress.

“What we found was a surprise: by 2050, China has the potential to increase energy productivity sevenfold and carbon productivity twelvefold, while reducing coal burning by 4/5 and carbon emission 2/5 below 2010 levels, with a sevenfold-bigger economy and save about 3,7 trillion dollars at present value.

Chinese leaders has warmly received this.

It’s important to emphasize that this is a scenario emerging from China’s data and models, not a foreign-imposed model.”

Is a new book on the horizon?

“Publishing is due end of March.”

Where next?

“Now we are considering India, with its breakthrough energy strategy. We are working in 65 countries; the opportunities are in many places. We try to bring high level of economic and technical rigor and interconnection between sectors. For example if we increase the quality of Chinese cement and steel, making them uniform, you can cut cement and steel production for same structural services. Consequently you save transportation energy to move stuff around. And you limit use of steel and cement for the transport sector that carry these materials!”

A trickle down effect.

“This model show how important can be.

We have a unique approach on efficiency, thank to our 40-years long experience on efficiency. We have learned to figure out how to make large, intensive, energy savings, that cost less than small low-savings intervention, only if we use integrated design. We have shown what we can do retrofitting over a thousands building and 40-odd billion dollars of industrial re-design, rethinking various land and sea vehicles. This building is an example: we carried out a deep intervention, but we were able to save 99% of heating energy, optimizing the building as a whole system. We also saved 11,000 dollar (this were the 80s), having no heating system: we used those saving to produce a water heating system that can further save 99% of water-heating and cut water-usage by half, with a payback in 10 months. And this was possible with the 80s technologies. Today we can do much better.

We are retrofitting with newer technologies to see how much better they are. Now seems that the electric appliances use less energy than the old monitoring system we use to measure their performance! And now the revolution is everywhere. In Holland Energy Strong figured out of to industrialize mass retrofit of social housing and now are scaling enough to make buildings net zero, financing building entirely from energy saving.”

What about transportation?

What will we see over the next years?

“In mobility, there is a ongoing revolution that we summarized as ‘transition from PIGS to SEALS.’ Pigs are Personal Internalcombustion-engine Gasoline Steel-dominated vehicles. SEALS are Shared Electrified Autonomous Lightweight Service vehicles.

This can profoundly change transportation infrastructure: driving more total kilometer per vehicles, with fewer global kilometers in all vehicles, with a fraction of the cost of today’s personal mobility, with less emissions.

You don’t need much infrastructure for this change.”

RMI often advocate for de-centralized production. Why is so?

“In buildings we are used to have our building connect to few remote centralized, large scales, infrastructure, paid over decades, connected with pipes and wires. This is for six reasons: electricity, cooking fuel, water, sanitation, waste management and telecommunication.

It turns out for each of those six service needs there is a solution that require nor pipes nor wires. Everything can be done on site.

This would be a huge change. To get it right we have to ask ourselves: what is the right size, what are the economies of scale. Adelaide was planning a large sewage treatment plant.

Emanuele Bompan, Emanuele Bompan, journalist and urban geographer, has dealt with environmental journalism since 2008.

We are able to build no-cost buildings, entirely funding their building through energy saving.

Think Tank And someone asked: what fraction of the total system treated goes to the treatment plant?

Only 10-15%, the rest goes into the collection system, which had severe dis-economy of scale.

The larger the plan, the bigger the radius of the area, the more complex are the pipe system. So they looked at the whole cost and they fund that the optimal cost was at the villager/neighborhoods scale. This is true in many areas of infrastructures. Gigantism leads to big costs and vulnerabilities, is an artifact of not looking at economies of scale for the whole system.”

Gigantism leads to big costs and vulnerabilities, is an artifact of not looking at economies of scale for the whole system.

Transition always require finance.

What is your sense of the financial support to “reinventing the fire”?

“We need four kinds of innovation: tech, design, policy and, last, new business and finance model. This is as important as to creating deeply disruptive tech innovation. From green bonds to new finance tool, new business is growing rapidly, investor are becoming more distant from of the old way of doing things, and decapitalizing the fossil fuel industry.

The job of capital market is not only to help capital flow to best risk-adjusted returns, but also to keenly sniff out disruption biz.

The pace of transformation is set by insurgents not by incumbents’ legacy business and assets.

Capital can easily switch direction.”

Can the Paris Agreement be a game changer?

“It is an extremely helpful psychological and political signal. We should be ambitious and keep warming below 2 °C. Ambition will grow when most states will realize that going green is not likely to be costly but profitable.

Renewable are getting cheaper then fossil.”

I always ask a personal definition of “circular economy”. What is yours?

“We never used the term, but we introduced the concept in a book, in 1999, with Paul Hawken, Natural Capitalism. In that book we define natural capitalism as a way of doing business as if nature and people were properly valued. Not as internalization of external costs. We assumed: let’s act as Nature would be ‘highly’ valuable. How we’d do business? Before the First Industrial Revolution, in England there weren’t enough weavers to make cloth to satisfy population’s needs. But if you have said in 1750 ‘we will make weavers 100 times more productive,’ none would have understood how that could be possible. Than the revolution came and spread across every sector and the middle class was able to obtain affordable mass goods. The basis of that revolution was realizing that the shortage of human resources (in this case weavers) was limiting the ability to exploit seemingly boundless nature

resources. Today we have the opposite pattern of scarcity: abundant people and scarce nature.

So we have to use 100 times more productively topsoil, water, energy, everything we borrow from the planet. Therefore the first principle is radical resources productivity.

“The second principle of natural capitalism is producing things the way nature does, with closed loops, no waste and no toxicity.

The third shift in natural capitalism is a solutions’ economy business-model, rewarding both customers and providers for doing more and better, with less for longer – typically this takes the form of leasing the desired service rather than buying things. The forth principle is to reinvest some of the resulting savings back into the capital shortage stuff, such as nature.”

Capitalism is classically the productive use of and reinvestment of capital.

“The question is: what is capital? Industrial capitalism covers only money and goods and ignore – I’d say liquidate – the two more precious kinds: human and nature capital.

Natural capitalism uses and reinvests all four forms of capitals. So you make more money, do more good and have more fun.”

Choose five innovative technologies or disruptive process.

“The wise thing to do is not to pick specific technologies. The smart thing to do is choose the race you want to bet on, rather than the horse.”

So, which races?

“In industry, I would bet on natural capitalist principles, biomimetic design and addictive manufacturing; in mobility, I am betting on SEALS and ultra-light material (when you take out 2/3 of weight on a car, you need 3 times fewer energy from costly batteries); in the energy sector the future is efficient distributed renewables; in buildings net-zero and net-positive for new and retrofit.

Clearly not everyone will have 61 banana crops as I have here in Snowmass, high in the Rockies, when temperature outsides is -40 °C.”

11

12

renewablematter 09. 2016

JOSEPH BEUYS:

Recognizing Nature’s Intelligence Interview with Lucrezia De Domizio Durini According to Joseph Beuys looking after nature means looking after humankind. This is the very topical teaching of an outside-the-box artist according to Lucrezia De Domizio Durini. edited by Matteo Reale

Lucrezia De Domizio Durini has been involved in international culture for over forty years.

A cultural operator, journalist, writer, curator, publisher and patroness of the arts, she is one the leading experts on Joseph Beuys.

Top: Beuys signs Shovels, Düsseldorf, 1983 Right page: Hoe, 1978. Object in olive wood and cast iron

“For some time we still have the chance to freely come to a decision, that is following a different flow from the one we went through in the past.

We still can decide to align our intelligence to that of nature.” (Joseph Beuys) Thirty years on from his death, Joseph Beuys’ words show how the German artist had embedded in his philosophy of aesthetics a close and systemic relationship with living matter.

Beuys is regarded as one of the leading artists of the post-war generation: his works are exhibited in the most prestigious museums around the world. Beuys was born in Germany in 1921; during the Second World War while on a mission in Crimea his plane was shot down.

Beuys was miraculously rescued by a group of Tartar nomads who found him half frozen, wrapped him up in animal fat and felt and nursed him. Remembering that event twenty years later, Beuys put up a public performance, Der Chef, where he was wrapped up in black felt for eight hours.

Already in the 1950s, his artistic production stood out for the materials used: wood, rough and never polished, exposed metal welding. In 1961, he was asked to teach Monumental Sculpture at the Academy in Dusseldorf.

In 1967, his political and social commitment led him to found The German Student Party and to start a Free International University for creativity and interdisciplinary research, together with Heinrich Boll, Nobel Prize

for Literature and creator of the important ecological institution carrying his name.

In the late 1970s, in Italy he developed the artistic operation, crucial in his works, called Defence of Nature. To go over the main stages of this operation and to remember its topicality, we spoke with Lucrezia De Domizio, an Italian expert working in the field of culture, who together with her husband Buby Durini (called by Beuys “his Italian brother”) worked and followed the German artist for fifteen years around the world.

Who was Joseph Beuys?

“Joseph Beuys is a man who, with his life and his works, represents the centrifugal and anti-traditionalist force that contemporary art has produced in recent decades.

An atypical figure in art movements – he has been included in minimalism, in Arte Povera, at first amongst performers and then in conceptual art but all in vain – Beuys managed to imbue himself with art and art with his person.

“This goes well beyond the never quenched idea of unity between art and life. Beuys, putting himself in his works, wants to highlight the anthropological power of all art. The need to speak, to communicate, to express oneself through any means, was totally embraced

by Beuys all his life. For Beuys, to be an artist meant living with others, searching in a brotherly collaboration ‘that profound and basic understanding for what happens

For all the images of this article ©Buby Durini – Courtesy of Archivio Storico De Domizio Durini

Think Tank 13

14

renewablematter 09. 2016

Top: Umbrella, 1984.

Multiplo First left: Beuys Studio, DĂźsseldorf, 1982 Left: F.I.U. Oil (Defense of Nature), 1984.

Bottle

Top: Umbrella, 1984.

Sculpture Left: Beuys in Barone Durini’s Estate, 1976

Think Tank

Top: Organic ploughing of Barone Durini’s land, 1975 Left: Table für direkte Demokratie, 1976

on Earth’ because all that happens in the world also happens within us. We cannot do away with talking to each other. And Beuys can only be born again and carry on living.”

An important period in Beuys’ artistic career was his work with natural living matter.

What did it mean for him?

“First of all, we cannot forget that there is only one Earth. It supports all beings and it is our shared Home where we live and die.

“Defence of Nature was the last great masterpiece

by Joseph Beuys, the forth slogan of the German master, a phenomenological unicum in world art. A mammoth operation carried out in Italy in the last fifteen years of his life in which the artist crystallized his rich artistic and spiritual journey with my constant collaboration and with Buby Durini’s magic lens in a context where the boundless plays a central inquiry role between the expansion of thought and human energy.

“In Beuys, the relationship with nature was always a constant theme. To this end, we must remember the ‘Una Fondazione per la Rinascita dell’Agricoltura,’ a debate that took place in Pescare in February 1978.

“Beuys’ love for the land started after his strong depression due to the war when he was a guest of his collector friends, Barons Hans e Franz Joseph van der Grinten, in their farm in Kranenburg. It was here that working the land – an element of generation and regeneration

for any living being – that he started his career sketching archetypical human, animal and plant drawings. This early experience as an artist was replicated in Italy during the last fifteen years of his life working the land in the estate of Barons Durini in Defence of Humankind and Safeguard of Nature.

“Beuys’ drawings made in Kranenburg are a magnificent anthropological project completed in Italy.”

In Defence of Nature, Beuys highlighted the need to include human beings’ activities in the environmental context where they live. Nature must be protected because it is an integral part of humankind.

“Beuys’ Defence of Nature must not be interpreted only from an ecological point of view, but above all it must be read from an anthropological perspective: defence of humankind, of the individual, of creativity and human values, currently very topical themes all over planet Earth. It would be interesting to re-read the famous debate Defence of Nature that took place on 13th May 1984 in the small village of Bolognano where Beuys planted The First Italian Oak opposite his studio situated in the famous Paradise Plantation.

“In the final part of this famous debate, a very basic concept emerges: seeing nature’s intelligence as a counterpart that humans must recognized and respect, nature’s

Top: Diary of Seychelles, Table Charpentier, 1980

15

16

renewablematter 09. 2016 intelligence matches human intelligence.

In nature, humans are equal to nature (see box).

“It is clear that humankind’s creativity, its production capacity at any level, can never disregard the fact that we can find a counterpart in nature. While we work in/with nature, nature works with/for our souls.”

Bottom: F.I.U. wine (Defense of Nature) 1983.

Cardboard box

In the work carried out in the Seychelles with you and your husband, Beuys planted two tree that have been growing over time. What is the meaning of such action today?

“It is in Italy that his idea of concrete utopia, thanks to the Seychelles-Bolognano-Kassel triad of plantations, comes to live in Utopia of Earth. The work of Beuys in the Seychelles is the beginning of a cyclonic art era. Art gives up any traditional cycle and starts to generate a new personal historiography. The individual becomes fertile humus where a new kind of social structure can sprout, characterized by an anthropological sedimentation that needs to be seen against the time realities of life and humans to benefit the entire human race.”

You have lived in Paris for quite some time.

Why? “On 13th July 2011, after museums and the Italian government refused my private collection of 300 works by Beuys, I donated, through a magnificent exhibition, the entire collection of Defence of Nature to the Kunsthaus in Zurich (in 1993 I had already donated to the same Kunsthaus the majestic sculpture Olivestone).

For the occasion, Electa Mondadori published a very important book, Beuys Voice, including all the works and thoughts of the German master and the Post Beuys.

“I have recently been appointed official curator for international contemporary art at the 2016 Industrial Art Biennial in Labin, Croatia, that will take place between 2nd March and 30th September. It includes a future project: The Underground City of Culture. It will be linked to the respect for the environment and will involved the whole habitat of the city of Labin, with an anti-traditionalist vision, putting into practice Beuysian concepts. I have invited 70 artists from all over the world, different generations, nationalities and explorations. It will be focussed on Beuys. I am sure it will be a success.”

Right: F.I.U. Wine (Defense of Nature), 1983.

Sculpture Bottom: Beuys at Villa Durini, 1974 Left: Beuys at Bolognano signing “Defense and Nature” graphic work and posters, 1984

Think Tank

Bottom: Open wide! 1978.

Serigraphy

Top: Beuys with Lucrezia De Domizio Durini, Beuys Studio, Düsseldorf, 1983 Left: Defense of Nature, 1984. Lithograph

From the last debate Defence of Nature between artist Marco Bagnoli and master Beuys in Bolognano on 13th May 1984 IAB01 – Industrial Art Biennial, www. industrialartbiennale.eu

Marco Bagnoli: So, we think we are aware of the tree. Actually, it is the symbol of such awareness. So I ask Beuys, “But is this tree aware of us? If it is, it is the tree that plants us, from a material point of view, absorbing our awareness. If it is not, will it perhaps that dead god that returns to life in our conscience?”

Joseph Bueys: I thank you very much, Marco. I totally agree with what you just said. By doing this job, we plant trees, and trees plant us since we belong to each other and we must exist together.

It is something that happens within a process that moves into two different directions at the same time. So, the tree is aware of us as we are aware of the tree.

Therefore, it is extremely important that we must try to create or stimulate an interest in this kind of interdependence. If we do not respect the tree’s authority, either for its genius or intelligence, we will realize that the tree’s intelligence is so huge that it enables the tree to decide to make

a telephone call to communicate the sad message on the human condition.

The tree will call all animals, mountains, clouds and rivers; it will decide to talk to all geological forces, and if humanity fails, nature will take a terrible revenge, a very terrible revenge expressing nature’s intelligence and attempt to bring back humans to the light of reason through violence. If humans cannot break free from the cage of their stupidity, and if they refuse to show the ability to establish a collaborative relationship with nature, nature will resort to violence to force humans to take a different path. We have reached a point where we must take a decision.

Either we do it or we do not. If we do not do it, we will have to face a series of terrible catastrophes that will hit every corner of the planet...”

17

18

renewablematter 09. 2016

Focus on Remanufacturing

REMAKING

Will Change the Economy of Tomorrow How our relationship with second-hand goods has changed over the years thanks to the influence of innovation, advertising and fashion. It is necessary to recover the culture of reuse bestowing on it cultural and ethical legitimacy and by developing suitable technological infrastructure.

by Guido Viale

Guido Viale, a sociologist and essayist, worked for several research, advisory and designing companies in the economic, social and environmental fields and has collaborated as a freelance journalist.

He dealt with waste for Amici della Terra association, Enea and the Ministry for the Environment.

As an expert, he writes for the most important national newspapers on the environment, economy and development models.

The Culture of Second-Hand Goods The culture of second-hand goods means sharing what we have now with those who owned it before and with those who will own it after us: both in space and time.

And this takes place because, whether the change of hands happens through one or more sales, whether it happens through the most diverse forms of donation or inheritance or whether it does not happen at all, we keep using something that has already been used after repairing it.

Finally, whether it happens through real sharing which is not a change of hands but a rotation of many hands. Maybe this is the ultimate form of reuse.

The basic dichotomy between new and second-hand goods tells us that, according to logic, second-hand goods are more meaningful and noble than new items because they are old or antique; and that new items should only be used where second-hand goods cannot longer satisfy the need

of living beings or because there aren’t enough, or because of natural wear and tear reducing their availability; or because new items include new knowledge that was not available when the used item was made.

But this dichotomy is complicated by three mechanisms that are the driving forces of current markets and through them they become the mainspring of economic “development� or of what we tend to mean by this term. These mechanisms are technological innovation, advertising and fashion.

These mechanisms, in their current shape and relevance in our modern world, have only be around for just over a century, many even less. Because in the past, the use of secondhand goods, or repair and reuse until worn out, were common practice.

Technical Innovation Technical innovation can create new types of products that did not exist before;

Policy and with this creating new, and in a way indisputable, needs that old and second-hand products are not able to meet.

Medicine, telecommunications, mobility and household activities are the privileged domain of these processes in everyday life.

All aspects of human life, including the most private one, have been affected by the spread of technological advances, making increasingly unusable “obsolete” tools, artefacts and methods while filling our lives and our homes with increasingly complex products and gadgets.

Advertising But the pace and the frenzy of this process has been set by advertising leading the entire production system towards replacement markets, goods that neither meet old unsatisfied needs nor new ones but just create a need to get rid of old items (producing heaps of waste) in order to buy new items (dissipating new resources).

Advertising was the real great innovation that changed the face of economy in the 20th century.

Today advertising, thanks primarily to telecommunication advances, reaches every corner of our planet; it is inextricably linked to products; it controls economically, through mass media, all information; it settles irreversibly on our conscience and on our unconscious shaping our character, our desires and our trends.

One of advertising’s effects, as much crucial as it is overlooked, is that of creating an increasingly higher barrier, renewing it daily, between new and used goods: an used item that becomes so is simply “old” without ever been used. It does this by accompanying new items step by step, through every updating, and by sidelining second-hand goods to make space for new items even when used goods are nowhere near their wear and tear or end of life. It does it by making the use of second-hand goods a social stigma, that is not being up to date, by conferring dignity of belonging to the imaginary world that it has created only to those caught up in the frantic race for new items.

Fashion The intended victim of fashion is second-hand goods; old items are out of fashion, object of ridicule and cause of exclusion even when they are substantially “new”, that is not worn out, little used, or they are perfectly functional as when they were produced or displayed in shop’s windows just a year earlier.

Ecodesign The paradigm inversion juxtaposing new and used items will not have to open up

a completely different path; a path representing a development and an extension of that already defined by the principles of ecodesign in the production of new items.

These principles dictate that newlymanufactured products must be built in a way that facilitates not only the maximum use of recycled materials in their production and energy and resource savings during manufacturing, their use and their maintenance; not just collection and disassembling of discarded products and recovery and recycling of their materials and their components; but above all during repair.

If a new culture of second-hand goods use and promotion catches on, these principles will have to be adopted even more radically. Products are to be increasingly designed and manufactured to last, but above all to be able to be modified and adapted to different aesthetic and functional needs and trends. Both if they stay in the hands of the same person that bought them and if they end up, as second-hand goods, in somebody else’s hands though inheritance, donation or trading.

But for such a programme to be successful, it is necessary not only for the second-hand market to acquire social and ethical legitimacy but also to develop the necessary material and institutional infrastructure to support it: in all feasible ways of recovering and utilization of discarded products: donation, inheritance, barter, trading, charitable collection and redistribution, collecting.

But above all repairing.

Maintenance and Repairing Because the culture of reuse is inseparable from maintenance and repairing culture; so much so that they can be seen as a single way of dealing with things.

They are both inseparable from the knowledge of their characteristics and their functioning, from the attention to their condition and the way in which they are used and handled and in many cases from a real love for these objects.

The maintenance culture and the technical and manual skills to support it characterize and allow the use of second-hand items in all those cases representing the most traditional way of extending or duplicating the life of an object: that is when it becomes necessary to repair it in order to keep it working. Obviously, this is not enough. If an object works, it does not necessarily mean that someone is willing to use it, and above all using it instead of something equivalent but more fashionable and better advertised that could easily be bought on the “novelty” market.

19

20

renewablematter 09. 2016 A Passion for Objects If maintenance is a conditio sine qua non, the mainspring of preserving them is a passion for objects or the irritation due the incessant assault on the environment caused by buying a new item and disposing of the old one as waste.

Repairing an object means knowing it inside out; knowing how and why it works; how to fix it but also to be able to get hold of the parts needed to repair it. The more complex an object is, the deeper, the more specialized and vast is the knowledge required to repair it. Up to a certain point the skills and the ability of the user or the person intending to own the object can be enough.

Specialized Expertise From a certain level up, the use of specialized expertise becomes essential; in some cases even compulsory (for example electrical work or boiler certification in a flat).

It is not always easy, cheap or even possible to find the professionals needed to repair instead of replacing a faulty or broken installation or appliance.

The presence and level of availability in the fabric of society of such expertise and skills are an indication of the importance given to material culture by a particular society; that is the “culture” of everyday-life objects: from kitchen ingredients to work tools, from housing to means guaranteeing mobility etc.

The Craftsman When carried out professionally, maintenance or repair of an object, of an appliance or of an installation requires care, knowledge, intelligence and practical skills that Richard Sennett ascribes to the modern Craftsman (2008): an approach to work where the author senses a radical alternative to the anonymity and impersonality characterising the Fordist production system based on task simplification along the assembly line and then by an increasing level of reduction of responsibility and alienation from the content of what is produced, the working pattern of the flexible man as described by Sennett in The Corrosion of Character (1998), a characteristic of the post-Fordist world.

An electrician, a plumber, a mechanic repairing a car or an engine, a bicycle or a motorcycle repairer, but also a tailor or a dressmaker repairing and altering dresses, or a dyeworks owner, and even more so, an antique object or furniture restorer, must somehow “love” the objects that they spend so much energy on;

or at least they must take great care and use their intelligence to identify faults and flaws to understand how to solve them.

They must then combine these qualities with a good dose of dexterity to work on the object.

Through the revalorization of second-hand objects and the work needed to extend the life of items and equipment or to give them a new life, maintenance opens up a world that turns on their head the characteristics of those serial, repetitive, boring and empty activities that previous industrial development stages have enthroned as a paradigm of human labour.

Expertise for Reusing All objects susceptible of recovery must be cleaned, often repaired, and sometimes repainted or polished; in some cases they are cannibalized to get components (especially crucial because they often enable us to fix objects whose trademark, model and spare parts no longer exists.)

Only a few people, and their number is dwindling, are able to do these things: just consider how difficult it is to find a person able to repair an old radio, record-player, vacuum cleaner, an old dress still in good conditions and so on.

The knowledge, the expertise and the dexterity of these people should be safeguarded, promoted and recovered, giving them the opportunity to pass them on to others who could use them to establish a business; but also to the almost infinite number of people who would like be able to repair their faulty appliances instead of having to throw them away because they cannot find someone who is able to fix them or because they do not have the necessary tools for the job.

The solution to this problem could have an enormous impact on everybody’s material culture, on our relationship with the objects surrounding us, on the survival of these items. And on our wallets as well.

It is just a question of finding the people, the centres and the modalities suitable for promoting the widespread diffusion of such expertise.

The Role of the Community Anyway, the fine line between the ability to intervene directly on the objects that we use and the need to find specialised people or companies does vary not only over time, with a progressive impoverishment of our personal autonomy, but also by passing from a simple environment, such as rural societies but also many urban societies living in self-built slums, to a complex urban environment. It also varies according to

Policy a person’s character, lifestyle and tendencies.

But it varies above all, sometimes radically, according the type of objects.

In many cases it is these objects – or “things”, in the broadest sense of the term – a bicycle, a motorbike, a car, a boat, a pair of skis, a house that speak to their “owner”; they ask to be taken care of as an integral part of their use.

Obviously, not everyone listens to this call in the same way, some people ignore it completely. The fact remains that the relationship, often a true love affair, established between a person and a thing or a piece of equipment, becomes a reference model for any action promoting a wider diffusion of the culture of reuse.

A Kind of Social Bond In a different dimension, a general attention to the health status of objects and equipment populating our everyday life could become a bond uniting a community or the key to rebuild a dimension of mutual help and embed it in its members’ everyday practices.

To this end, maintenance and repair of a set of objects and equipment must be shared amongst the members of a sympathetic network with sufficient expertise to carry them out.

Collectively, all these aspects create a cultural constellation able to promote a radical shift in the attitude of humans in the world and towards things, compared to the behaviour imposed on us so far by serial, alienating and simplified labour and by the throwaway culture promoted by advertising and fashion.

Industrial Mechanisms Even from an industrial point of view, systems that swap the purchase of a product and then its disposal as waste with a contract with the producer who becomes responsible not only for its production but also for its repair, its reconditioning, its delivery and its collection are becoming increasingly popular with industrial highly polluting goods: lubricants, solvents, catalysts etc. Even here, we find an industrial solution promoting reuse.

A good example is the maintenance and repair of complex goods where modular components are used to replace worn-out, faulty or obsolete parts of a piece of equipment, preserving the use of the rest.

In some cases, that could become more frequent as they were in pre-industrial societies, during the whole Industrial Revolution and up until a few decades ago, reusing does not entail a change of hands of goods, but just their maintenance.

In various forms: from the most elementary

to increasingly more complex ones that need repairing instead of the replacement of the faulty equipment in its totality.

Or just the replacement of worn-out or obsolete parts. Or their repair, made more difficult because spare parts are designed and built to be replaced as a whole: just think about all the transformations that over the last decades some components such as a car’s dashboard or a home appliance’s resistor have undergone.

Repairing and Competition Between industrial and marketing processes and a community’s resilience, understood as the availability of a certain amount of expertise sufficient to guarantee the repair of everything – or nearly everything – that breaks down, there is a dialectic relation in full view of everyone.

Where that expertise is lacking or disappearing, whether a durable good is easily repairable or not does not make any difference. When it stops working, it must be replaced with one working because anyway there is no one around able to repair it. But if that expertise exists and it is sufficiently present in the community, producing or putting on the market goods guaranteed to last longer and that are easily repairable can become a competitive edge, both for the individual and the community at large.

The Importance of Infrastructure A crucial instrument to promote the culture of repair and reuse is the creation and the spreading of a material and cultural infrastructure needed to encourage discarded goods recovery. This infrastructure could be developed, as already proposed by many, from the expansion and reorganization of current waste depots and recycling centres.

The ideal recycling centre able to perform this task, has two huge areas. The first part, the bigger one, is to be found near the entrance; it is devoted to selection and collection of reusable materials, to warehouses and repair shops, to premises for exhibitions and conferences. The second part, smaller and further back, is devoted to the conferment of separate-collected materials that can only be recycled.

Internal Organisation The first area has two access lanes: one for private vehicles, for small business vans and for dustcarts collecting bulky items.

This lane receives equipment and objects extracted from controlled demolitions carried out in compliance with material recovery

21

22

renewablematter 09. 2016 guidelines: sanitaryware, lamps, boilers, radiators, casing, electrical cables, pipes, beams, etc.

The second lane is reserved to council lorries collecting and emptying skips devoted to the “sixth faction” of separate waste collection that each council must create in its territory, that for durable goods – currently mainly bulky items – that could be expanded to receive also small items.

Along both lanes, on the side of the entrance route, there are counters where conferred objects are examined.

Behind these counters, there are bins on wheels for the separate collection of the different objects selected because deemed recoverable and suitable to be sent for reusing.

The so-called bulky items, offloaded by users with the help of reception personnel, are put into carts to be examined or they are directly put on the counters, depending on their size, weight, and indication provided by the reception personnel. Examination is carried out both on material placed into the carts and on that put onto the counters. Materials passing the recoverability test are put in bins on wheels according to their typology and are moved to the warehouse and replaced by empty bins.

Those that do not pass the test are put back into the carts or they can be moved to other bins on wheels.

Carts and bins full of rejected materials are towed to the ramp of the second part of the plant and unloaded onto removable containers below, and selected this time only according to the type of material.

Heavier materials, such as non-working electrical appliances, or more fragile material, such as electronic equipment that can no longer be recovered are piled up directly on the loading floor of dedicated removable containers.

Training Samples of material are taken from both flows sent to the warehouse, that of bulky items and small objects (furniture, furnishings, clothes, electronic devices, sewing machines, electrical appliances, computers, toys, gadgets, bicycles, etc,) and are then used in repair and restoring training workshops. Workshops are managed by the same organization that won the selection work.

The rest is divided into small homogenous lots that are sold periodically through a system of auctions to credited operators.

There are no particular requirements for getting crediting. Migrant associations can also get crediting and then they can distribute the lots they buy according to their internal rules. Obviously,

the organization managing the selection cannot take part in the auction.

Workshops for woodwork, mechanics, tailoring and dressmaking, restoring, electrical engineering, plumbing, artistic craftsmanship and more – are equipped with good tools and managed by one or more experts working or collaborating with the organization managing the selection.

It is not necessary for every centre to have all the workshops required to give new life to all the objects selected.

Once there are many ecocentres, and they are online, each one of them can specialize in some fields. It will be the workshop managers who will travel from one workshop to another to train chosen people and work alongside them.

Materials to be repaired will be concentrated in the best-equipped workshops.

Ecocentres’ workshops have a threefold purpose. First of all, training: they run practical courses on repairing and restoring discarded goods taken from the separate collection flow. These courses are open to everybody, offering different levels of technical expertise. They also aim to safeguard knowledge and expertise that risk vanishing with the disappearance of the last generation of craftsmen that still have them. They also organize environmental education and creative waste use programmes for local schools.

But these workshops can also offer technical assistance: DIY, restoring and repair lovers can access such workshops at certain times to use, under the guidance and supervision of personnel, complex equipment and machinery that would make no sense to own. So the culture of maintenance and repair can spread in the whole community.

Policy

Focus on Remanufacturing

Awakening

Skull of Rodrigues Solitaires, by C. L. Griesbach, 1879. Illustration from Memoirs on the Extinct Wingless Birds of New Zealand, Vol. II ©WikiCommons / University of Texas Libraries

the Sleeping Giant

It saves raw materials. It reduces energy consumption, necessary for the production process. It is good for the environment and employment. But above all, remanufacturing an object costs between 35 and 90% less than producing it from scratch. What are the sectors best suited for remanufacturing and what are the hurdles to overcome?

by Gianni Silvestrini

Gianni Silvestrini is GBC Italia’s Chairman, scientific director of the Kyoto Club and QualEnergia magazine.

He is also Exalto’s Chairman. He has worked as a researcher in the energy sector at CNR and Milan Polytechnic, where he is in charge of the Ridef Master’s Degree.

1. Circular Economy.

Closing the loop, European Commission, 2015; ec.europa.eu/priorities/ sites/beta-political/ files/circular-economyfactsheet-wastemanagement_en.pdf

In the past, a damaged object used to be mended. Clothes were patched, pots and working tools were repaired.

End-of-life materials’ recycling was normal.

The throwaway civilization, though, reduced such practices: an obsession for new models induced by advertisements and rapid technological evolution dictated an acceleration of objects’ replacement and an imposed reduction of their life span. Every year, Europe alone, eliminates 600 million tonnes of waste that could be recycled or reused.1 This dominating trend is set against a new culture that, with difficulty, is successfully emerging and is based on a prolonged use of objects, on their sharing and end-of-life material recovery.

The package on the circular economy presented by the EU at the end of 2015, despite being less ambitious compared to the proposal put forward the previous year by Barroso Commission, shows more attention towards the recovery of materials and highlights the importance of object design, that must bear in mind their life span, reuse and the possibility of remanufacture them in order to give them a new life. The latter is an important opportunity

within a transition towards the circular economy, although up until now it has not been met with the due attention.

Why Regenerating Used Products Let’s consider an end-of-life car engine.

A closer look at its preservation state enables us to say whether it can be revitalized. During this phase, Ford discards one engine out of three. Then the product is dismantled, each part is analysed, non-recoverable parts are replaced and in the end everything is calibrated. Then, the well-packaged engine is put back into the market with equal or better characteristics compared to the original model. In some cases, parts can be revisited so that they can offer a kind of performance that the engine could not achieve when it had been first produced 10-15 years previously.

Remanufacturing improved over time, extending to other departments, from industrial to office equipment, from the aerospace to electronic industry, with the US in the lead in the remanufacturing sector.

Although an expanding sector, the sales volume shows how it still represents a minority fraction. According to an investigation

23

24

renewablematter 09. 2016 Table 1 | Remanufactured goods production, employment, remanufacturing intensity, 2011 – USA

Aerospace

HDOR equipment

Motor vehicle parts

Machinery

IT products

Medical devices

Retreaded tires

All other

Wholesalers

Total

Production (billion $)

13

7.7

6.2

5.7

2.6

1.4

1.3

4.6

=

43

Employment – full-time workers (thousands)

35.2

20.8

30.6

26.8

15.4

4.1

4.8

30.6

10.8

179.5

2.6

3.8

1.1

1.0

0.4

0.5

2.9

1.4

Remanufacturing intensity (%)

2.0

Source: Remanufactured Goods: An Overview of the U.S. and Global Industries, Markets and Trade, U.S. International Trade Commission, 2012.

Table 2 | Summary of market size of remanufacturing activities by sector

Aerospace

Automotive

EEE

Furniture

HDOR

Machinery

Marine

Medical equipment

Rail

Total

Turnover (billions €)

12.4

7.4

3.1

0.3

4.1

1.0

0.1

1.0

0.3

29.8

Firms

1,000

2,363

2,502

147

581

513

7

60

30

7,204

71

43

28

4

31

6

1

7

3

192

Core (thousands)

5,160

27,286

87,925

2,173

7,390

1,010

83

1,005

374

132,405

Intensity (%)

11.5

1.1

1.1

0.4

2.9

0.7

0.3

2.8

1.1

1.9

Employment (thousands)

Source: Remanufacturing Market Study, ERN, 2015.

Table 3 | Europe – Turnover by sectors and key countries

Aerospace

Automotive

EEE

Furniture

HDOR

Machinery

Marine

Medical equipment

Rail

Total

France

2,311

754

355

24

633

108

3

112

22

4,322

Germany

3,814

2,370

646

66

1,108

336

11

316

61

8,728

Italy

1,127

699

592

66

541

199

8

61

39

3,333

UK & Ireland

2,698

766

190

34

509

90

6

121

49

4,463

Total EU (€m)

12,436

7,393

3,118

310

4,142

1,026

76

971

343

29,813

Source: Remanufacturing Market Study, ERN, 2015.

Policy 2. USITC (2012), Remanufactured Goods: An Overview of the United States and Global Industries, Markets, and Trade.

3. Remanufacturing Market Study, ERN, 2015.

4. In the report “Circular Economy Evidence Building Programme – Remanufacturing study”, March 2015, promoted by the Scottish government, 110,000 employees are estimated, while the Ellen McArthur Foundation employees are 150,000.

Both estimates are conservative.

5. Quoted in Mathe H. “Living Innovation”, World Scientific, 2016.

6. See note 2.

7. According to specific analyses, there is a shift from 85 to 8% of the initial value, Hauser B., Lund B. Remanufacturing: an American Resource, Boston University, 2012.

8. Giutini R., Gaudette K., 2003, Remanufacturing: the next great opportunity for boosting US productivity.

Bus. Horiz; v. 46, i. 6.

by the US International Trade Commission, the US regenerating activity generates only 2% of the income of the few industries involved. The US turnover amounted to $43 billion in 2011 (+15% compared to 2009), with 180,000 jobs.2 As for Europe, the most recent data show a total turnover of €30 million, with 190,000 jobs.3 Germany is in the lead, followed by the United Kingdom, France and Italy, where 21,000 people are employed in the industries of heavy equipment, followed by the car, aircraft and consumer goods industries.

Noteworthy is that how, both in the USA and in Europe, the aerospace industry is in the lead.

Overall, the remanufacturing’s world turnover ranges between $100 and 200 billion.4 According to an estimate by the Franunhofer Institute, materials currently saved thanks to regeneration, could fill up 155,000 railway wagons for a total length of 1,700 km.5 We are dealing with a production segment that, despite being limited, could grow considerably.

In Europe its sales volume is estimated to grow threefold by 2030, reaching €100 billion. At the end of the next century, the total number of the employed in the sector could reach half a million, with a net increment compared to a conventional scenario of 175,000 people.6 But in order to develop the great potential of this industry, hurdles limiting its expansions must be removed: in various parts of the world new policies and orientations are being developed in order to guarantee regeneration a wider application compared to the current situation.

Advantages The benefits derived from remanufacturing include the environment, energy and raw materials’ saving and employment. But the main motivation for the companies involved has been the economy.

It has to be noted that this solution guarantees a higher added value compared to simple recycling of materials making up a product.

The information content of the end product is thus not lost, as well as the design and the activity phases necessary to make the component intended for restoration.

Energy consumption compared to production from scratch is considerably lower, reaching 90%. There are important savings for raw materials as well: an advantage able to avoid volatility prices impacts, which can prove challenging for separate waste collection cycles.

This is no small achievement for rare materials such as indium, tungsten, gallium, cobalt and chromium.7 But ultimately, the economic advantage is king and determines its success. Operational costs are 35 to 90% lower compared to manufacturing from scratch. This is why it is possible to sell regenerated products with a 20-50% discount.8

From the perspective of the businesses involved in this activity, there are many collateral advantages due to customer retention and expansion of the market in providing services.

As for Europe, the advantages can be particularly significant, considering that this practice generates a reduction in imports and new employment.

Where it Can Be Implemented Products best suited for remanufacturing are those with a long-life expectancy, that are more expensive, easily dissembled and not subject to rapid technological evolution or aesthetic change. Locomotives, aircrafts, earthmoving machines, cars, health and office equipment.

Even tyre remanufacturing, that in the case of lorries saves 60% of original rubber, can be included in this category. Extensive property renovation, in particular that involving an industrialization process, could be included in regeneration.

Those companies leasing their products could easily implement remanufacturing.

General Electric and Rolls Royce, for instance, do not sell their very expensive aircraft engines ($20-30 billion each) but they charge for their use according to the “Power by the Hour” formula.

Then there are the short shelf-life goods whose regeneration is not worthwhile.

For some products, the aspect of rapid technological innovation should be considered very closely. How to reconcile continuous improvements characterizing the information technology sectors, for example, whose brands instil anxiety for new products in many users, with the needs of the circular economy?

With regard to mobile phones and laptops characterized precisely by rapid evolution and high replacement rates, there is a variety of actions that could be taken: regeneration, use of valuable single components and recovery of precious materials.

Those Involved in Remanufacturing Who is involved in remanufacturing? Fist of all parent companies whose activities are aimed at profit expansion and loyalty programmes.

This applies to the aerospace and heavy earthmoving machinery in particular.

Caterpillar, word-leading company for remanufacturing, started such activities since 1973 recovering machineries for mines and road, engine and locomotive building. The recovery mainly involves the better quality fraction (10%) of components: engines, pumps, compressors.

Nine plants scattered around the world employ 3,600 workers specialized in regeneration of products that are proudly marketed under the brand “Good as new, stronger than ever”.

Thanks to 90% energy saving compared to building new engines and reduced use

25

26

renewablematter 09. 2016 Chart of activities connected to a remanufacturing process

INPUT SUPPLY

PRODUCTION

DISTRIBUTION

USE

DISCARD

DISASSEMBLY

TESTING

REASSEMBLY

Source: USITC (2012) Remanufactured Goods: An Overview of the United States and Global Industries, Markets and Trade.

FABRICATION

CLEANING/ INSPECTION

NEW COMPONENTS

of material, the revisited products are sold with a 40% discount.9 Then there are individual companies, but directly linked to producing companies and the vast realm of independent businesses.

Reverse Engineering and 3D Printing 9. www.ellenmacarthur foundation.org/case_ studies/caterpillar 10. www.psi-repair.com/ repair-services/windturbine-parts-repair 11. www.duxes.cn/ eNewsletter/RIF12/en/ articles_2/ 12. www.therecycler.com/ posts/remanufacturingset-to-benefit-hugelyfrom-3d-printing/ 13. Gray C., “Remanufacturing and product design”, The Centre for Sustainable Design University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK.

When regeneration is carried out by independent companies, the difficulty or impossibility to access design handbook can be a hurdle.

This is where many times reverse engineering comes into play. Indeed, thanks to a detailed analysis of how a piece of equipment works it is possible to recreate algorithms and formulas enabling the production of a device comparable to the original one. Actually, thanks to the technological evolution that in the meantime has evolved, sometimes better performance is achieved, especially when it comes to electronic and electromechanical tools, subject to rapid obsolescence.

The US-based PSI specialized in this field, regenerating components of large aero generators such as control systems for blade inclination.10 Digital printing is another important sector for regeneration. Having to rebuild single components that are no longer available, a less costly reproduction through additive techniques with a 3D printer is more cost effective.11 This is a choice that has already been applied to space flights and that will be used on ships to be able to cope on board with little supplies.12 Obstacles to Remove Regeneration can be regarded as a “sleeping giant”. The reasons why such potential has only

SORTING/TESTING

CORE COLLECTION

DISPOSAL

just briefly exploited in practice are various, starting from a series of obstacles and barriers that will progressively have to be removed.

One of the most delicate aspects is about the collection of products to be processed.

The reverse logistic represents a crucial stage because of the difficulties in predicting timescale, quantity and quality of used materials. Contrary to classic logistic, in the case of recovery of damaged goods, their transfer from a host of users towards regeneration plants must be organized.

A second critical aspect is attention to design.

In most cases, the aspects helping the disassembling and the potential remanufacturing of components are not considered.

On the contrary, on some occasions, parent companies design their products in a way that their competitors can get involved in the regeneration. It has to be said, though, that incorporation is being given more and more attention during the design and choices are being made in order to facilitate later regeneration.13 Lastly and more generally, its popularity clashes with barriers to free movement, given that several countries forbid the import of regenerated products.

All these difficulties explain how, despite being something that has occurred for decades now, remanufacturing still plays a marginal role.

To make a qualitative leap clear rules must be created in order for design to guarantee a long life expectancy to products, thus facilitating remanufacturing. Also, design should envisage a public purchase fast track for products intrinsically facilitating remanufacturing.

Policy Product value retained, compared to a new product NEW PRODUCT

REMANUFACTURED PRODUCT

RECYCLED PRODUCT

85%

15%

45%

12%

40%

30%

10%

25%

8%

8%

8%

A “circular” Ecolabel should also be considered, rewarding products guaranteeing high performance in terms of recyclability, life expectancy and regeneration predisposition.

Some laws already facilitate rebuilding and others are underway in response to growing attention to the circular economy.

In the USA, at the end of 2015, a law has been approved envisaging that all federal agencies must favour the use of vehicles containing remanufactured parts if such choice entails economic savings.

Re-launching Regeneration

Source of value in the product: Material

Source: Hauser B., Lund B., Remanufacturing: an American Resource, Boston University, 2012.

Labor Energy Plant/Equipment

Keeping devices in use cuts emissions

SMART PHONE

TABLET

LAPTOP

% CO2 reduction 0%

1 year life extension 10%

20%

30%

40%

Maximum economic life extension 50%

Source: A circular economy for smart devices, Green Alliance, 2015.

There are good reasons enabling us to imagine a quality leap for the entire regeneration sector.

In particular, two powerful drivers will shape economies in the next few decades – decarbonisation and circularity – will enhance the value of remanufacturing.

Moreover, the progressive movement of the economic model towards the supply of services rather that the simple sale of products, represents a strong stimulus towards regenerating activities. Its importance falls within a wider revisitation of the current production and consumption model.

Starting from the rethinking of design, which must be set up so that it can guarantee a long life expectancy of products, through the facilitation of the remanufacturing of their most valuable components.

More generally, from a cultural viewpoint, increasingly more attention is given to modification of the dominating paradigm.

The French norm in this regard is quite important (the 2015 energy transition law), sanctioning those products that obviously display a programmed obsolescence strategy.

This is a further step in the right direction facilitating the segment of regeneration from technological innovation. The digital revolution, through the adoption of reverse engineering and 3D printing, considerably extends its potential application.

Lastly, the role of the circular economy must be taken into account and to what extent regeneration in particular will be able to contribute in Europe’s current economic weakness. A serious supporting policy to remanufacturing falls within counter-cyclical measures able to increase employment and energy imports of raw materials and end products.

27

28

renewablematter 09. 2016

Focus on Remanufacturing

Better Remanufactured than

NEW

by Fabio Iraldo and Irene Bruschi

Remanufacturing – the production system based on materials’ second life – can have many advantages: to recoup part of the 82 billion tonnes of raw materials that will be introduced into the global economy by 2020, to save energy and water and to lower prices. The production cost of smartphones could shrink by 50%.

Fabio Iraldo, associate professor at Scuola Sant’Anna in Pisa (Management School) and Research Director at IEFE, Bocconi University. Since 2014 he has coordinated the Observatory of the Green Economy of the same university.

“Take-make-dispose”: these are the key words describing the industrial system of the last 150 years. In other words, a system based on a linear production and consumption model where goods are produced from scratch, starting from the extracted raw materials, then sold and used. And in the end they are disposed of as waste.

In the analysis of the current development phase, and above all in a medium term perspective, some factors challenging the dominant linear model emerge.

The demand and the use of virgin raw materials in the production processes is still constantly and considerably on the rise. For instance, it is estimated that, by 2020, an additional 82 billion tonnes of raw materials will be introduced into the global economy.

Traditionally, resources were thought to be abundant and almost limitless, a certainty also due to the fact that costs of raw materials and natural resources have been kept relatively low and, above all,

Irene Bruschi – IEFE researcher and teaching assistant at Bocconi University – she researches into environmental management, green supply chain, management and the circular economy.

Since 2014 she has been a member of the team of the Observatory of the Green Economy at Bocconi University.

stable over time, encouraging the establishment of such model.

Yet, in less than a decade, commodities’ prices (including some natural resources) have increased by almost 150%.

Furthermore, by 2030, about three billion new consumers will push the demand for goods and services to unprecedented levels. Keeping the linear model of exploitation of resources, according to the “business as usual” rationale, would entail facing increasing price volatility and probably inflation of main commodities, in particular raw materials and natural resources, although over the last couple of years the costs of some of them (oil for instance) marked an evolution of a countertrend compared to the past, thanks to the innovation of extraction techniques (just think of the shale technology).

Recently, a transition phase has started, characterized by a revision of business models, in order to reduce the reliance on growth and profits from the increasingly

Policy

dwindling resources. New business models have started to explore innovative ways to recover and reuse end-of-life products and their components, in an effort to promote economy’s circularity.

According to the guidelines recently laid down by the European Commission in the so-called “Circular Economy Package”, one of the main strategies to implement the “circular economy” is remanufacturing.

To what extent the used product, or component, is transformed or reconverted varies according to the sector or supply chain, but the result is always a reconverted new product, in accordance with safety and technical standards, whose performance is at least equivalent – or even better – compared to those guaranteed in the initial use.

So, remanufacturing not only represents a new production paradigm but also a new business model based on a materials’ “second life”, which potentially can make the production of goods more beneficial both in economic as well and environmental terms.

Remanufacturing implies disassembling the used product and restoring through components in order to maintain the specifications of the original manufactured product. The consumer must be able to perceive the deriving product as if it were new.

Xerox is a case in point. In the 90s it included within its processes end-of-life collection directly from end customers, creating

a regeneration and reuse programme of components. Such programme, which started with the aim of eliminating waste, was based on a new concept of business model, starting from the design of products and the relationship with the end customer.

The design enables the use of a restricted number of long-life components with a possibility to reuse them. The products are then leased and not sold, in order to collect back machineries after being used for five years or more. At the end of their lease/life, the single components are easily and efficiently reusable in that they are coded with specific instructions.

This remanufacturing strategy enabled new products to be regenerated by reusing between 70 and 90% (in weight) of components, avoiding quality or performance degradation and landfilling of 46,000 tonnes of waste in 2010 alone.

In remanufacturing, the original added value of raw materials, used in the first version of the product, is regenerated.

Within the waste hierarchy, it is amongst the preferable options, in that it promotes the reuse of components and products with minimum – if any – supplement of new raw materials (figure 1).

Remanufacturing is currently applied mainly for same product categories, including car components, electric engines, tyres, computers, industrial machines, electric and electronic devices, toner,

Figure 1 | Remanufacturing in waste hierarchy

Pre

PREVENTION

REMANUFACTURING MINIMIZATION

abl

e

REUSE

RECYCLING

Lea opt st pr ion efer

With communication 614 of December 2015, the European Commission made official their willingness to give new dignity to secondary raw materials, committing to produce new measures aimed at overcoming uncertainty on the subject, through: •• development of new high-quality standards at European level; •• clarification of the description “end-of-waste”, contemplating improvements and harmonization of regulations on the subject.

fer a opt ble ion

New Dignity to the New Life

ENERGY RECOVERY

LANDFILLING

COM(2015) 614 final, Closing the loop.

An EU action plan for the Circular Economy; tinyurl.com/zyhn7vc

Source: Author’s work. Triple Win:

The Economic, Social and Environmental Case for Remanufacturing (2014).

29

30

renewablematter 09. 2016

ink cartridges, photocopiers. The automotive sector is the most well-established sector for remanufacturing and currently represents almost two thirds of regenerated products.

Remanufacturing has three main characteristics: firstly, remanufactured products’ useful life is longer thanks to maintenance, regeneration, repairing and upgrading procedures. Secondly, these products can be easily disassembled in order to replace or restore components wherever needed and materials can be reused or recycled. Lastly, the added value, in terms of manufacturing, energy and materials can be fully recovered.

According to some studies by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), on average 85% of used energy and materials for the first production are kept after the remanufacturing process. The restoring process should then imply a lower waste production and use of materials and energy and embody technological advances allowing regeneration, within suitable periods of time, so that functionality can be brought back in an efficient way.

Not only that: the same waste sent for recycling could benefit from increasingly low level of contamination, the main cause of degradation of materials’ quality level.

Remanufacturing can thus be reasonably identified as a winning solution from an economic, social and environmental point of view. There are many examples used to enhance its benefits: just to mention one, the production cost of smartphones could be reduced by 50% if the telephones could be disassembled more easily, the reverse cycle were improved and incentives to consumers were offered in order for customers to return phones instead of throwing them away as waste.

It has been estimated that reusing and remanufacturing can contribute to the reduction by about 7 million tonnes of CO2 every year, the equivalent of 800 million tonnes from now to 2050.

Not to mention the fact that keeping materials in circulation could prevent their early landfilling or incineration, which currently generated huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.

On paper, remanufacturing would significantly reduce the demand for water resources as well, closing the loop on material flows and reducing energy inputs, thus creating here too economic efficiency through reduction of production costs.

For instance, it has been demonstrated that the environmental savings linked to an office desk, obtained through regeneration of the various components, can be considerable: 90% less energy input necessary for the manufacturing

Figure 2 | Barriers and challenges linked to remanufacturing

CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTION AND MARKET TRENDS

LEGAL DEFINITION

SUPPLY CHAIN INFORMATION BARRIERS AND PURCHASING STANDARDS

PRICE

LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURE LEGAL BARRIER AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK

DESIGN

POOR APPROPRIATE KNOWLEDGE

Estimates Remanufacturing accounts for 14.5% of EU27’s GDP. Its economic value has been estimated at around €30 billion for the most relevant sectors in Europe.

Remanufacturing 14.5%

EU27’S GDP

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Policy

cycle and a 35% lower water footprint – the equivalent of a 0.19 m3 of water resources per desk.

The environmental savings linked to an office desk, obtained through regeneration of the various components, can be considerable: 90% less energy input necessary for the manufacturing cycle and a 35% lower water footprint.

And yet remanufacturing’s environmental impact would have to be considered as a whole, considering all the phases the regenerated product goes through in its whole service life.

Indeed, it would be more appropriate, rather than highlighting specific environmental advantages that appear more clearly as they progress thanks to the considerable opportunities to save materials and resources as already mentioned above, to carry out a detailed study based on well-established methodologies with sound science, allowing obtaining a comprehensive picture of the product’s all-around environmental performances.

The European Commission has recently experimented one such performance, namely the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), a methodology regulating calculations, assessment and third-party validation and communication to all stakeholders of the environmental footprint of any product or service. The approach adopted by the Commission is based on a widespread principle already applied in many companies and policies: a product’s impact must be measured considering the various environmental problems it can affect during its life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials to the natural resources employed in the production phase (or the reuse of secondary raw materials and regenerated components, as is the case with remanufacturing), up to the end of the product’s service life, when it must be disposed of or recovered as secondary material in another supply chain or, in fact, be reused or regenerated.

The result of such methodology is a host of indicators about the main categories of environmental impact (greenhouse gas emissions, efficiency in the use of resources, water footprint etc.) creating a more thorough and scientifically sound comparison.

Indeed, in the model with PEF methodology, the concept of life cycle considers all flows of resources and effluents into the environment associated with a product, from the point of view of the supply chain and downstream phases, starting from the acquisition of raw materials to transformation, distribution, use and end-of-life processes, as well as all environmental impacts, effects on health, risks linked to resources and the relevant burden for society. This approach is essential for the assessment of possible trade off amongst the various environmental impacts linked to specific political and management decisions and thus contributing to avoid an involuntary

environmental loads transfer (the so-called cross-media effects).

In the case of remanufacturing, the adoption of such an approach enables us to compare pros and cons of specific strategic choices.

Applying an analysis of a product’s environmental footprint deriving from a supply chain totally devoted to remanufacturing, some important issues in the assessment of the environmental impact could be clarified, in particular from a comparative perspective with traditional products.

For instance: •• What is the impact of the system of detection, collection and dispatching to regeneration of the products considered ready to become (entirely or only in part) an input for a new production process? In many cases, mainly for non-technologically complex products, the transport phases for the movement of supplies of the distribution phase, represent the main sources of the main environmental impacts. These considerable distances between collection points and the sites where remanufacturing occurs could be a hindrance from an environmental viewpoint, able to tip the balance in favour of traditional processes encouraging supplies of virgin raw materials coming from short supply chains or locally sourced.

•• What are the environmental impacts of the regeneration phases? In order to use a product’s component (or a whole product) starting from an earlier version, considered finished, substantial operational and technological procedures are necessary.

It is not only about cleaning and disinfecting: oftentimes, these phases require the use of additional chemicals, of physical reprocessing and thermal treatments with a high environmental impact.

•• What changes and integrations of new components are necessary to guarantee full functionality of the regenerated product?

Every additional component must be assessed against its environmental impact not just of its material, but of their whole life cycle, starting from the extraction of raw materials and natural resources. In many cases, such components can shift the balance in the calculations of a regenerated product’s overall environmental impact, compared to that of a traditional one.

•• What are the performances in the phase of use of a product deriving from remanufacturing? When the durability of a product is improved, extending its service life or, as it happens, reprocessing it in order to use it in a new life, we ought to consider that environmental impacts in the use phase could be higher compared to a similar product, built with traditional processes. This mainly occurs for high-energy intensity products or,

31

32

renewablematter 09. 2016 Potential benefits For consumers •• Products at lower prices, with unchanged/improved performance and standards.

•• More possibilities and options in case of repair.

For companies •• Lower operational costs.

•• More qualified workers.

•• New market opportunities.

Overcoming wrong perceptions by end consumers is another major challenge that needs to be tackled.

Regenerated products are often perceived as being of poor quality.

more generally, for those concentrating their main environmental impacts in the use phase.

According to a recent study carried out be Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, for some products such as ovens or fridges, extending beyond measure their service life means worsening their energy efficiency, so much so that they neutralize the environmental benefits of their long life, namely failure to throw away the product and the need to produce a new one.

The LCA analysis applied to the manufacturing cases are currently still limited: this strongly affects the possibility to carry out reliable and tangible evaluations, due also to the shortage of available and homogeneous data about the key process of this approach, such as collection, regeneration etc.

But despite the considerable advantages potentially associated to remanufacturing, such practice is not yet very popular.

So, one last thing to consider is about the many barriers to its implementation (figure 2).

First of all, it should be considered that remanufacturing has not yet a clear legal definition: it is often wrongly associated in a simplistic way to recycling, repairing, disassembling or recovery of a used product.

Moreover, such practice is based on a good management of the supply chain, in particular of the logistics of end-of-life products, in order for them to be reintroduced in a new production process. However, this does not always happen, especially because of products’ complex nature, of high costs of waste and the uncertainty of the conditions of end-of-life products.

Undoubtedly, one of the main hurdles lies in the price of regenerated products, which may not be competitive on the market if made thanks to the significant use of highly qualified work, and therefore expensive.

The avoided cost should instead be enough to offset the additional costs that could emerge during the process.

Then there are important legal barriers,

linked to the legal framework that has not been fully defined yet. Suffice it to think of the uncertainties linked to the definition of “waste” and the ensuing lack of clarity on secondary raw materials and the unclear implications of the legislation on waste applied to remanufacturing. Or the ban, in some cases, on the use of components that are subject to the current restrictions for the design sector.

This is directly linked to barriers associated to design, i.e. difficulties in manufacturing easily disassembled products, in replacing single components and carrying out the appropriate tests. Besides, it is clear that re-design is an activity often requiring considerable investments, that not all businesses can always afford, and this creates a significant gap in terms of opportunities.

Overcoming wrong perceptions by end consumers is another major challenge that needs to be tackled. Regenerated products are often perceived as being of poor quality.

This happens especially in those sectors with a high level of technological improvement or extremely linked to trends or aesthetic taste, such as fashion.

Another barrier is the current lack of adequate infrastructure and a connection amongst national markets: historically independent countries generate a host of producers that often operate within their national boundaries.

It is worth mentioning LaseXchange’s statement – a company operating in the printers’ sector: “Brother is very strong in France, Olivetti is found everywhere in Italy but it is virtually absent in Great Britain, so the type and number of recycled cartridges varies from one country to the next. This strongly limits recyclers as well, the majority of whom does not trade products outside their countries.”

Lastly, a serious hindrance is the lack of ability, adequate knowledge and know-how. Remanufacturing requires highly qualified activities and extremely advanced problem-solving and engineering approaches. In the absence of such characteristics, the chances to implement remanufacturing are considerably lower.

Policy

The Match is still

to be played

by Giorgio Lonardi

It is unambitious, defeatist, wanting for some. Effective and appropriate for others. These are the reactions and comments of politicians and Italian stakeholders to the circular economy EU package.

Giorgio Lonardi is a financial and economic journalist.

The match on circular economy is still to be played. And the European Parliament will make its voice heard on the measures proposed by the EU Commission last December replacing those of July 2014.

This is what strongly alleges Simona Bonafè, Member of the European Parliament in the Socialist group, member of the Commission for the Environment of the European Parliament and rapporteur of the circular economy package that will be examined in Strasbourg. She states: “We have already informed the Commission that we are absolutely against the fact that recycling targets have been lowered, compared to the first proposal.”

She adds: “In my opinion this project is not

sufficiently ambitious as far as prevention is concerned. As a matter of fact, too little is provided on the reduction of the upstream waste. Those actions are not binding and too generic, thus representing a point of weakness.”

As per the timings of what promises to be a heated debate both with the Commission and with the European Council, Simona Bonafè explained that she will file her proposal on April 21st, “then amendments will be tabled and discussion in the Environment Committee.” The purpose is to provide for the European Parliament to get ready to confront with the Commission in November when also the proposals of the European Council should be ready.

On the domestic front, that of Italian politics,

33

34

renewablematter 09. 2016 Bonafè collects the support of Chiara Braga, environmental manager for the Democratic Party: “We are all committed – she states – to support in the best way the task of the rapporteur of the circular economy package.

We consider the proposal from the Commission not to be ambitious enough. And we are not only referring to the recycling target. But also to the need to follow the entire life of products from eco-friendly design, to the extended producer responsibility to reuse or recycling. This is the only way to talk about circular economy advisedly. It is an opportunity not to be missed for our country.”

The demand for enhancing Green Public Procurement by requiring public authorities to privilege the purchase of recycled products.

If we put aside the world of politics and focus the lens on that of stakeholders, we observe a very varied panorama. To understand deeply, the Environment Ministry has entrusted the Foundation for Sustainable Development chaired by Edo Ronchi (himself a former Minister for the Environment between 1996 and 2000) to coordinate a consultation table with the stakeholders themselves. The participation was massive: 29 organizations from industry, craftsmanship, waste collection and treatment consortia have made their comments. “We have witnessed a positive attitude, exceeding our expectations, on the circular economy package – says Ronchi. Together with the belief that these measures will generate benefits and market opportunities for businesses.”

Furthermore, Ronchi notices that the package proposed by the Commission in 2014 is virtually unknown to stakeholders, therefore, they focused their attention only on the text approved in December 2015. As per the requests for clarification or modification, issues focus on a few areas. Such as a clear indication of EWC codes (European Waste Catalogue) for the identification of municipal waste. Or to specify on a case-by-case basis the regulations governing secondary raw materials without restraining them all into a comprehensive and cumbersome bureaucratic system. Concerning the extended producer responsibility stakeholders request an explanation on competition, major concern in Italy. Basically people want to understand whether waste collection consortia will maintain or not the monopoly in their areas of intervention. Finally, it is worth noticing the demand for enhancing green public procurement, by requiring public authorities to privilege the purchase of recycled products.

However among stakeholders there are some very critical voices against the work of the Commission. To realize it, you just have to listen to Marco Versari, chairman of Assobioplastiche, the Italian Association of bioplastics and biodegradable and compostable materials: “I would have expected – he says – that the precise timing for separate collection and especially for the organic fraction would be indicated in the package. The worst thing is that the Commission even states that waste collection itself must be carried out where economically and technically sustainable.” According to Versari there is no doubt that a formulation of this type is likely to jeopardize the development of circular economy. He explains: “Anyone will be able to find technical or economic pretexts to boycott separate waste collection.” He adds: “Not to mention that the proposal did not make organic waste collection mandatory and didn’t set any deadline about it”.

Versari asks “Where lies the bet on organic fraction? Without organic waste fraction, many challenges of our country related to circular economy are likely to remain on paper.

It is not possible to develop an industrial sector in the absence of well defined rules and limitations. I find in the Commission document plenty of bureaucracy and formalism.

Why! How come that whilst the world focuses on differentiated waste collection at Cop21 in Paris, Brussels brakes?”. Not being able to find a positive element in the European paper presented on this whole affair, the chairman of Assobioplastica is forced to shield himself with the national law. He says: “Fortunately the environmental draft law connected to the 2016 Stability Law provides a set of norms supporting separate waste collection”.

If Versari is very harsh on the 2015 package, Angelo Consoli, European director for Jeremy Rifkin and co-founder of the ‘‘ Alliance for circular economy “and reference point for many non-governmental organizations, appears to be stinging. He says: “The Commission didn’t listen to us and did not do a good job.” Consoli outlines an approach that aims at involving local communities, using 3D printers and at enhancing the short chain. He says: “We had recommended to the Commission three points that we believe are the preconditions for doing a good job.

Policy Starting with the need to overcome the idea of a ‘unique control room’ to coordinate interventions at national level replacing it with a governance centred on local communities and providing for the status of the circular economy councillor as a technical and political reference point. You can’t go wrong: recycling and re-use interventions must take place on the territory to be effective”.

The second cornerstone in Consoli’s proposal, closely related to the first, plays the short chain card: separate waste collection, composting, recycling must take place locally, focusing on a zero kilometre policy to reduce CO2 emissions.

“We need to encourage the growth of a widespread economy: enough of mega plants, yes to small non-polluting factories that create jobs and maintain the relationship with the territory.” Actually, the model proposed by Consoli goes even further and provides incentives for the development of a dense network of 3D printers capable of using the iron, plastic, aluminium and other materials collected locally.

A project, it should be noticed, that bestows an important role to the development of bio-economy. Thus having a clear constraint: “Do we want to focus, for example, on the extraction of polylactic acid from corn?

Fine, but this operation must take place on the territory, in a small plant and under local governance.”

The approach in Rifkin promoted by Consoli is closely related to the idea of a “decarbonisation” of the old continent. The widespread economic model is interwoven with the use of renewable energy in all stages of processing. He explains: “Without the use of solar and wind energy the circular economy is likely to remain impaired, an incomplete project that Europe and the Europeans do not deserve.”

A totally different point of view is that of Confindustria that, in an interview with Renewable Matter, endorses “the action promoted by the European Commission to support the transition to a circular economic model by establishing a new strategic and regulatory framework”. Furthermore, Confindustria judges it as “an extraordinary opportunity for growth while respecting the environment not only for the industry but for the entire

country system.” Italians entrepreneurs have no doubt that Brussels has moved well.

And the strategies outlined in December 2015 appear to be consistent with the DNA of the country’s industrial system. “The valorisation of production waste by re-use – claims the organization – is an innate characteristic of our production system.”

In this panorama, industrialists are having an easy time in claiming the distinctive features of the national production system: “Eurostat certifies that Italian companies, with their 337 kilograms of raw material every million euro produced, not only are more virtuous compared to the EU average (497 kg) but Italy ranks second among those of major EU economies after Britain. A record that, according to Confindustria also extends to “end of life” products: “Against an industrial recovery startup of more than 163 million tonnes of recyclable waste on European level, in Italy 25 million tons were recovered: the highest value ever among all European countries.”

In short, entrepreneurs are convinced that they have done their homework and claim that a less expensive proposal in terms of investment as the one conceived by the Commission in 2015 is the most appropriate for a domestic industry with shortness of breath and struggling to keep up with the economic recovery: “We believe that the package of proposals on waste introduced by the EU Commission in December this year, represents, on the overall, an attempt to further upgrade the reference regulatory framework, especially when considered together with the package of proposals previously presented by the EU Commission in July 2014 and withdrawn by the new government.”

The impression is that Confindustria fears that the package implementation may result in increased costs. A concern which is reflected, on the one hand, by the appreciation of a series of measures proposed by the Commission in December 2015: harmonization of the reference regulatory framework, unification of the target calculation method, “introduction of operating minimum conditions for the enforcement of the extended producer responsibility”.

And, on the other hand, by the request to “closely monitor all of these initiatives during the final approval process so as to correct some critical issues that characterize them.”

We need to encourage the growth of a widespread economy: enough of mega plants, yes to small nonpolluting factories that create jobs and maintain the relationship with the territory.

35

renewablematter 09. 2016

Time for a

COPERNICAN REVOLUTION Interview with Rossella Muroni There is still quite a great deal of resistance towards the circular economy. Not only in Italy, due to a few deep-rooted lobbies, but also in Europe, where the new directive seems to dumb down everything. Rossella Muroni will share her opinion with us without mincing her words.

edited by Alessandro Farruggia

Alessandro Farruggia is a journalist, whose spheres of activity are mainly environmental and foreign issues.

Since the late 80s he has dealt with the most important international conferences on environmental issues.

His reports from Antarctica won him the Saint Vincent Prize for journalism.

She calls it “a Copernican revolution”.

And the circular economy certainly is.

Because, as Franco Battiato put it, it changes the world’s perspectives, placing sustainability at the heart of the matter. Rossella Muroni, Legambiente’s President, explains why it is high time we entered this new parallel world to heal our vices. She does not mince her words, taking digs at Confindustria, the governments and Italian MEPs. What is the circular economy and how can it change our lives?

“The circular economy puts the concept of reduction and reuse at the centre

Armillary sphere, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1771. ©Wikicommons

36

Policy Rossella Muroni, a sociologist specialized in environmental sustainability issues, has been a volunteer for Legambiente since 1996 and since 2003 she is a member of the national secretariat. Former general director, in 2015 she was appointed Chairwoman.

cycle and the reuse of secondary raw material have created 150,000 new jobs over the years.

The circular economy is an environmental social proposal but first and foremost an economic one with full dignity, even from a social viewpoint.

It is a parallel and alternative model offering opportunities for workers.”

In Italy, though, it is almost unknown.

Let’s face it: is Italy the right country for the circular economy?

“I reckon it is. There is a delay compared to other countries such as Germany. It is mainly a cultural delay that – I would like to point out – has more to do with politics than citizens. Italians are ready to change their lifestyle and offer an ideal situation where to experiment new production, distribution and reuse models. But politics does not take up the challenge.”

of production and consumption patterns. It is an exemplification of the four ‘R’ principles and it is about everybody’s life because it can really give us a true opportunity to come out of the climate, energy and environmental crises in order to embrace sustainability.”

Italians are ready to change their lifestyle and are an ideal situation where to experiment new production, distribution and reuse models. But politics does not seem to take up the challenge.

The environmental advantages are obvious.

But does the circular economy also entail social advantages?

“Without a doubt. They are intrinsically linked to the concept of multi-protagonism. With the circular economy it is no longer just one business producing a certain good for the market, but it is a variety of players, private and public – non profit ones as well – that get involved in the production process. It is no coincidence that the circular economy converses profusely with the civil economy. It is a Copernican revolution, a multidirectional relation challenging one of the market’s axioms: the unidirectional relationship between producer and consumer.”

Does the circular economy pay in terms of employment? Or does less and better consumption also mean less work?

“It is not about reducing consumption, but to move it and qualify it. The circular economy does not entail job cuts. If anything it needs more labour. We calculated that the separate waste

What should politics do (that it is not) in order to promote the circular economy and more generally environmental policies?

Recently, it seems that we are moving backwards, for example with regard to renewable sources.

“Renewable sources have been heavily penalized and today they have been crippled in Italy.

The latest regulations only helped long production-chain biomasses, just what every citizen should avoid at all costs. Then, Renzi’s government is messing about with fossil fuels: it believed in drilling and we had to put a strong pressure, with a revolt of many coastline regions, so that the government changed its mind.

And yet this will not avoid a referendum.

There is still a lot to do. There is a need for a law on stopping soil consumption and above all a good reception, in an ameliorating sense, of the European directive on circular consumption.

We need to promote the creation of start-ups, with regional laws too.”

Did we go back to those years when the environment was not a priority?

“It is worse because on paper they tell you that it is, trumpeting the signature of the Paris agreement from the rooftop, but in practice there is a wide gap between what is declared and what is put into practice. Having said that, 2015 closed with two pieces of good news, the approval of the laws on environmental crimes and that on environmental measures to promote the green

37

38

renewablematter 09. 2016 economy. Let’s take it from here, although there is still a lot to do...”

Who are the enemies of the circular economy?

“Those with an old notion of economic process.

The same people opposed to the development of renewable sources, those seeing in the 19th century-production models a plausible prospect for the future.”

For example? Can you name and shame a few?

“For example Condindustria (General Confederation of Italian Industries), which still represents cultural as well as business backwardness for Italy. In Italy, unfortunately entrepreneurs are largely unprepared for the new challenges.”

You sound quite harsh.

“I am realistic. I think there is a problem of generational turnover...”

We ask our Parliament to be brave. To go further For example we should be proud of the experience of consortia of separate waste collection and promote such practices even further.

Let’s consider the European directive.

In its first version it was met with great consensus amongst environmentalists, a bit less in its second. You were very critical: where have we moved backwards?

“Undoubtedly with regard to the objectives on the recycling of urban waste. The shrinking percentages are very worrying. We went from 70% by 2030 to 65% and on top of it some countries can request a five-year extension.

It is all about a dumbing down policy promoted by lobbies and adopted at political level.

Such operation shows how for many people environmental objectives are still seen as an obstacle rather than a booster to growth.

To make matters worse, as it happened with the car emission standards, the weakness of Italian political representatives in Europe becomes apparent. The question of Italian MEPs lack of preparation should be brought to the forefront.”

But this is another kettle of fish...

“Of course. Going back to our directive the objective for packaging has been reduced, from 80 to 75%. What is the message, here?

The same. The environment is a hurdle.

It is a grave injustice that the target of the organic fraction collection is only voluntary and not compulsory. And another step back with the objective on the efficiency of the use of resources. While it is positive that prevention of programmed obsolescence of appliances has been introduced.

On the whole, some steps forward have been taken and a European framework has been designed, but there is still some stubborn defence of the status quo. The circular economy is still not widely regarded as a development project, although of a different kind. And this is a shame.”

The European directive, though, must not be taken sight unseen. What does Legambiente ask?

“We ask our Parliament to be daring.

To go further. For example we should be proud of the experience of consortia of separate waste collection and promote such practices even further. Because when it comes to paper, cardboard, plastic, we have been too many times and for too long stuck on the concept of packaging while the host of collectable materials and objects in a separate way has to be broadened if the fraction of mixed collection is to be reduced. Then a transparency chain is needed, helping consumers and rewarding those carrying out a better separate waste collection.”

Instead, every city has a different separate waste collection system. An obscure choice...

“I’d say a silly one. Because if regulations are different from city to city, the labelling cannot show where anything is destined to.

Also, citizens do move about, especially in the summer and this is not taken into account, so in some places the collection, at least during the season, is always compromised by citizens who make mistakes in good faith, thus lowering the quality of collection.”

What would you like the European directive to include that is not already there?

“For example, total elimination of landfills.

Indications on the waste transport, with strict regulations.”

What can the world of consortia do to support the circular economy?

“It should unite, making collection easier and more coordinated. Then it should apply more pressure on policy makers and carry on doing what they are very good at: getting citizens involved, with a proactive role of education and information.”

What about the industry?

“It should believe in it. The use or recycled materials, or of innovative practices, could be in many cases an opportunity to grab and not a way to greenwash and carrying on with old practices for the bulk of production. Then, more research is needed: that means having more innovation and more market fields. Because we, unlike the old Italian entrepreneurs, are in favour of sustainability and innovation and we have always been convinced that environmental recipes pay off, even economically.”

Policy

Dossier:

NETHERLANDS

With internationalization running through its veins and a world-class logistic system, the country regards the development of the bioeconomy as a strategic sector for its future. Biotech and agribusiness are its pride and joy: In 2014, the latter generated a â‚Ź42 billion added value.

39

40

renewablematter 09. 2016

Dossier: Netherlands

The Bioeconomy:

THE NETHERLANDS in Pole Position

The government’s aim is to achieve 16% renewable energy production by 2023, to become world leader by 2025 for biotechnologies and to strongly boost agribusiness.

by Mario Bonaccorso

Mario Bonaccorso is a journalist and creator of the Bioeconomista blog. He works for Assobiotec, the Italian association for the development of biotechnologies.

BioEconomy Utrecht 2016, www.bioeconomy utrecht2016.eu

Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance, bioplasticfeed stockalliance.org

Top universities and research centres, innovative start-ups and large companies, clusters, pilot plants, a cutting-edge logistic system and agriculture and chemistry as the economy’s driving forces.

There could not be better conditions to develop the bioeconomy.

The Netherlands, boasting all such conditions, will hold the Presidency of the European Union, which will host the Fourth Bioeconomy Stakeholder Conference from 12th to 13th April in Utrecht.

Between Amsterdam and Rotterdam the bioeconomy is a well-established concept.

It is based on two elements: a medium to long-term strategy “Hoofdlijnennotitie Biobased Economy” (2012) where the sector is at the core of national innovative policies and sustainable growth. Public/private partnerships also bring together – aided by the government – companies, non-profit organizations and research centres (2011 Manifest Bio-based Economy, and 2012 Innovation Contract for the Bio-based Economy).

Considering the impending exhaustion of the Dutch gas reserves (they will only last for twenty more years or so, according to experts), The Hague’s government is committed to finding alternative energy sources.

The Netherlands boast a considerable level of competence in the field of renewable

energy and are world leaders. The government strongly supports the sector and put it amongst the nine top sectors in the industrial policy’s planning set up in February 2011 by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The objective is to achieve a 14% renewable energy production by 2020 and 16% by 2023, thanks to a strategic national programme geared towards three aspects: energy saving, development of renewable sources and efficient use of fossil reserves.

But The Netherlands are also an important hub for biotechnologies, where the government aims for a world leading role by 2025. For this reason, the biotechnological sector has become one of Holland’s priority sectors. In 2013, total funding amounted to about €310 million, of which 143 from private capital and 167 from public funds.

But in the Netherlands, the agribusiness holds the lion’s share, with an added value of €42 billion in 2014 and 641,000 employees. The sector boasts a high innovation level, not least for the close connection with the Agricultural University Wageningen, the world’s most authoritative institution for research and education in the field, a point of reference for Europe’s bioeconomy.

Unilever is half Dutch and half British.

The giant owning some of the most famous food brands and founder – together with Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Danone – of Bioplastic Feedstock

Policy Alliance (BFA) aims to use bioplastics in food packaging. Again, a Dutch company provides the necessary technology: Avantium, Royal Dutch Shell spin-off, which boasts Capricorn Venture, a Belgian Fund, amongst its top investors. The patented technology is called YXY, thanks to which it will be possible to replace PET with PEF (Polyethylene Furanoate).

According to Tom van Aken, Avantium CEO, “YXY is able to create new biobased plastic materials with extraordinary functional properties at a competitive cost, perfectly integrating the production process with existing supply chains.”

colossi. DSM with French Roquette created Reverdia, producing its own Biosuccinium in the Italian plant in Cassano Spinola (Piedemont). Carbon Purac with German BASF formed Succinity GMbH, with its production plant in Montmelò, Spain.

Through another joint-venture with the US POET, DSM started the production of an advanced fuel in the US: in September 2014, in Iowa, they opened their first commercial plant which using agricultural waste: “A historic day – as Feike Sijbesma, DSM’s CEO defined it – which marks the passage from the fossil to the biorenewable era.”

Another important Dutch company is Friesland Campina, one of the world’s five largest dairy companies (€11.3 billion annual turnover), which is working on a new biobased cardboard for drinks produced with a material obtained from certified organic waste to add to another existing renewable one. The company is committed to reducing its carbon footprint by a further 20% of that generated with current packaging.

When it comes to chemistry, large companies such as Royal Dsm, AkzoNobel, Royal Dutch Shell, Corbion are often mentioned. These companies are investing large capitals in the bioeconomy. In the Netherlands, the chemical industry is traditionally favoured by both the availability of necessary raw materials and an excellent multimode transport system using ships, lorries, trains, oil and gas pipelines.

According to the data by VNCI, the Dutch trade association, in 2013 the sector’s net sales volume generated approximately €57 billion (51 billion excluding pharmaceuticals). Still in 2013, overall exports reached €75 billion, while imports were €52 billion (+3% compared to 2012), with a positive balance of €23 billion.

Dutch companies are characterized by the formation of “groups” enabling the presence of important economies of scale, mainly with regard to transport costs and disinvestments in raw materials, thanks to the excellent infrastructure developed around the port of Amsterdam, Delfzijl, Flushing-Terneuzen, Heerlen-Geleen and Rotterdam-Moerdijk.

It is no coincidence that Dutch ports are the bioeconomy’s major protagonists. Rotterdam stands out amongst them and is determined to become the logistic hub of biomass used in Europe and together with AkzoNobel is involved in a project experimenting with the possibility of using urban solid waste for the production of biofuels and biochemicals, using Canadian Enerkem’s technology.

In fact, the Netherlands know how to best exploit their historical bent for internationalization.

The great willingness of local clusters to collaborate with foreign partners is a proof of this.

Last October in Brussels, during the European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Bioeconomy, Biobased Delta launched Intercluster 3BI, together with French Iar-Pole, German Bioeconomy Cluster in Halle and British BioVale. It is a partnership amongst the four major European clusters that includes biorefineries for converting biological resources into food, feedstuff, materials, chemicals and fuels. Their drive is to share research, development and implementation of new highly technological approaches to convert biomass, renewable raw materials and waste into added-value products and applications.

Biobased Delta is a cluster based in the Southeast of the Netherlands; it promotes itself with a slogan combining the country’s strengths: “Agriculture Meets Chemistry”. Agricultural residues are seen as the base of the biobased industrial innovation. Especially for chemistry because the Dutch cluster is part of the world’s biggest cluster created by Antwerp, Rotterdam and Ruhr Regions.

Biobased Delta also harbours Biorizon, a shared research centre (that works in partnership with Bio Base Europe, a bioeconomy educational centre based in Ghent), specialized in the development of technologies for the production of aromatic compounds derived from renewable sources to be used in high-performance materials, chemicals and coating. They have an ambitious goal: to become in the next years one of the world’s top three research centres in this field. To this end – besides having started an intensive activity of international relationships with Brazil and Canada – a memorandum of understanding was signed in 2014 in Reims at the Iar-Pole headquarters

by Willem Sederel, Biobased Delta CEO, and French President François Hollande in order to facilitate French industry’s access to Biorizon.

But there is more. Amongst the Dutch cluster’s initiatives it is worth mentioning the Green Chemistry Campus, a business accelerator

Furthermore, two giants of the new economy using bio-based resources as raw materials have their headquarters in the Netherlands, namely DSM and Corbion Purac. Both companies are developing biobased succinic acid through joint ventures with two other European chemical

The Dutch post system (PostNL) boasts a long tradition of issuing communication or graphic high-quality stamps, famous the world over. On the top left page a complete sheet of stamps by Daan Roosengaarde, a puzzle representing the Netherlands as a network of lights seen from space; bottom left, a stamp designed by Tod Boontje Studio.

Here above: a sheet of commemorative stamps celebrating Rotterdam’s Sea museum. Next page, stamps designed by Irma Boom for Rijksmuseum in 2013 where every stamp represents parts of the work of art that can be completed sticking on the side the next stamp.

See the website www.iconenvandepost.nl

41

42

renewablematter 09. 2016 for innovations using renewable sources.

In the headquarters of Sabic Innovative Plastics (a company controlled by Sabic, Saudi Arabia’s petrochemical colossus) in Bergen op Zoom, small and medium enterprises, research centres, universities and government institutions work side by side in a welcoming innovation atmosphere to develop new technologies, strictly biobased, through the utilization of waste flows from food and agriculture.

Another international project is Big-C, the BioInnovation Growth mega-Cluster, an international smart specialization initiative aiming to transform the mega cluster created by the Flemish Region of Belgium, the Netherlands and North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) into a world leader of the bioeconomy. This is not only the largest chemical cluster in Europe, but it is also a very important agriculture and silviculture cluster. Above all, it produces the highest levels of CO2 emissions and the largest quantity of urban waste of the entire Old Continent.

Here, the bioeconomy combines perfectly with the circular economy paradigm.

Big-C is supported by the BE-Basic Foundation, the umpteenth public-private partnership coordinated by the Deft University of Technology with the aim to support R&D in new sustainable bioproducts.

At the start, at the begging of 2010, it received funds for €120 million by

the Dutch government to support its activity, in this case as well strongly oriented to internationalization. Several European universities collaborate with BE-Basic, including Imperial College London and Dortmund University of Technology.

It also has partnerships in Malaysia, Brazil, the USA and Vietnam.

Bioprocess Pilot Facility is the flagship of the project, a pilot plant made available to start-ups and big companies for the industrial scale-up of processes using biological resources. Establishing whether an idea developed in a laboratory can really become a new bioproducts is indeed a very important step. Bioprocess Pilot Facility allows companies to share the investment required for the plant.

“Investing in a pilot plant used only by one company” Arno van de Kant, BPF Business Development Manager, argues, “can be very costly (€15-20 million) and, something perhaps even more importantly, there is a need for qualified process experts and operators able to improve the process.”

For the Netherlands, the development of the bioeconomy is strategic. “Taking into consideration our strengths in the chemical, agribusiness and logistic sectors,” Mr van de Kant claims, “we are trying to be the first to successfully implement a sustainable circular economy.”

Interview

edited by Mario Bonaccorso

Dutch Bioeconomy: From Biomass to Business Yvonne van der Meer, head of the Biobased Materials department of Maastricht University

“The Dutch strengths in industry and knowledge infrastructure in the top sectors chemistry and agriculture & food are a good starting point for the development of a flourishing biobased economy. Almost all Dutch Provinces have developed biobased economy programs to exploit regional opportunities in a national context.”

To say this – in this interview with Renewable Matter – is Yvonne van der Meer, head of the Biobased Materials department of Maastricht University. With her we talk about the Dutch bioeconomy: The role of biomass, logistics and universities. “The value chains of the biobased economy – she says – are being established and complex logistic issues need to be addressed to create viable business cases.”

The Netherlands was one of the first countries in Europe to adopt a national strategy for the bioeconomy. What are the main aspects of this strategy?

And how has a strategy facilitated the development of the bioeconomy?

“The national strategy identifies that the transition to a sustainable biobased economy is largely based on internationally distinctive knowledge and innovation. A large number of industries and research organizations from different sectors and disciplines have jointly developed an innovation contract ‘Green growth, from biomass to business.’ It describes how to build on current strengths in t he Netherlands to gain economic advantage and competitiveness from the transition to a biobased economy. The transition needs testing of new concepts, strategic alliances for further development and upscaling to commercial exploitation. In 2015 a national research agenda ‘Biobased Economy 2015-2027’ was presented by the top sectors chemistry, agro & food, and energy. Top sectors are collaborations of industry, science and government.”

Policy From your point of view, what differentiates the Dutch bioeconomy from others European bioeconomies?

“The top sectors make use of a so-called triple helix approach where industry, science and government cooperate to foster sustainable economic growth. This is typical for the Dutch innovation system: joint agenda setting and cooperation in innovation projects are promoted, resulting in public private partnerships.

The Dutch strengths in industry and knowledge infrastructure in the top sectors chemistry and agriculture & food are a good starting point for the development of a flourishing biobased economy. Almost all Dutch Provinces have developed biobased economy programs to exploit regional opportunities in a national context.

“The Brightlands campuses in Limburg (South East of the Netherlands) are prime examples of triple helix cooperation in food, health, smart services and materials. The campuses are supported by the Province of Limburg and are innovation hotspots where public and private partners jointly develop research and innovation programs, R&D and piloting infrastructure as well as teaching programs to educate the innovation leaders of the future.”

The Netherlands aims at being the logistics hub for the European bioeconomy.

What is the role of the logistics system in the development of the bioeconomy?

Importing biomass from far areas does not mean making less ecologically sustainable the bioeconomy?

“Personally I do not believe in a sustainable bioeconomy where biomass has to come from distant regions. The production routes of the biobased economy are still under development and it is a real challenge to create a coherent sustainable and efficient production system.

Such system may have a much smaller scale than the current ones. The value chains of the biobased economy are being established and complex logistic issues need to be addressed to create viable business cases. I see the bioeconomy as part of a circular economy where new integral chains for life cycle of products will be developed that take into account repair, reuse and recycling. This calls for new materials and product concepts, but also for new logistic concepts, with potential big rewards in terms of sustainability.”

What is the role of Dutch universities in the bioeconomy?

“The Dutch universities contribute to the development of the biobased economy with science and technology development and knowledge & technology transfer. There are several public private partnerships, such as the Top Institute Food and Nutrition and the BE-Basic foundation.

In our region Limburg, two institutes were recently launched with support of the Province of Limburg

that focus on biobased materials and biobased building blocks, respectively: the Aachen Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials, a joint institute of Maastricht University and RWTH Aachen University (Germany) and the Chemelot Institute for Science and Technology, a joint institute of DSM, Maastricht University and Maastricht University Medical Center, Eindhoven University of Technology and the Province of Limburg.

“Dutch universities also contribute to the bioeconomy by training the knowledge workers needed. As of 2015, Maastricht University offers an international 2-year Master Biobased Materials at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus. This unique multidisciplinary program has active industry involvement in the curriculum and uses problem based learning, a small scale student centered learning method.”

What kind of research are you doing at your University?

“The past years I have been working on setting up a new department Biobased Materials of Maastricht University in the industrial surroundings of the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen. Currently I am the director of the department, I am teaching three courses in our Master Biobased Materials and Bachelor program in natural sciences and I am setting up a research line on the assessment of the sustainability of biobased materials.

The biobased economy is supposed to tackle societal challenges like climate change. However, are the biobased alternatives under development indeed solving these issues? And if not, how can present solutions be improved? Currently we are setting up a research group on this subject and we have obtained the first funds to start research activities, so I am looking for researchers to join my team at Maastricht University.”

In April, Utrecht will host the fourth European Bioeconomy Stakeholders Conference.

What are the three main measures that Europe needs to foster the growth of the bioeconomy?

“For me it is important that the biobased economy does not only promote biofuels, since this limits the utilization of the biomass potential. There are sustainable alternatives for energy production, so biofuels are not the only option. It should become more attractive to use biomass in higher-value applications, like chemicals and materials, e.g. by promoting cascading systems. For the use of the full potential of molecules of biological origin, I would also like to see that the development of new biobased building blocks and new production routes are supported. Breaking down biomass to ‘drop in’ building blocks is beneficial for quick uptake by the market, but is not efficient from a resource and energy perspective. Lastly I would like to promote taking into account more environmental impacts than only carbon footprints. If a carbon neutral solution induces another sustainability problem, like (indirect) land use change, we are not developing a long-term sustainable solution after all.”

43

44

renewablematter 09. 2016 Interview

edited by Mario Bonaccorso

United We Stand Tom van Aken, CEO of Avantium

“From an Avantium point of view, there is strong need for a European approach rather than a national approach, to avoid an inefficient scattering of knowledge and skills.

“Secondly, the bioeconomy would strongly benefit from coherent governmental policies. We are strong believers of ‘a level playing field’ when competing with the traditional fossil-based industries”. Tom van Aken talks to Renewable Matter. In this interview the CEO of Avantium, a spin-off of Royal Dutch Shell and one of the most dynamic and innovative European bioeconomy’s company, shares with us his idea of bioeconomy.

“If the EU – he says – believes in the fundamental need to transition from a petro-based to a biobased industry (see COP21), then governments need to put penalties on undesired behavior (tax on CO2) and/or reward desired behavior.”

From top to bottom: from the series Nederlandse Molens (2013) by Loost Veekkamp, a graphic designer and illustrator.

From the series Kinderpostzegels (2013)

by Anton Corbijn, photographer and film director

The Netherlands were one of the first countries in Europe to adopt a national strategy for the bioeconomy. What are the main aspects of this strategy? And how has a strategy facilitated your business?

“Avantium operates a global business model and looks at region specific investment/support programs.

For each region we assess the general support packages (ranging from subsidies, grants, to tax incentives, loan guarantee packages, investment funds, etc.). The largest program in the Netherlands that is specifically tailored to the NL Bioeconomy strategy is called SDE+, for which Avantium would qualify in case we decide a production unit in the Netherlands. Furthermore, there are a number of subsidy programs that Avantium qualifies for collaborations with universities and other development partners, specifically focused on biomass. These programs help us to (partially) fund the necessary ‘groundwork’ to see if there is a business opportunity.

Other programs outside the NL Bioeconomy strategy that we qualify for are related to R&D activities and technology development activities, such as WBSO and RDA.” The Netherlands aim at being the logistics hub for the European bioeconomy. What is the role of the logistics system in the development of the bioeconomy? Importing biomass from faraway areas does not mean making the bioeconomy less ecologically sustainable?

“This requires a more specific approach to answer properly. Transporting biomass over a certain distance requires a tradeoff between the logistical costs and the economies of scale of the processing unit, and the impact on the ecological system. Also, one needs to consider the longer term business model, i.e. developing the technology may have different

tradeoffs when compared to the industrialization of the technology.”

What are the projects Avantium is implementing in the bioeconomy?

“Avantium has developed a revolutionary production process, called YXY technology that enables the economic conversion of carbohydrates into (Furanics) green building blocks. The process is protected by a robust patent portfolio filed by Avantium.

The process is a chemical, catalytic process that fits well with existing chemical production plants.

YXY is a chemical, catalytic process: a fast, highly efficient and selective conversion of carbohydrates into Furanics building blocks such as FDCA. Avantium operates a pilot plant in Geleen, the Netherlands, where its YXY technology has been validated at 20 ton/year scale. We have publicly disclosed that we – besides YXY – are working on the projects Mekong (converting biomass to MEG) and on Zambezi (converting non-food biomass to glucose).”

From your point of view, what differentiates the European bioeconomy from the American one? Where is it easier to invest?

“Investing in certain regions or technologies is not necessarily a decision driven by ‘easiness.’

For example, the factor time plays an important role.

A decade ago, the US had a strong support program in place for developing and commercializing biofuels.

Today, the EU has a strong support program in place for developing and commercializing biobased chemicals and sustainable energy solutions.”

In April, Utrecht will host the fourth European Bioeconomy Stakeholders Conference. What are the three main measures that Europe needs to foster the growth of the bioeconomy?

“From an Avantium point of view, there is strong need for a European approach rather than a national approach, to avoid an inefficient scattering of knowledge and skills.

“Secondly, the bioeconomy would strongly benefit from coherent governmental policies. We strongly believe in ‘a level playing field’ when competing with the traditional fossil-based industries. If the EU believes in the fundamental need to transition from a petro-based to a biobased industry (see COP21), then governments need to put penalties on undesired behavior (tax on CO2) and/or reward desired behavior.

“Thirdly, building the bioeconomy will require a transition time, so we have to accept that we can’t solve all problems in one go, and that we have to accept some suboptimal solutions along the way. It also requires consistent policies that can withstand political changes over time.”

Policy

45

renewablematter 09. 2016

QUO VADIS

sharing economy?

People share dinners, houses, clothes, skills, talents and car lifts. Spurred by the Web, the sharing economy has become part of many aspects of our everyday life. Inspired by the desire to share and save resources, environmental ones included.

by Silvia Zamboni

Silvia Zamboni is a professional journalist and an expert in environmental and energy issues. She authored books on the green economy’s good practices, mobility and sustainable development.

She collaborates with Radio 3 Rai, magazines and dailies. She is a member of Ecoistituto’s scientific committee in Bolzano.

Bologna-based 35-year-old Valentina, with a degree in viola at the conservatory, is often travelling both for work as a musician and for passion. “To save money, but mainly to feel at home” for many years she has been using airbnb, the international giant renting out temporary living spaces via public advertisements published on their portal: a rampant symbol of the sharing economy, the barter economy, of the loan of goods, services and talents through the use of digital platforms and apps that foster peer-to-peer intersection between supply and demand.

Last time Valentina used airbnb dates back to early January, in Istanbul, in a flat with all mod cons in the historical/monumental area which she shared with two girlfriends for as little as €12 per person per day. Gioia too, 28 years, from Naples, a political science graduate, is an airbnb veteran, “for the philosophy of life travellers and hosts share, the sense of community and the cultural dialogue that is created, unthinkable in an impersonal hotel room.” So, back in December when the UN invited her for an internship contract at the Glass Palace, once again she resorted to airbnb for accommodation. And she found it: a comfortable

Sculpture Quo Vadis by David Černý, Prague – Graphic elaboration. ©Wikicommons / Wegmann

46

apartment in Manhattan for €2,000 a month which she shared with a friend, a real bargain considering the location. And a lot more than a sofa or yet another temporary accommodation with hosting families, as it may be the case with internet communities using couch-surfing. They favour the hospitality exchange aspect and ban from their philosophy the transfer of money between guests and hosts.

By contrast, airbnb – which charges a fee per reservation – built a vast empire on such “home away from home” effect, which started in 2008 in San Francisco from an idea conceived by three resourceful thirty-year-olds. Today they offer castles, villas, flats in over 34,000 cities scattered in 192 countries, employing 15,000 people, with a value of over $10 billion. In Italy – third country for number of ads after the US and France – in December 2015, ads went up by 81% compared to 2014 and a steep rise of guests (+87%), with a total of 3 million travellers from 2008 to date.

Advertisements, bookings and reviews on the platform are managed independently by the host and travellers’ community; airbnb Italy provides its own photographers – whose snapshots are published on the portal with the reassuring

Policy

In Italy – third country for number of ads after the US and France – in December 2015, ads went up by 81% compared to 2014 and a steep rise of guests (+87%).

capture “airbnb verified photo” – only to the interested owners. In the Milan headquarters, the nine employees of the Ltd, deal with marketing operations for advertisements and, through focus groups, meetings with the hosts, while the European customer service department is in Dublin.

The relentless rise of airbnb became a beacon for start-ups launching themselves into such economy inspired by a supportive vocation to share, to save resources, to protect also the environment and that boomed, at world level, thanks to the viral potential of modern digital technologies empowering it. Another case in point similar to airbnb is BlaBlacar, the queen platform of ride sharing, acting as a meeting place for those offering and looking for car lifts on a medium and long range distance. It is different from city car sharing 2.0, which together with car2go and Enjoy is a big success in Milan and Rome, and from car pooling, often organized by companies to form teams of employees travelling common routes. In the 20 countries where it is present (Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Holland, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, Poland,

Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine) the BlaBlaCar community exceeded 20 million people. 350 employees working in 13 offices scattered into the four corners of the Earth. “Love commuters” stand out as the most regular amongst Italy’s drivers. Simone C., for example, 42 years old, has been sharing the commuting between Modena, where he currently works and Gualdo Tadino, where his wife lives.

Since he cannot do without a car due to the prohibitive charges of the railway, he is a staunch believer in car sharing which “compared to solo journeys is better not only from a social point of view but also for the environment, because by reducing the number of circulating cars, it also reduces pollution.” The amount of money paid – even online – by those benefitting from the lift covers both the operating costs (12% of the lift’s total costs) charged by BlaBlaCar, and the contribution asked by the driver, suggested by BlaBlaCar at 5.5 cents per kilometer, in order to avoid the fact that a service based on exchange and the desire to socialize becomes a profitable activity. Moreover, there is a risk of generating competition problems with taxi drivers and their costly licences, hindering the arrival in Italy of Uber, which in late January pushed the Paris ones onto the barricades. Marta Mainieri, founder of the Collaboriamo.org portal is very critical of Uber, because she does not regard it along the same lines as the sharing economy. “It does not take into great consideration users’ interests and aims mainly at expanding the platform business, holding the algorithm and power to manage these pseudo workers, not self-employed nor employees, but something in between, at the mercy of the platform’s algorithm and decisions.”

Pushed by the digital technology potential, as well as accommodation and transport, collaborative platforms have now permeated various aspects of our everyday life: suffice it to think that, according to a 2014 Nesta report, in the United Kingdom, one fourth of the adult population exchange goods and services through platforms. And in England – according to a study

by Justpark, the platform acting as a meeting point between parking areas “hunters” and people temporarily offering them – is Europe’s number one country for the sharing economy, since it hosts more than France, Spain and Germany together, the other three European most prolific hubs. The word record, though, belongs to the US, where 865 collaborative economy startups were created, with San Francisco in the lead (131), followed by New York (89) and London (72).

As for Italy, as the 2015 map coordinated by Marta Mainieri helped by Phd Italia shows, there are nearly two hundred small and medium platforms divided between clothing, accommodation, food, culture, education, work, exchange of goods, services to companies, services to people, sports, transport and tourism. Over half of such platforms chose the Ltd as their legal form, which reveals that behind the collaborative vocation they are business oriented.

47

48

renewablematter 09. 2016

1. Crowdfunding in Italy. Report 2015, Sacro Cuore Catholic University in Milan with the contribution

by Tim and Starteed; crowdfundingreport. telecomitalia.com/

Used clothes and books are traded, theatre performances and film screenings are organized and Fubles platform, five-a-side football teams are formed: over 500 thousand fans met online, with a total of 160,000 matches played. While on Timerepublik, a time banking platform for the exchange of talents and skills, for instance private tuition for children can be exchanged for housework.

In the food sector, together with collaborative platforms fighting home waste of food such as S-Cambiacibo, Lastminutesottocasa and Ifoodshare, others promote the so-called social eating which combines the pleasure of meeting new people to that of the palate.

Indeed, Gnammo advertises dinners and lunches organized by “gmammer chefs,” cashes the fees from “gnammer-guests” and passes them over to the cooks, deducting 12% to cover collection fees, payment and tax. With Gnammo everything is recorded, unlike local tourist tax evasion which traditional hotel managers impute to airbnb advertisers. Three years on from its inauguration at the hands of three forty-year-old men – Turinborn Gianluca Ranno, Cristiano Rigono, childhood friends and Walter Dabbicco from Bari – in December 2015 the Gnammo community boasted 160,000 members with 3,500 chefs who published at least an invitation on the portal, with a total of 8,400 events and a “turnover” of €7.2 million in 2014.

But how profitable is it? “The most active chefs organize one event a month, with an average cost of €20 a month: if chefs shop carefully they manage to make some profit. But this is not the reason why they invite people to their place: if the main priority is to socialize, just as for gnammer-guests the menu is of course important, but even more so is the environment and atmosphere created while eating together” as explains Gianluca Ranno, a marketing and communication expert, achieved during his working experience in China. Forty-year-old Benedetta from Turin is a teacher of English and is one of the most popular gnammer chefs.

She is also very creative. At her table, for only €28, it is possible to enjoy a chocolate-based dinner from starter to dessert or taking a “tour around the world in 8 dinners” with various specialities from different countries. Then there are the scrumptious Afternoon Teas for ladies with sandwiches, canapés, and desserts served with plenty of shades of teas. As much as just mentioning her fanciful menus make you drool, for Benedetta and her guests (mainly lawyers, officials, company managers, mostly women aged between 30 and 50) “the top target is conviviality, meeting new people, usually of some substance, which in some cases turned into friendships with whom to share our spare time.”

And as home-based gnammer catches on, the platform is launching more options, ranging from “dinners organized to test products from national industries such as Barilla and Monini, a sort of bottom-up advertising,” dynamic Ranno explains “to social eating in restaurants, which we offer to owners as a new tool to advertise their business.

The basic ingredient is unchanged: tables of fifteen people that do not know each other, with an opportunity to meet the chef – perhaps with a few Michelin stars – as was the case with Marcello Trentini from Magorabin in Turin, at very reasonable prices: €30.”

As for the financial sector, crowdfunding – the grassroots project funding – is a wellestablished initiative amongst Italy’s platforms.

At the end of 2015 the total value of collected financing in Italy by 858 thousand donors/funders amounted to €56.8 million (+85% compared to 2014), with 82 platforms (+68% compared to 2014), creating jobs for over 250 people.1 The average value of the collected funds does not exceed €10,000 a project.

Prestiamoci is the top startup of social remunerated lending between private individuals.

It acts as a meeting point for those in need of a loan with those with a capital to invest. Smartika does exactly the same, lenders and borrowers interact without any intermediary.

But if it is that pervasive, how much is the sharing economy worth? PwC, the British management consulting agency estimated its world annual turnover at around $15 billion, which in 2025 could reach 335 billion.

And while some believe – prematurely – the bell of capitalism is about to toll, Credit Suisse (Global Investor, November 2015) tried to work out, on the basis of the Swiss scenario, the contribution to GDP by the sharing economy.

Their calculations, underestimated according to Sole24Ore, fluctuate between 0.25% to 1%.

In other words, considering Italy, between €4 and 16 billion. In absolute term it is no small figure, but, as a percentage, it is still a negligible number.

Policy Interview

edited by Silvia Zamboni

It Won’t Be the End of Capitalism Professor Leonardo Becchetti, full professor of Political Economy at the Tor Vergata University of Rome

“End of capitalism at the hands of the sharing economy? I don’t think so, I’d rather talk about a process of hybridization between the profit and sharing economies, but a replacement of the latter at the expense of the former I think it is unrealistic,” points out professor Leonardo Becchetti, a civil economy scholar. “The true new aspect behind the spread of the sharing economy is the use of the web: the online platforms make available information on goods and services offered, they create a meeting point between individual demand and supply where everyone can choose their role in the transaction. Doing away with various once unavoidable functions in the traditional companies, the digital economy has dramatically reduced operating costs, producing ‘company pulverization.’

Car sharing allows access to a service (mobility) irrespective of ownership of a good (car) and it increases the usage rate, with positive repercussions on the environment. Another distinctive feature is the collective reputation system being created over time through specific rating modalities (such as the comments expressed by drivers and passengers on BlaBlaCar, and those of hosts and travellers on airbn, editor’s note).

Photo by Cary Bass-Deschenes – Graphic elaboration

Will the Sharing Economy be Able to Bring Down Capitalism?

“In the traditional economy too there were and there are still possibilities of donations,

sharing and informal exchanges; today, the novelty is the use of the web. Every platform is therefore different: there may be tools favouring exchanges, and so a better functioning market, or there may be profiles that go beyond mere economic transactions. Not to mention the tax-related risks and work protection. If we are talking about sharing and the free aspect, I deem assessing the web contribution to generating what I define as collaborative commons such as Wikipedia more significant. Such portal is created by people who make available, free of charge and anonymously, information and knowledge as opposed to those platforms that are regarded as part of the sharing economy but they actually only improve the market of business transactions.”

And yet there are some who talk about overcoming capitalism at the hands of the sharing economy.

“If anything, what we will witness is a progressive process of hybridization between profit and non profit motivations: the profit companies need to gain respectability as socially responsible businesses, while the non profit organizations have to survive so they will have to cooperate with other commercial businesses. The sharing economy enlarges the option availability, it is not a replacement of current practices.

It will grow alongside the traditional economy with a complementary role: one time people will want to go to a restaurant and the next they will be interested in taking part in a gnammo dinner, or booking a hotel room and the next looking for accommodation on airbnb.”

49

renewablematter 09. 2016

6000 Years Old and Still Going Strong

by Beppe Croce

Grown for the past 6,000 years, suitable in any latitude, hemp can be used in many sectors. From the automotive components industry and green building, to the food, wellness and pharmaceutical sectors. Banished by strict prohibition laws, it is now being rehabilitated.

W. MĂźller, Cannabis sativa L., from Medizinal Pflanzen, vol. 1, t. 13 (1887)

50

Policy Beppe Croce is national coordinator of Legambiente Agriculture and Head of Green Chemistry-Bionet association.

“Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?”

Henry Ford – The Rotarian 1933

1. See for instance: McAllister S.D., Christian R.T., Horowitz M.P., Garcia A., Desprez P.Y., “Cannabidiol as a novel inhibitor of Id-1 gene expression in aggressive breast cancer cells”, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics 2007, 6, 29217; Campos A.C., Moreira F.A., Gomes F.V., Del Bel E.A., Guimarães F.S., “Multiple mechanisms involved in the largespectrum therapeutic potential of cannabidiol in psychiatric disorders”, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. (December 2012) 367 (1607): 3364-78.

This 6,000 year-old lady, younger than ever, swaying between tradition and hi-tech is taking centre stage again. Worldwide, there is a proliferation of start ups and initiatives in her name. Houses made of hemp and lime manufactured by a group of young Maori from New Zealand (Echo). Hemp fabrics produced by seven twenty-year-old Indians who founded Boheco, Bombay Hemp Company India. Hemp chocolate bars produced in Siberia, in the Altai mountains, by Obraz Zhizni (Way of life). Hemp ice cream as a tribute to Bob Marley introduced by one of the Alassio’s ice-cream parlours, promoted

by Canapa Liguria. Even the strict American prohibition laws are crumbling after almost 80 years from the Marijuana Tax Act, which in 1938 banned it from American fields, dashing many hopes. In the same year the law came into force, the magazine Popular Mechanics published “The new one-billion dollar crop” envisaging a sensational relaunch of Cannabis plantations at world level thanks to the invention of a machine

Hemp’s identified constituents

Source: Rudolf Brenneisen, Chemistry and Analysis of Phytocannabinoids and Other Cannabis Constituents, 2007.

FAMILY

N. OF CONSTITUENTS

Cannabinoids (C21 terpenophenols)

> 60

Terpenoids

140

Hydrocarbons

50

Nitrogen compounds

> 70

Flavonoids

23

Fatty acids

33

Non-cannabinoid Phenols

34

Alcohols

7

Aldehydes

12

Ketones

13

Acids

21

that would have finally allowed separating fibres from bark, without the huge amount of labour that had been necessary for thousands of years.

We stopped there and from there we start again today, with our technical know-how. As an example of this awakening we can take a sports car with a hemp-fibre body made in Florida by Renew Sport Car, exactly 74 years after the Hemp Body Car produced by Henry Ford, a staunch supporter of chemurgy, at Dearborn research centre, near Detroit.

Many of the initiatives born over these years will probably be short-lived. After all, hemp has tremendous appeal over dreamers and sorcerer’s apprentices from all over the world. Not only because of the cheapest and most popular psychotropic substance of the globe despite its technical term – delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol or THC – and its preventative and analgesic properties, as demonstrated by a great number of scientific publications, but also for the versatility and unique adaptive properties of this plant, which as a matter of fact has been farmed in all latitudes, from the Indian Subcontinent to Siberia. It also became a symbol of the products derived from living organisms as opposed to those derivable from its historical antagonist, the petrochemical sector.

A Still Untapped Mine To date, 480 organic molecules have been identified as hemp’s constituents. Cannabinoids alone, THC being one of them, are over 60 and are largely unknown. Today, in America there is a strong interest in the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of another cannabinoid, cannabidiol or CBD that unlike THC has no psychotropic effects and seems effective in the cure of some types of cancer or psychotic forms.1 In particular, the American market is looking into old Italian varieties, such as Carmagnola, with a high content of CBD. The thing is that we cannot expect high concentrations of CBD in the plant if its antagonist, THC, is totally absent. One cannot exist without the other. This interrelation enables us to grasp a misunderstanding: there are no two species of cannabis, one for industrial and the other for recreational or therapeutic uses.

All hemp varieties are genetically compatible amongst them. So crossing is possible. There is only one species and its scientific name is Cannabis sativa L. And in nature there are no varieties with no THC. But it is difficult to talk about “nature” when all known varieties are the result of thousands of years of man-induced selections and crosses. If anything, there are very low-content THC varieties and in France and Italy ‘zero THC’ varieties are being developed.

Cannabinoids, concentrated in inflorescences and leaves, are only the most valuable components for the potential hemp market.

51

52

renewablematter 09. 2016

2. Pietro Cappelletto, Le fibre naturali nell’industria della carta, “Chimica Verde” organized by Legambiente at Terra Futura, Florence, April 2004.

3. L. Dammer, M. Carus et al., Market Developments of and Opportunities for biobased products and chemicals, nova-Institute, 2013.

But all parts of this plant can be employed for a variety of uses.

Seeds contain excellent dietary value optimizing immune system response. They have a protein content of 20-25% with a unique combination of all the 9 essential amino acids, which in turn allow the synthesis of other proteins such as immune globulin. They also have a fat fraction of 30-35%, mainly made of a blend of polyunsaturated fatty acids in optimal amount for human health: linoleic acid (omega6) and alpha-linoleic acid (omega 3) and 2-4% gamma-linoleic acid, prostaglandin precursor. Hemp seeds do no contain THC. Fibre, over the centuries it enabled the production of hefty and breathable fabrics, salt-resistant sails, high-quality paper and canvasses.

The woody part of the stalk, (shiv) is a material with excellent physical, mechanical and optical characteristics. Its absorption coefficient is up to 5 times its weight, 12 times that of straw and 3.5 that of wood shavings. Its hygroscopic, breathable and soundproofing qualities as well as its lightness make it suitable material for many uses: horse and pet bedding, green building material (mixed with lime), rigid panels for vehicle trim, feeds for ruminants etc. From shiv paste, the paper industry derived newsprint with higher optical and physical/mechanical properties compared to poplar’s.2 Even hemp’s root system, thanks to its extraordinary hypogean development, is very important both for agriculture with its natural soil tillage and the decontamination of polluted soils (phytoremediation). A fine Taranto manor farm ­­– Fratelli Fornaro’s Masseria Carmine – whose land and livestock have been contaminated by Ilva’s dioxin (it had to put down 600 sheep), since 2014 has been experimenting together with CRA (Research centre for agriculture) hemp’s decontaminating properties.

Even dust produced by the mechanical separation of fibres from shiv can be used, because it is rich in phytosterols and wax.

The French, for example, use it as soil improvers in the Champagne vineyards because it is rich in potassium.

The hemp’s supply chain is faced with a crucible in which all the players will have to learn how to make the most of these products. And the challenge starts right in the field, from the choice of soils and how to grow it.

New Markets Hemp’s resurgence all over the world, from Canada to Australia and South Africa, stems from a variety of reasons. First of all the rising demand, helped by pressure by environmental regulations and consumers, by a number of manufacturing sectors of short-cycle, light and healthier renewable materials (derived from annual plants such as hemp rather than trees) compared to synthetic fibres or glass wool.

But also from demand for wellness products, i.e. those with a high level of healthy and nutritional properties and suitable natural remedies for pain management (less damaging than opiates) and for the treatment of serious congenital disorders.

And lastly, the search for “new” species (an oxymoron since we are talking about a millenary crop!) to introduce in a rotation pattern with cereals and other income crops, in order to improve soil conditions and repair monocultures’ damage.

So four sectors are mainly driving the hemp market: cars, green building, food and health, pharmaceuticals.

In Europe and in Germany in particular, the automotive is regarded as the most important sector for the use of vegetable fibres: in ten years, their use in the European industry has increased by 60%.3 Historically flax has always ruled, but the demand for hemp fibres has doubled. They are used to produce “biocompounds”, innovative materials manufactured mainly by Dutch companies from Hempflax (processing 5,000 tonnes of hemp fibre a year for technical uses) to GreenGran and NPSP that in 2014 presented to the European parliament an electric scooter with a bio-based resin body obtained from flax and hemp fibres.

In Italy, instead, the car industry so far has not done anything for the promotion of vegetable fibres, excluding some projects by Fiat Research Centre on brooms in Calabria. In Italy, the rebirth of hemp is driven by green building. In particular by a simple and innovative construction material – hempcrete – a mix of natural lime and mineralized hemp shiv which can be used as cladding material or brick. Hempcrete saves a great amount of energy and guarantees high levels of comfort, thanks to hemp’s excellent thermal, dehumidifying and soundproofing properties. One of the first houses in Italy built with hempcrete is in Cascina, in the Pisa area,

by Equilibrium, a Bergamo-based company which together with Calce-Canapa® from Bologna is the protagonist of this new market segment in Italy.

Towards Complete Rehabilitation Since the end of 90s, all over Europe and worldwide, prohibition laws on Cannabis have started to tone down. Even in the United States, with laws passed by a dozen of states to legalize crops (in Colorado and Kentucky and soon in North Dakota pilot crops have resumed), with the February 2014 Obama’s Farm Bill and with a May 2014 declaration of the US House of representatives that al last banned DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) from interfering and stopping industrial and therapeutic hemp cultivation as it did in the last 80 years.

But in Italy and in the US, strangely enough, the completion of rules and regulations is taking

Policy Hemp use

FIBRE

SHIV

CARS

4. “Arrangements for the promotion of hemp growing and its agro/industrial chain” Ddl approved by XIII Chamber of Deputees’ permanent Commission (Agriculture) on 18th November 2015.

SHIV

FIBRE

a long time. Historic hemp large producers, after giving the crop up completely for over half a century, the two countries experience the paradox of a free movement of hemp-based foreign products (the American market is flooded with Canadian food and health products), with stringent domestic laws limiting domestic production.

In Italy, today those growing varieties for industrial use recognized by the EU, due to the presence of THC, however small, can be reported and their crops seized. The latest grotesque episode was about a small grower near Viterbo who in September 2015 served a three-week sentence in prison and media pillory (“Found illegal marijuana crop”) on the basis of an inconsistent text by the police on a single plant specimen. A bill on hemp, which has started its parliamentary approval procedure for over a year,4 should at last guarantee the possibility to grow, transform and trade hemp safely for industrial uses in Italy. Even in the US, where its cultivation is currently allowed within public bodies, schools and universities, only for research purposes and only in those States that legalized its cultivation, they look forward to the approval of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act, so far stuck in a rut in Congress.

The Renaissance of Federcanapa

GREEN BUILDING Since the late 90s, all over Europe and worldwide, prohibition laws on Cannabis have started to tone down.

SEED

LOW-THC INFLORESCENCES

FOOD AND HEALTH

HIGH-THC INFLORESCENCES

PHARMACEUTICALS

Despite the law and its long procedures, over the last two years, dozens of local initiatives have mushroomed and in 2015 about 2,000 hectares have been devoted to hemp cultivation, according to Agea data. In all Italian regions there is a proliferation of new acronyms and associations. Some of them are a little more than cultural associations, but others are seriously investing in crops and harvesting technologies and transformation. Two plants for the first transformation of hemp stalks are already operational: one in the north in Carmagnola and one in the south near Taranto. And many more are being built. Famous seed companies are at last reproducing the seed of old Italian varieties: Carmagnola, Fibranova, Eletta Campana. But it is still a chaotic development, governed by little knowledge and false myths.

Starting from the misconception that hemp is easy to grow because it is rustic, because it dominates weeds and does not need water and nutrients. This creates false expectations and bitter disappointment. After a long debate, promoted by Chimica Verde association, involving Italian major players of this renaissance, last February Federcanapa was created – a national federation for the protection of Italian hemp.

The new body will help farmers and companies in their choices and working methods and on the markets, while steering national and regional politics and research. Also, it will create a brand to protect those transforming and selling products made of hemp grown in Italy, while safeguarding the environment.

53

©Freevector – Graphic elaboration

54 renewablematter 09. 2016

Policy

How to Eradicate the

TRASH ISLANDS

by Roberto Giovannini

Every year 20 million tons of plastics are dumped at sea: over time, they result in real floating islands featuring up to 100,000 objects per square kilometre, or alternatively sink to the seabed. In both cases, they are likely to be ingested by the fish. And by us, as well.

Roberto Giovannini is a journalist dealing with economy, society, energy, the environment, the green economy and technology.

Plastic Day: Marine litter, effects, mitigation and sustainable solutions, University of Siena; www.unisi.it/plastic-day

Not all plastics are indestructible. In fact, over the years, due to the constant inaction by the Countries, plastics are liable to end up not only at sea – thus making up the above-mentioned ill-famed “islands” – but also in our food chain.

As a result of their amazing success, plastics – which are easily processable but at the same time strong and durable – are increasingly present in our everyday life. However, the failure to prevent the plastic products from being dumped in the rivers and then at sea has determined a real environmental emergency, which is becoming more and more serious and must be addressed in a timely manner. This paper focuses on the so-called marine litter, which refers to the pollution of seas and oceans caused by anthropogenic waste. Although it is a major phenomenon, it has been investigated from a scientific point of view only recently.

Nowadays, various scientists – including the production system and the institutions – are looking for possible solutions to the presence of plastics in the Mediterranean marine environment and the resulting pollution effects, assessing the possible mitigation actions and the sustainable use of innovative biodegradable materials.

In this regard, an important discussion-oriented event called Plastic Day was held on 8 March at the University of Siena: the debate involved the researchers from the Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment of the University of Siena in cooperation with numerous institutional players both at regional and national scale, stakeholders, researchers and academics.

The marine litter actually includes any solid, durable and artificial material dumped at sea. These objects have been released to the environment voluntarily, recklessly (fishing, maritime transport, dispersion of materials and activities on the coasts), or sometimes even accidentally (shipwrecks, calamities, storms, etc.)

Therefore, beyond plastics, there are also rubber, paper, metal, wood, glass, fabrics and much more.

These materials often float on the sea surface and are carried towards the shoreline, in other cases, they sink to the seabed, always with possible negative effects. Moreover, some of these materials tend to degrade and become increasingly smaller over time due to the action of natural agents, such as light, bacteria, friction, oxidation and erosion.

Unfortunately, the materials made of plastics and synthetic rubber are extremely hard to die.

55

56

renewablematter 09. 2016 Actually, they never die, but rather tend to cluster and form a disgusting waste mixture more or less compact, sometimes referred to as “Trash Islands”.

Unfortunately, the materials made of plastics and synthetic rubber are extremely hard to die.

Actually, they never die, but rather tend to cluster and form a disgusting waste mixture more or less compact, sometimes referred to as “Trash Islands”. In these areas, the concentration of waste may include up to 25,000-100,000 objects per square kilometre, which occasionally sink to the seabed also as a result of the growth of microorganisms such as seaweeds, sponges and mussels on the water surface. Furthermore, a worse phenomenon may occur: due to the physical action of the sea and the shoreline, these plastic objects can break into “microplastics”, i.e. very small particles (less than five millimetres) which are eaten especially by the so-called filter-feeding animals and, directly or indirectly, by fish, reptiles, mammals and seabirds.

Presence of plastic waste in the system of marine species in the Mediterranean

3 TUNAS OUT OF 10

1 SWARD

FISH OUT OF 8

7 LOGGERHEAD SEA TURTLES OUT OF 10 (Tyrrenian costline)

This matter of concern involves not only the oceans – where over time the sea currents have led to the formation of five large trash islands made of plastic waste (in the proximity of the northern and southern Pacific Ocean, northern and southern Atlantic Ocean, and between Australia and India.)

After all, according to recent UN estimates, of the overall 280 million tons of plastics produced each year, as many as 20 million tons steadily end up at sea.

Unfortunately, the Mediterranean and the other Italian seas must face the same problems.

The results of the analysis carried out by the biologists and researchers of ISPRA (the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), the regional ARPA offices (the Italian Regional Environmental Protection Agency) and CNR (the Italian National Research Council), also within European research programs, are already alarming. According to a recent study performed

by Legambiente within the framework of the Goletta Verde campaign, plastics account for 95% of the global amount of floating waste: especially plastic paddings (39%) and bags, either entire or fragmented (17%.) The sea characterised by the highest amount of floating waste is the central Tyrrhenian Sea, with up to 51 waste units per square kilometre (the average units are 32.) In particular, the most affected areas are located in front of the coast between Mondragone (Caserta) and Acciaroli (Salerno), featuring 75 waste units per square kilometre. Generally, 54% of the waste probably has a municipal and urban origin, while 32% is connected with manufacturing or industrial activities.

As Maria Cristina Fossi, ecotoxicologist of the University of Siena, explained during the debate “Some plastic waste has been found in three tunas out of ten and one swordfish out of eight in various Mediterranean areas.” This assumption is supported by a study carried out by the Tuscan university in cooperation with the ISPRA, which shows that the Italian seas “Nowadays feature the same large concentrations of microplastics detected in the oceans.” Obviously, this environmental issue threatens the biodiversity and the survival of various pelagic species ranging from whales to Caretta caretta sea turtles (some plastics have been found in the stomach of 70% of the specimen living near the Tyrrhenian shoreline.)

However, the negative effects on health and the productive fabric should not be neglected: waste, in fact, impairs the fishing activity, the purifiers and other production facilities, but it is also worth stressing that what is eaten by the fish ends up on our tables. In fact, the fish cannot distinguish the plastic fragments from the plankton, which is their typical food. In this way, plastics become part of the food chain and are present in great quantities in large predators: tunas, swordfishes and sharks.

“Plastics not only endanger or even kill animals like turtles, but also release pollutants, such as

Policy the phthalates, which impact at various levels on the health of the marine organisms,” Maria Cristina Fossi stresses.

Therefore, according to all the experts who gathered in Siena, it is of utmost importance to find a solution to this problem. However, the issue is quite complicated and includes multiple interventions, because the waste moves from one coast to another, covering thousands of kilometres and thus requiring supranational measures, moreover the production activities which dump their waste at sea are numerous.

Obviously, the first essential step in this regard is to increase the awareness of this phenomenon, thus changing every habit more or less decisive and fostering in any case the reduction of the use of those materials which are likely to become marine litter. For example, according to various estimates, only approx. 20% of the waste is generated by maritime activities, however the procedures for the disposal of the fishing equipment – which is correctly carried out on land – should be improved. Conversely, as for the reduction of the use of plastics, it is worth focusing on those mechanisms able to increase the producer liability (i.e. by changing the packaging composition and supporting the return and recycling of the containers.) In short, special efforts are required to reduce the amount of waste, finally adopting the innovative circular economy approach, which provides for an increase in the separate collection in order to minimize the amount of waste dumped at sea. A possible solution would be an organized and systematic recovery of the marine litter, on the shorelines and offshore, through the development of collection systems intended for both the floating plastics and the waste sunk to the seabed.

There could be another solution [...]: we could pin our hopes on the production of bioplastics made of biopolymers, which tend to readily biodegrade. In Italy, Novamont especially focuses on this innovative technology. The company has invented Mater-Bi, a family of biodegradable plastics involved in the production of plastic bags as well of the nets used in the mussel farming sector. However, as highlighted by Francesco Degli Innocenti, Ecology of Products and Environmental Communication Manager of Novamont, “It should be stressed that the bioplastics industry does not regard biodegradability as a “license to litter.”

All the products, in fact, should be designed to be recovered somehow. The biodegradability helps the organic recycling, which may turn out to be very useful in many cases.” According to Degli Innocenti, the biodegradability at sea is a crucial property for the items which are likely to be accidentally released. In these cases, the biodegradability can contribute to the reduction of the environmental risk. “The plastics dumped at sea can be ingested by the animals with consequent damages” as stressed by Degli Innocenti. “The risk of this potential damage can be reduced by means of a lower concentration

of plastics in the water and a lower residence time. In this way, the risk is significantly reduced, even if not fully prevented. Our tests, validated by Certiquality within the “Environmental Technology Verification” EC pilot programme, show that the innovative Mater-Bi bioplastics biodegrade in less than one year.”

It is easy to imagine the astonishment of the scientific world at the publication last November of a UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) report entitled Biodegradable Plastics and Marine Litter. Misconceptions, concerns and impacts on marine environments. Globally it did not regard degradable bioplastics as a solution to the problem, considering that the biodegradation of the polymers would occur only under specific industrial conditions, and not in the maritime environment, where they would probably act like ordinary plastics. “The spread of biodegradable products – according to the UNEP report – is going to significantly reduce neither the amount of plastics released into the oceans nor the physical and chemical risks to the maritime environment.” Conversely, as stressed by the UN agency, the “biodegradable” label would paradoxically urge the people to produce and release the waste into the environment.

The Open-Bio research consortium, a project funded by the European Commission to support the standardization, labelling and procurement of bio-based (renewable) products, has a different opinion on this matter. In a recent paper drawn up in response to the UNEP report, Open-Bio strongly emphasizes the key role played by the prevention of littering and the development of a proper waste management plan (including the biodegradable products.) Thus the initiatives to be implemented to tackle with the waste production include prevention, training and an adequate waste management (such as the enforcement of separate collection and organic recycling of biodegradable plastics.) Therefore, in contrast to the assumptions of the UNEP, the truly biodegradable plastics can be decisive for the maritime environmental protection, as they are also involved in the production of professional products such as fishing, fish farming and beach equipment, which are likely to be dispersed.

This topic is a subject of major interest not only in Europe: recently, in fact, the ASTM (American Society for Testing Materials) and the ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) have published new testing methods intended for the assessment of the biodegradation at sea.

In conclusion, the marine litter has been put on the full environmental agenda containing all the issues which should be faced at global scale, considering that – as evidenced by the conference held in Siena – the plastic waste moves from one continent to another in an impressive way.

UNEP, Biodegradable Plastics and Marine Litter.

Misconceptions, concerns and impacts on marine environments; tinyurl.com/zzdabof

Open-Bio research consortium, www.biobasedeconomy. eu/research/open-bio/

57

58

renewablematter 09. 2016

Focus on Wine

When Luxury Goes Hand in Hand with

by Sergio Ferraris

SUSTAINABILITY

Not just residues of citrus, coffee, kiwi, maize and hazelnuts.

Now grape pomace too becomes part of the production process of paper, replacing up to 15% of cellulose. Result? A high-quality paper able to enhance the sustainability content of a whole product, including its packaging. Even in the luxury goods sector.

Upcycling upon upcycling. This is how we could define the new upcycling experience carried out by Favini based on the use of wine pomace after the distillation process

for the production of paper: the new Crush Uva. But this is a story, like all those about the circular economy that must be told

Case Studies

year and about 10 million turnover yearly.

“Since the 70s, for us, grape pomace with its components, skins and grape seeds is no longer waste”. The former is used as animal feed and the latter is sent to oil mills, where grapeseed oil is manufactured in the food and cosmetics sectors.”

Andrea Manzoli

Sergio Ferraris, an environmental and scientific journalist, is director of QualEnergia.it.

properly, starting in the Veneto vineyards, known for their “historic” wines such as Pinot and Merlot, near Bassano del Grappa. Because it is here that our bunch of grapes, whether it is white or red, starts its journey: from vineyard rows to paper. Jumping from one sector to the next and producing “cascade value” every step of the way as Gunter Pauli, The Blue Economy’s father would say. The first step is grape harvest, followed by pressing to obtain must which will turn into wine.

This wine is already part of a local identity.

Its residue, the wine marc, in a mix between tradition and innovation, offers a different product, grappa, whose by-products – we had better call them like this – have had a life of their own for years. “The pomace we use to distil our products (grappas, liqueurs, digestifs and aperitifs, editor’s note), after being processed has had a life of its own for years” as Andrea Mazzoli says – director of Nardini, the historical distillery, founded in 1779, 50 employees, 3,800 hectolitres produced every

To give you an idea of what Nardini does in quantitative terms we need to consider that the incoming raw material is represented by 10 million kilos of grape pomace with a yield of distillate between 3.2 and 3.8% in continuous plants and 4% in discontinuous ones, which we could regard as historical factories. The yield of secondary raw materials, i.e. by products, is 20%.

Once the distillation is over, a dealcoholized grape pomace is obtained which is then sent to a drying kiln: here warm air is blown until it is dried with a humidity lower than 10%, after this skins (which are ground) are separated from seeds and the secondary raw materials are sent to a new life. The process is renewable.

Because 20% of secondary raw material is used to generate the necessary heat for the drying and once this is finished it will heat up the offices.

“A few years back, for energy production we used the woody part of seeds from the oils mills after extracting oil” adds Manzoli. “Since to extract oil a solvent is necessary, to generate heat we preferred to use part of the skins and seeds before oil separation.” This decision is significant, though, because in the rising industrial production chains of the circular economy every piece of the puzzle must fall into a specific place. In order to do so, a systemic view is necessary, able to assess the value chain, with its environmental implications, along all the new production chains.

Contrary to what one may think, this process has some economic value. The 2 million kilos of secondary raw materials produced every year are worth €15 to 17 per 100 kilos – totalling between €300,000 and 340,000 – which is constantly rising due to the possibility of its energy use as well.

But let’s go back to our journey: skins and seeds are at a crossroads. Cosmetics and animal farming against paper and perhaps energy.

But actually there is no real competition.

“The process used by Nardini is not so widespread as one may think” claims Achille Monegato, Favini’s director of the research department. “Others, most distillers, do not dry pomace, at best they us it to produce biogas

59

60

renewablematter 09. 2016 or as soil improver, or they sell it wet, after dealcoholizing it, a state that makes it unusable for the production of paper. Nardini understood that by drying grape pomace, it would give it a second life and it would become, as it happened, a new source of income.” Singing from the same song sheet in a panorama of small players, such as distilleries, can be a problem, not least because few are large enough to buy a drying kiln. “We would like to cooperate with Nardini which is a top distillery and a very strong brand,” adds Monegato. “With this experience we could create another market, through the use in the paper factory of dealcoholized and dried grape pomace, increasing the price since demand is growing. In this way a new production chain could be created, because at that point distillers would have to equip themselves with drying kilns.”

From Grapes to Paper Crush Uva falls within the wider picture of Crush papers produced by Favini with waste and by-products from agro industrial processing. Such secondary raw materials replace up to 15% of cellulose from plants. Up until now, residues from citrus, cherries, lavender, maize, olives, coffee, kiwi, hazelnuts, almonds and grapes are used and rescued from landfills.

Crush paper is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified and is almost entirely produced with renewable energy. It is OGM-fee and contains 30% of post-consumer recycled material. In this way it has a 20%-reduced carbon footprint compared to ordinary papers.

It is imperative that we should use raw materials, even second raw materials, leaving the food sector unaffected. In other words, no material directly intended as food must be employed to produce paper.

So, supply chains are intersecting each other, but carefully and gently, because many factors come into play when it comes to industrial systems. Favini’s rationale, where Crush Uva is just one of the kinds of paper used as secondary raw materials, is clear. It is imperative that we should use raw materials, even second raw materials, leaving the food sector unaffected. In other words, no material directly intended as food must be employed to produce paper. “If everything, process and material, moves in the direction of the circular economy, it is then clear that our journey does not make much sense – continues Monegato – but if only one fraction of the existing quantity of some material – such

Case Studies as grape pomace – is reused, then our intervention makes sense. And a market is also created.”

The amount of pomace-derived matter present in the new Favini’s paper is 15%, which improves the product’s LCA, because in this way high-quality matter is replaced with a by-product from another production chain through an upcycling process.

The great challenge for these kinds of paper, which pose no problems for their technical management as they can be treated as the normal ones for the printing and paper processing phases, is to be “grasped” from a “cultural” viewpoint. The most appreciated Info www.favini.com

Grape pomace and Sundries With reference to this new industrial production chain the type of secondary raw material necessary to distilleries should also be taken into account: grape marc. Red grape pomace has a higher yield, both in terms of skins and seeds that are more abundant. The colour only concerns paper factories and not oil or feed mills. Pomace must arrive at the distillery within 24 hours from pressing, for if not its distinctive characteristics will be lost and the onset of mould growth occurs. For this reason, the supply chain must be short. Nardini gets its supplies between the Brenta and Piave, and the process must work around the grape harvest season, first the white vine variety such as Pinot and then the reds such as Cabernet and Merlot. Once the grape pomace reaches the distillery, between August and the end of October, it is put into silos, pressed to take air away and fermentation begins in an anaerobic environment where a mushroom, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, turns sugar into alcohol. Then distillation occurs according to pomace type. This is the reason why if a paper mill like Favini needed white skins it would have to collect them between October and November, when Pinot is distilled. Intersecting agricultural and industrial supply chains with their differing deadlines and methods is quite something.

novelty is the tactile and visual aspects.

Indeed, Crush Uva is light grey with little dots on the background, a peculiarity of the by-products used. “Since the very beginning, we decided not to purify it of whiten it with additional chemical processes, leaving it as it is with its “imperfections” which are sending a message.” So, the challenge is to offer a material that would allow the wine sector to step up the marketing and image front, by resorting to the circular economy.

That is packing a product with paper embodying material deriving from its own very sector.

It is a challenge that has been accepted by none other than Champagne. As it happens, Crush Uva has been selected for the packaging of “Naturally Clicquot 3” new champagne line by the French maison Veuve Clicquot. “Wine has a great appeal and to be able to associate our paper to wines, even high-quality ones, represent a very good opportunity where the concepts of creative reuse of materials find an ideal combination” Favini’s CEO Eugenio Eger claims. In the work done with Veuve Clicquot, the objective was to create a kind of packaging for a new product that had to be in line with the high-profile and distinguished image of the French company which has some specific features even within the champagne producing sector. “Veuve Clicquot’s aim is not the distinguished glittery and metallic image of most champagne producers, but it boasts its unique characteristics that sets it apart from all others” adds Eger. “It would have been impossible to carry out this kind of operation only five years ago. I was utterly impressed when I met with Veuve Clicquot’s marketing department.

They were very daring, they made a very brave leap in changing drastically the glossy set up of their image.” The impression that one gets by looking at “Naturally Clicquot’s” packaging is that they wanted to embark on a unifying journey between a more polished image and the natural character of the new product”, adds Eger. “It is obvious – he claims – that they perceived that the eco sustainability connotation is a rewarding element even within the luxury products realm and the French company is now the forerunner of a rationale that could spill into other goods’ sectors.”

But there is more. One of the four corners of the box is devoted to the brief and effective explanation with info graphics about the process necessary to produce it.

It is a clear choice. To give tangible value to the content of sustainability as a whole, packaging included. Now the big challenge is to spread this logic to the rest of the wine sector, starting from labels and promotional material and by developing a marketing rationale where eco sustainable content becomes a message. Actually, the content itself, thanks to its ecological characteristics becomes part and parcel of the message.

61

62

renewablematter 09. 2016

Focus on Wine

Repairing Your Teeth with a Bunch of

by Rudi Bressa

Rudi Bressa, environmental journalist and naturalist, deals with renewable energy, circular economy and sustainability.

BARBERA

New products for surgery, orthopaedics and cosmetics are manufactured from wine marc and grape seeds. An example of how the bioeconomy becomes a reality, saving resources, promoting local habitat and innovating a whole sector.

It has all the ingredients to become a successful story. We are talking about Nobil Bio Ricerche, a Piedmont-based business located in Portacomaro, in the Asti area, that for over twenty years has specialized in the sector of dental implant materials. Indeed, the company

has made research and innovations its strong suit, but with an edge, namely that of sustainability and recovery of raw materials. In a nutshell, the bioeconomy.

So, Nobil Bio Ricerche is ready to launch on the market its new bone filler – that used in dental implantology – containing polyphenols,

Case Studies

The aim of the circular economy is to reduce waste while protecting the environment, but it also implies a profound transformation of how our entire economy works.

extracted from pomace from wine-making processes typical of the Piedmont hills.

Thanks to the polyphenol molecules’ characteristics, the filler is to stimulate bone regeneration, speeding up post-operation recovery period, both in dentistry and surgery.

The wine-producing sector, in this case that of the Asti region, suddenly becomes not just a high quality wine production area, but a mine of raw materials in its own right.

Because from what up until now has been considered waste or a by-product, it is currently possible to extract a series of important molecules for those processes improving human health and consequently life quality.

Circular Economy, When Waste Becomes a Resource Let’s talk about the circular economy. Such an economy extracts fewer raw materials and recovers them through widespread collection and recycling. In such context, there is no waste, but only new materials to reuse in increasingly innovative and innovating sectors.

“If on the one hand for our applications we need marginal quantities of wine pomace, on the other it shows how heaps of ‘waste’ produced every year can represent true mines of precious materials,” explains Marco Morra, Nobil Bio Ricerche CEO. “A molecular science of waste is being developed. In this way, a new perception of waste is being created, mainly because of all the molecules it can contain.”

It is no coincidence that, last December, the European Commission adopted a new package of measures to help European businesses and consumers to carry out the transition towards a circular economy.

“Our planet and our economy will not survive if we carry on following the motto ‘take, transform, throw away’” Vice-Chairman Frans Timmerman – in charge of the sustainable development – declared in a note. “Resources are precious and are to be conserved, exploiting their potential economic value to the full.

The aim of the circular economy is to reduce waste while protecting the environment, but it also implies a profound transformation of how our entire economy works.

63

64

renewablematter 09. 2016

The Effects of Polyphenols

% of new bone 70%

60%

50%

DREAMER PASTE

40%

WHITE PASTE 30%

VOID

20%

10%

0%

Polyphenols and the fight against aging Polyphenols are just organic natural molecules contained in many vegetable species, boasting effective antioxidant properties and the ability to contain free radicals. The latter are present in the cells and products, for example during an inflammation in order to fight pathogens. ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species), which is another name for free radicals, though, often attack healthy cells, damaging tissues.

Hence skin aging or diseases such as pyorrhoea, ascribable to an excessive production of free radicals.

In this case, scientific literature1 has been working for years to demonstrate how polyphenols, contained in wine as well, are able to reduce the so-called oxidative stress, thus preventing cellular aging.

1. Xia E. Q., G. F. Deng, Y. J. Guo, H. B. Li, “Biological Activities of Polyphenols from Grapes”, The International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 11, 622-646, 2010 (doi: 10.3390/ ijms11020622); Palaska I., E. Papathanasiou, T. Theoharides, “Use of polyphenols in periodontal inflammation”, The European Journal of Pharmacology, 720, 77-83, 2013 (doi: 10.1016/j. ejphar.2013.10.047).

Let’s rethink the way in which we produce, work and buy: we will create new opportunities and new jobs. The current package represents the general framework that will allow such transformation. It puts forward a credible and ambitious path for a better waste management in Europe, backed up by actions concerning the whole products cycle; it embodies both a smart set of rules and regulations and EU-level incentives that will help businesses and consumers – but also national and local authorities – lead such transformation.”

This is what Nobil Bio Ricerche decided to do, supporting not only research, but the creation of Innuva, an outright association of local companies for the promotion and application of polyphenols extracted from grape processing, which today are essentially thrown away or used to produce energy. “The association stems from a collaboration between Nobil Bio Ricerche and Uni-Astiss university hub” claims engineer Giorgio Iviglia, company researcher. “It is a project started to disseminate the discoveries and acquired knowledge not only to the biomedical community, but also to other sectors, such as the cosmetic, nutraceutical or textile ones. Founded two years ago, the association’s aim is to bring together all those companies basing their business on the circular economy, to give a new life to wine-making by-products, thus obtaining new ones.”

Innovation and a relationship with the local area is key, while keeping in contact with the rest of the industrial sector and research.

“With this association we would like to act as an example also for other movements that may be created in the area for the reuse of by-products from sectors other than the wine-making” concludes Iviglia.

Info www.nobilbio.it

Case Studies Interview

edited by Rudi Bressa

DOC Polyphenols Marco Morra, Nobil Bio Ricerche CEO

At Nobil Bio Ricerche, Dr. Morra, together with his wife, Dr. Clara Cassinelli, focused on science, chemistry and nature. Result: an innovative polyphenol-based bone filler and an aging cream derived from Barbera and Grignolino grapes.

How did you come to this new innovative product?

“At Nobil Bio Ricerche we decided to develop new products, always linked to oral implantology.

In this case we developed bone fillers, able to promote the formation of new bone.

Building on the existing scientific literature, we realized that quite a substantial amount of studies on the effects of polyphenols on bone regeneration is available.

Hence the idea to develop a bone filler containing polyphenols, in our case recovered from wine pomace. The biological properties of such substances is an advanced research field at world level and our work is the result of that.”

How can this new product affect dentistry and surgery?

“Such product could speed up bone regeneration and consequently reduce the duration – by about six months – of such operation. In particular we believe it could be useful in patients suffering from gum disease, namely loss of tooth-supporting tissues. On the basis of scientific evidence, polyphenols fight free radicals, one of the causes of such pathology. This is why we reckon it could be a material of choice for these people.”

Besides dentistry are you also working on cosmetics?

“Yes. On the basis of the results achieved

in this field we developed a passion for polyphenols’ properties. We thus decided to create Poliphenolia, a company exploiting their molecular properties in the field of anti-aging creams, recovering polyphenols from wine-making residues. We would like to work on a solid scientific base, linking a particular class of polyphenols to a specific territory.”

As a kind of controlled designation of origin for polyphenols?

“Precisely. So much so that the packaging of our creams will carry a QR code which could be read by electronic devices, referring back to the specific vineyard or producer. This will not only create traceability, but also a kind of common business with the territory.”

So, we will have a cream made from Barbera or Grignolino?

“Actually it will be made with what is left from the wine-making process, such as skins and seeds. Indeed, a great deal of molecules ends up in wines. We extract what is left on the basis of a certain wine-making process.

So, on the basis of some experiments carried out by us, from Grignolino we can extract smaller molecules, which are more user friendly and which we will use, for example, for eye creams.”

On the one hand we have territoriality, such as the Piedmont wines’ region, on the other research and development.

Is it a successful combination?

“Yes. It is no coincidence that the key words we use at Poliphenolia are ‘anti-aging creams from science and territory.’ Science, because we want to excel: we talk about chemistry, we want to know these substances in order to use them. As for the territory, we would like to collaborate with the rest of Italy and the world, perhaps producing a cream with Chilean pomace, thus containing specific Chilean characteristics. Our approach is to study, understand and formulate a cream to exploit the characteristics we encounter to the full.”

Is the industrial world ready for this type of products?

“I think so, because it is about a subject that is becoming increasingly popular. People are certainly more aware of it and others are working on it. We intend to focus on the scientific side.”

65

66

renewablematter 09. 2016

Focus on Wine

DEVINE Land

by Sergio Ferraris

How to advertise and promote the excellence of a territory and its product – wine – with quality packaging which respects sustainability.

Comieco has launched a challenge to promote a product and a territory through sustainable packaging. What makes this endeavor even more interesting is the fact that the territory in question is a UNESCO World Heritage site, located in a country like Italy which possesses the greatest number of such sites: 51 as compared to China, which comes in second with 48.

We’re talking about the Piedmont LangheRoero and Monferrato wine region, which was declared a World Heritage Site in mid-2014.

“After eleven years of hard work, it meant so much when UNESCO recognized the economic and cultural identity of a territory that consists of 101 municipalities in six areas, for a total of 10,000 hectares in the core zone, and 76,000 in the buffer zone” explains Roberto Cerrato, director and site

Case Studies manager of The Vineyard Landscape of LangheRoero and Monferrato Heritage Association which manages the UNESCO area. “We immediately saw signs of how awareness and recognition of Southern Piedmont has changed at the global level. In addition, the decision was made to study a proposal for sustainable cellulose packaging – consisting entirely of paper and recycled cardboard – for the vineyard sector in this area.

In this way, vinicultural excellence is promoted along with a prestigious territory, and the circular economy.”

“This initiative was started because we believed that developing the advertising and promotion of this territory’s quality through business in the viniculture sector – which is also top-notch – could be a very interesting opportunity,” said Carlo Montalbetti, CEO of Comieco, The National Consortium for the Recovery and Recycling of Cellulose-based Packaging. “Naturally, we started off with the premise that the cardboard sector in that specific industry is rather significant.”

In fact, Italy’s entire national winemaking industry foresees the use of about 500,000 tonnes of cardboard for boxes, per year. So that’s how packaging – and not just wine – can become an ambassador for our country. In fact, a great amount of Italian wine is exported. In the first semester of 2015, the wine crossing Italian borders had a value of €2.5 billion. And Barolo is on the same path: 80% of its production goes abroad.

“Even eco-sustainability goes hand in hand with wine”, continues Montalbetti. “90% of wine packaging is made from recycled paper and cardboard, which often originates from differentiated recycling. Packaging bulk has decreased considerably over the span of the last ten years, yet all the requirements regarding strength and safety continue to be fully adhered to. This decrease has allowed us to save 1.2 million tons of raw/secondary material over these years.”

For Comieco, dealing with packaging from the start does not represent a change of course. “This is innovation, not a change in direction; for some time now, the consortium has been very active on the lines of advertising and raising awareness, which we consider to be a strategic move”, explains Montalbetti. “And it seemed to us that introducing this kind of eco-sustainable initiative in a UNESCO site with these characteristics would be truly effective. This hasn’t just been a technical experience, because when you talk about companies, territories, economies (classic and circular ones in this case), excellence, landscapes, citizens and eco-sustainability, you need to take a very broad approach, without preconceptions, presumptions, or pre-established models of any kind. This is exactly what the E.r.i.c.a. cooperative has been doing over the past twenty years, through its work in waste management, environmental sustainability, risk prevention, the water cycle,

energy, organic farming, and eco-sustainable communications. E.r.i.c.a. is the project’s leading proponent: besides carrying out a study on wine producers, it also handled communications.

It started with a study of the site’s six components, which is described in a UNESCO dossier with over a thousand pages”.

“We guided the actors in this territory throughout the whole candidacy process” says Elena Berattino, a researcher at SITI (Higher Institute on Territorial Systems for Innovation), which was set up by the Politecnico of Torino and the Compagnia San Paolo. “This stage involved meeting all the subjects present in the territory. During an international meeting, the fact that the European Commission gives quite a lot of attention to circular economies emerged, and that’s how we came up with the idea to join sustainability and packaging, in order to reduce waste and boost communication between Comieco ed E.r.i.c.a.”.

Of the six protected areas, four are characterized by an interweaving of grape varieties, habitats, and winemaking techniques: “Langa del Barolo”, “Colline del Barbaresco”, “Nizza Monferrato and Barbera”, and “Canelli and Asti Spumante”, all well-known realities at an international level. The other two areas, instead, represent wine locations: “Monferrato degli Infernot” – typical

67

68

renewablematter 09. 2016

underground spaces used for storing bottled wine, that have been carved out of sandstone rock and are characterized by the absence of light and direct ventilation – and “Castello di Grinzane Cavour”, a legend in the history of Piedmont viniculture.

“The first consideration about the project which we shared with Comieco was on the possibility of promoting a territory by describing it through its sustainability features” says Enrico Di Nola, project manager of the E.r.i.c.a. cooperative.

“And to do that, it was essential to involve all the actors who are active in the territory, and launch a study on similar experiences – or ones that could be assimilated – which are already present at the global level. When considering labels, wrapping, and finally packaging for transportation and sales, the panorama of wine producers who use paper as secondary packaging material (in the majority of cases glass is the primary material) is quite varied. For example, there’s the Churchill’s label in Portugal, which has become a high-impact graphic symbol: designed by Interbrand, it shows black and white aerial images of the Douro valley – another UNESCO winemaking site. Then there is Greenyard Winery in the U.S., whose shipping and sales boxes are made out of recycled cardboard: designed by Luis Espinoza, they can be assembled and used for both display and shipping thanks to their hexagonal shape. Another example is

the packaging for bottles of Waddesdon Wine’s ‘The Rothschild Collection’ in the UK. Designed

by Paul Belford, it’s printed with a map of the historic castle and outlying land where this wine is produced.

After this stage we focused on understanding what the real needs of winemaking companies were, in terms of packaging. An online questionnaire, whose questions regarded two top wines per winery (98, in total), provided us with a factual foundation in terms of packaging. What emerged was that primary packaging is 99% glass, while secondary packaging consists of boxes that hold six bottles, which usually include the winery’s brand name and other information. We also asked about a hundred producers if they would be interested in sustainable packaging, and whether they would want there to be information about the fact that a wine comes from a UNESCO site”, explains Enrico Di Nola. “The response was very positive, also because what emerged from the study is that besides ‘typical’ information – like the names of the production site, the producer’s website and the QR code – there usually isn’t much of anything else on labels and boxes. Only in rare cases can you find maps, graphic references and photographs which describe the places and territories where a wine is produced. In terms of advertising, the Langhe-Roero and Monferrato

Case Studies winemaking region in Piedmont is a territory yet to be discovered.

The study then took off on two different, yet parallel, paths. The first regarded the need for streamlining cellulose packaging and making it sustainable. Comieco therefore provided two tools: a “Checklist for the environmental and social design of paper and cardboard packaging” prepared by Università Iuav in Venice, and “Guidelines for ‘good’ shipments that avoid food waste: from packaging to transport” which was prepared by Slow Food in collaboration with DHL Express. The second tangent concerned the use of packaging surfaces as an advertising tool for promoting a territory’s identity and sustainability, and for creating product awareness. In this regard, the study also provided a series of proposals on what packaging can offer in terms of advertising.”

“This initiative represents one more step forward, as it enables us to discover the possibility of being recognizable through our packaging – just as other regions do throughout the world, with wines that are less prestigious than ours, but that are more easily recognizable due to their packaging.

Besides sustainability and advertising, the aim of all this work is to create benefits for the entire region, and ensure that there won’t be added costs for winemaking companies”, concludes Cerrato.

Info www.comieco.org

“Our participation in this initiative involved making our membership base available” – states Andrea Ferrero, director of the Barolo and Barbaresco producers association, which has 500 members that produce about 60 million bottles a year, with a turnover of over 250 million euros. “And the fact that we’re talking about sustainable packaging is an important plus, because many companies are starting to side with the philosophy of sustainability for reasons that go above and beyond UNESCO recognition – though that’s certainly important”.

According to the consortium, over 70% of the represented companies may participate in this initiative. Because one thing that people feel is lacking in the UNESCO area is the presence of broader and more centralized advertising, for example at the national level. In this sense, sustainable packaging could be an interesting stimulus for these wines, which – more and more – are produced in energetically efficient wineries that use renewable resources.

Now, the floor goes to them: to the winemaking companies.

To check whether a plan on paper can actually evolve into wine packaging, all of the actors involved believe that a phase of dissemination is needed: the idea is to launch this initiative at the National Festival of Ecology and the Circular Economy, which will take place in Alba, Italy, from 20-22 May 2016.

Slow Food, “Guidelines for ‘Good’ Shipments That Avoid Food Waste: From Packaging to Transport”; tinyurl.com/zr8u2z6

National Festival of Ecology and the Circular Economy, Alba 20-22 May 2016; festivalecologia. wordpress.com

69

70

renewablematter 09. 2016

TYRES GALORE

Milan-New York, there and back: this is the distance that – if placed in a row – the tyres recovered each year by Ecopneus would cover.

59% is transformed in new materials used in flooring for football fields and gyms or in road infrastructure and street furniture.

But also for buildings, as shown by the redevelopment of the former ENAOLI’s church in Rispescia.

Case Studies

by Emanuele Bompan

From a screeching noise to the muffled silence in a church. That of recycled tyres is a crucial parable, in the latest project

by Ecopneus, a non profit company for ELTs (End-of-life tyres), made of six main tyre producers operating in Italy – Bridgestone, Continental, Goodyear Dunlop, Marangoni, Michelin and Pirelli – that over time have been joined by an additional 55 production or import businesses.

It all started last summer when Ecopneus, in collaboration with Legambiente and thanks to the planning and coordination by Vie En.Ro.Se Ingegneria, promoted the acoustic refurbishment of former ENAOLI’s church in Rispescia, in the Grosseto area, using also panels made with materials derived from recycled tyres. The work in the church, set within Legambiente’s National centre for sustainable development “Il Girasole”, one of the experimentation and promotion centres for innovative technologies, showed – after a series of studies – the potential of recycled rubber for acoustic refurbishment of buildings.

Indeed, before the acoustic refurbishment, the building had a reverberation time three times higher than optimal levels, i.e. on average 3.35 seconds at 500-2,000 Hz. As a result, the sound was confused, therefore the space was almost unusable for conferences and events. Starting from recycled rubber from ELTs, used in combination with other materials, 8 curved panels were obtained, characterized by one completely sound absorbing side and one reflecting side, placed on a mobile structure on wheels. On the ceiling, instead, 36 sound absorbing panels were hung onto the roof beams, without hiding the wooden A-frames and the brick ceiling. To finish it all off, some vegetable panels were used (Smart Acoustic Green) made of Cladonia Arbuscola, a species originally from Scandinavian countries, able to do well in enclosed environments, with little or no light at all.

The result was astounding, with a performance beyond any expectations. Reverberation went down to 0.96 seconds in the configuration of maximum acoustic absorption.

And Legambiente’s party was a success.

The Rispescia’s church is only the latest innovation project by Ecopneus showing the value of recycled rubber in various applications. Over the last months, new projects have started: a 400 sqm2 play area, “Peppa Pig’s World”, in the Leolandia amusement park, in the Bergamo area.

Then the Greenrail railway ties, reducing by 50% railways maintenance costs and increasing the product life span (50 years as opposed to 30/40 of concrete). And again: the spread of flooring for horses, essential for the animals’ wellbeing and that of riders, thanks to the reduction of the risks of exposure to black lung, a pulmonary disease linked to sand dust.

A Type of Rubber for Every Season “The project developed in the Legambiente park clearly shows the value of a recycled product, adopted within a context where its unique characteristics and performing qualities are valued” explains engineer Giovanni Corbetta, Ecopneus’ general director.

“In the circular economy, using materials in sectors where distinctive qualities are not valued is pointless. We receive many proposals by companies, inventors and R&D. But they often use rubber as secondary material, which can be replaced by other ones. This is not what we believe in.”

Today Ecopneus relies on three sectors where the circular economy of rubber shows its best potential and exploits the matter’s own characteristics: sport and outdoor activities (football fields, play areas, race-tracks and gyms) road infrastructure (rubber mixed with bitumen) and lastly the building sector, in particular urban renovation and acoustic insulation.

After all, “raw material” is abundant. Every year, Ecopneus alone recovers about 250,000 tonnes of ELTs, the equivalent in weight of about 30 million tonnes of car tyres.

An important figure: if placed in a row, the tyres would form a strip over 13,000 km long, twice the distance between Milan and New York. Overall, Ecopneus’ production chain employs 100 businesses, including 15 for energy recovery.

71

72

renewablematter 09. 2016 All uses of recycled rubber to redevelop the building industry Sound dampening products for acoustic insulation of floors They are systems based on the interposition between the top layer and the bottom structure (the floor) of a layer made of elastic material (normally between 2 and 20 mm thick), which allows to break their “jointness”.

Cavity products for acoustic insulation of walls The interposition of a rubber layer in cavity brick walls, a solution more suited for new buildings, enables to diminish the loss of insulation caused by cavity resonance.

Generally, a 20 mm thick recycled rubber mat is used.

Products for damping the vibration phenomena of industrial machineries, hydraulic and mechanic systems and their components; products for insulation of buildings’ foundations To obtain the damping of such vibrations, the resilient material must have excellent elastic and damping properties,

as well as good mechanical strength under pressure. Such characteristics make recycled rubber an important resource for the production of anti-vibration products. Anti-vibration bases in recycled rubber, besides guaranteeing high levels of elasticity, enables to obtain reduced installation height of machineries, thus guaranteeing fewer encumbrances in the building.

Info www.ecopneus.it

Adhesive Strips Usually they are sold in 5 cm to 70 cm width rolls – smaller compared to sound dampening rolls – they are used to separate floors from partitions with a resilient layer. In this way vibrations and noises normally travelling through the solid components to go from one place to another are dampened by the elastic layer. The dampening effect of such technology also helps to avoid sound propagation between the two layers of the double walls.

How Tyres Enter Homes If the use of rubber as granulate, powder or shredded has gained some popularity, in the sports/play area segment (43% of the market), asphalt and street furniture (31%), in the building sector there is still a long way to go. Today, only 4% of the total recycling material is used for houses and buildings.

But the success of the church in the former ENAOLI area reveals interesting opportunities.

“We have confirmed that rubber is perfect as acoustic insulation and anti-vibration material” explains Daniele Fornai, head of Ecopneus’ Development of uses and regulations.

A sector with strong growth potential with at least four acoustic panels producers obtained with recycled material in Italy, with a know-how envied by other European countries. So much so that a large share of panels produced in Italy is used abroad, thus confirming the value of made-in-Italy products. “Italy is becoming a leader in this sector, thanks to the quality of panels,” Fornai adds. “Multilayered products are being manufactured, able to manage even complex acoustic and thermal issues, especially in industrial and civil buildings.”

Although often neglected, in Italian cities the acoustic issue remains key. According to ISPRA, as much as 42.6% of noise sources subject to checks, over the past years, exceeded at least

Case Studies The higher the value of ELTs the easier it will be to talk people out of discarding tyres or burning them illegally.

on one occasion the legal limits. But the engineering and real estate world shrug their shoulders. The acoustic problems have not been taken into great consideration even by sustainable building certification consortia.

But something is changing. “In the #4 version of LEED protocol drawn up by the USGreen Building Council – the American association promoting sustainability in the building sector – the acoustic aspect gained an importance that before was only peculiar to school buildings.

Within the protocol there is a criterion – Acoustic Performance – covering an assessment of background noises of the HVAC (heating and cooling) system, of acoustic insulation and reverberation time,” explains architect Paola Moschini, LEED AP for Macro Design Studio, a consulting firm on sustainability. “A sign showing the growing attention towards acoustic wellbeing not only by architects and town planners but also by world-famous systems of sustainability evaluation.”

The Future of Rubber So, if matter performance will continue to be exploited, the demand for recycled rubber from ELTs is bound to grow. “We look carefully to the residential sector, where the volumes can become really important” Corbetta points out.

With significant environmental returns.

“The higher the value of ELTs the easier it

will be to talk people out of discarding tyres or burning them illegally. Like copper: who throws copper away?”

Of course, ELT-derived rubber, like many other materials from waste is a bone of contention between cement factories and recovery material companies. Currently, considering the quantity actually recovered, 41% of ELTs collected is used for energy recovery, while 59% is transformed in new materials such as granules, steel and rubber powders. Energy recovery is simpler and benefits from a constant demand.

“Those dealing with energy recovery are always looking for alternative fuels, also in waste.

But we prefer materials’ recovery” adds Corbetta. “Because it is established by law but also to promote a circular economy, keeping the value of recycled rubber high. In the future, this will help support an integrated production cycle (with the tyre producing companies): rubber powders derived from ELTs will increasingly be used in the blends for new tyres for cars and lorries.”

At the moment, actually, the integrated cycle is not complete due to a devulcanization which is not entirely efficient. “But we trust that in the next few years it will improve significantly,” adds Corbetta, confident about the rapid progress of research. Rubber’s unique characteristics and performance make it too precious a material to be used as a “mere” energy source.

Rubber’s unique characteristics and performance make it too precious a material to be used as a “mere” energy source.

73

74

renewablematter 09. 2016

FUELS:

The Battle of Cement Factories

For many environmentalists using waste in cement manufacturing plants means moving away from Target Zero Waste. While – according to AITEC – the use of secondary solid fuels already avoids the emission of over 300,000 tons of CO2 per year.

by Roberto Rizzo

Roberto Rizzo is a science journalist. He is specialized in energy and environmental issues and since 2010 has taught in a Master’s of Scientific Journalism at SISSA of Trieste.

One of Renewable Matter’s objectives is to open a dialogue on sensitive and difficult subjects, where environmentalists and industrialists can have opposite views. The use in cement plants of waste-derived alternative fuels is one of such bones of contention. Those in favour of the elimination of incinerators and landfills to reach Target Zero Waste see in the use of waste in cement factories a surreptitious way to promote its production and energy recovery, while believing that this should be discouraged at all costs. On the other hand, there are those who are convinced that using waste in cement plants is more appropriate, because these industries are constantly checked, rather than landfilling it. Anyhow, cement factory kilns need fuel (and communities should be concerned about emissions to the chimneys, rather the type of fuel used).

On the other hand, the European Commission in the BAT (Best Available Techniques) reference document, regarding cement production states: “Several types of waste can replace raw materials and/or fossil fuels

in the cement manufacturing industry, thus contributing to saving natural resources.”

Everybody seems to agree on one thing: the cement factory is certainly not the solution for the integrated closure of waste cycle.

But could it represent a currently untapped contribution? Cement factories’ managers would certainly save on fuel costs (how much they will save would depend on the purchased waste and on local market characteristics). But how much would the community gain?

Why Use CSS? In a cement plant, 60% of CO2 emissions derive from limestone decarbonation, made of calcium, carbon and oxygen. This process requires heat, necessary to disassociate limestone into calcium oxide and carbon dioxide.

If the CO2 emissions due to decarbonation are uncontrollable, it is still possible to reduce the remaining 40%, from the use of fossil fuels in the kiln.

The cement industry is energy intensive: to produce a tonne of clinker, between

Case Studies

3,200 and 4,200 MJ (Megajoule: the joule is a derived unit of energy, labour and heat); the main fossil fuel used in Italian cement plants is pet coke (or petroleum coke), a type of coal produced during the oil-refining process (in Italy it is imported mainly from the United States, Canada and Venezuela). On average, every year the Italian cement sector uses 2.3 million tonnes of non-renewable fossil fuel.

To give you an example, a cement factory producing 800,000 tonnes of clinker a year needs 80,000 tonnes of pet coke, for a total cost of around €8 million, according to the current market value for oil (the costs for electricity and heat energy represent around 40% of cement production costs).

The environmental costs are substantial too.

According to UNFCCC’s data (national inventory) on the factors for carbon dioxide emissions per fuel, pet coke emits about 100 t/TJ (terajoule) of CO2 as opposed to 56 t/TJ of methane gas and 76 t/TJ of fuel oil.

Here, alternative fuels come into play, in particular secondary solid fuels (CSS): CDR (waste-derived fuels), rubbers and plastics (waste material, called plasmix, from the recycled plastic production process), end-of-life tyres (ELTs), dried sludge from sewage treatment.

CSS are derived from the treatment of special non dangerous waste and the main environmental advantage lies in their biomass content, thanks to which CO2 emissions can be limited (this is because the organic matter absorbs carbon and gives it back when burnt: the balance is thus even. According to AITEC (Italian technical and economic association for cement) the use of alternative fuels in Italian cement factories, with the current use, avoids emissions of over 300,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

And here is where we have a few problems, because most environmentalists are against, without exceptions, energy recovery, because this means promoting the production of waste, while landfilling and energy recovery should he phased out. “Because there is a hierarchy of priorities regarding waste established by the European Union (in this order: prevention, reusing, recycling, energy recovery and landfilling), rather than landfilling it, it would be better to use it as a controlled and environmentally-friendly source energy” claims Daniele Gizzi, AITEC’s environmental manager.

“It does not make sense to say ‘no’ to CSS a priori if these fuels help reach the European targets, in particular I am referring to 5% of waste to be sent to landfills by 2030.”

Social Warning “Paradoxically – adds Gizzi – Europe’s cement manufacturing – Italy included – is based on recovered materials as a replacement for raw materials: ash and chemical gypsum, alumina powder, iron and steel, chemical and mine industries’ waste.

These are materials that can partially replace raw materials (limestone and clay), they go into the kiln and contribute to emissions.

In 2014, in Italy, such materials replaced about 6.6% (in mass) of raw materials: more or less the same as the rest of Europe. While, when it comes to burning waste, there is a social warning. Everybody knows the ‘Land of Fires,’ or incinerators, but obviously burning waste at 1,500 degrees (2,000 °C of flame temperature) in an industrial plant whose chimney emissions are checked by ARPA is a totally different kettle of fish.”

On average, every year, the Italian cement sector uses 2.3 million tonnes of non-renewable fossil fuel.

There are examples of waste management going in the direction intended by AITEC,

1,2,3 Aitec Sustainability Report (2009-2014) SPECIFIC EMISSIONS INTO THE ATMOSPHERE (kg/t clinker)

-25%

Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)

-15%

-32%

Sulphur Oxides (SOx)

Dust particles (PM10)

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

11 Mln t

of waste used as a replacement of raw materials

1.8 Mln t

alternative fuels derived from used waste

FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE

1.35 Mln t

of avoided CO2 thanks to the use of alternative fuels

75

renewablematter 09. 2016 How cement is produced

Alternative Fuel Use in Italy

Cement manufacturing occurs in industrial rotary kilns, up to 60 to 90 m long and about 6 m wide.

Here, clay and limestone are heated together at a flame temperature of about 2,000 °C. Clinker is thus formed, an artificial mineral coming out of the kiln at 1,500 °C and is then air-cooled.

Gypsum and ash from thermal power plants are then added to clinker.

The mix is then ground in order to obtain cement. To produce concrete, the conglomerate to construct buildings and infrastructure, water and gravel are added.

So, cement is concrete’s noble binding agent and is the most expensive part because its production requires industrial plants. But unlike what one may think, there are various types of cement: as many as 27, all with different chemical and physical characteristics, defined by law in UNI EN 197-1. In Italy, the cement industry chose CNR’s (National Centre for Research) Institute for technologies of construction as an external monitoring institution for the compliance with such regulations.

“In Italy, there are about forty operating cement factories, but due to the market crisis we are going through, a cut is underway with the unavoidable closure of worse-performing kilns” Daniele Gizzi claims. “I believe that the number of cement plants in Italy will diminish, in line with a demand that since 2007 has nearly halved due to the building sector crisis.”

Tons per year

2014

2012 2013 2014

17

2, 00

1 18 0

,2 6

7 19 0

,4 8

1

309,000 t alternative fuels total

13.3% heat replacement rate

50 End-of-life tyres

4

,6

13

04 8,

Plastics, rubbers

Sludge from sewage treatment

Non-chlorinated solvents

18 8 5

37 6,

Other liquid

83

69 ,3

13

10

13

6

2 27

3,

6,

,0

00

Used oils/oily emulsions

34

2

5 6

62

94 6,

,8

14

,1

09

CDR

67

15 ,6 15

19

,9

85

32

,8

55

39

,5

40

91

,5

,8

72

18

63

,1 9

7

235,000 t avoided CO2 (biomass)

10

76

Meat and bone meal and animal fats

Source: www.aitec-ambiente.org.

Info www.aitecweb.com

such as that in the Cuneo province, where the cement sector uses CSS. The fuel comes from local urban waste treatment plants produced in the province, where there are no incineration plants.

The involvement since the onset of the project in 2001 of all the stakeholders (administrations, private companies, citizens and environmental associations etc.) has made it a successful initiative shared by everyone. But repeating similar initiatives at local level is proving more and more complicated.

“Here there is another bureaucratic problem, namely authorizations. Cement plants are subject to AIA (Integrated environmental authorization) at regional or local level and in order to use alternative fuels they must apply for a change with their AIA. According to AITEC’s data, in Italy, the average period

of time for such authorization is 5 years, as opposed to the 6-18 months of France, Germany and Spain. One of the reasons why Italian cement plants use only 13% of alternative fuels (half the European average) stems from the fact that Italian entrepreneurs do not even apply for the modification with AIA because they know that they would be faced with a long-winded process.”

Alternative Fuels and the Environment AITEC also supports the use of CSS in cement factories for their environmental impact.

By law, cement factories can use CSS as an alternative to pet coke according to specifications that must be respected

by CSS providers.

“Because they have to produce cement, a CE-branded material that has to guarantee

Case Studies

its quality, cement kilns need a high quality level of fuel, well above that used in incinerators,” Gizzi explains. The Association entrusted the Milan Polytechnic with a research aimed at analysing the articles published in international technical-scientific magazines about polluting emissions in cement factories using alternative fuels and about the quality of produced cement. The Association has also provided data for three years of emissions in the cement factories of its own members.

Researchers concluded that there are no significant differences between fossil fuel emissions and alternative fuels. On some occasions, an improvement of NOx (nitrogen oxides) has been recorded when alternative fuels were used (NOx production in cement plants is generally higher compared to incinerators because combustion takes place at higher temperatures: 2,000 degrees compared to about 900). Another alarming

pollutant is dioxin, produced during combustion with chlorine. “We are often below the level of traceability of dioxin because we do our utmost to minimize the presence of chlorine in kilns” Daniele Gizzi explains.

“Indeed, cement cannot be marketed if the concentration of chlorine is higher than 0.1% and chlorine salts risk condensing, thickening on the refractory material (the internal surface of the kiln) only to damage it. As for dust particles, it is in our interest to recover them to reintroduce them in the production process: today fabric filters are used allowing a decrease and recovery between 95 and 99% of particles emitted. As to heavy metals, these are not volatile and are absorbed by clinker.

I would like to point out that cement factories do non generate ash or waste to be treated, as opposed to what happens in incinerators.”

Heat Replacement Rate – Comparison with Europe (2012)

CSS and the “End of Waste” ministerial decree

GERMANY

CZECH REPUBLIC

POLAND

UNITED KINGDOM

61%

54%

45%

44%

EU27 AVERAGE

FRANCE

SPAIN

ITALY

36%

30%

26%

10%

Source: WBCSI – CSI Cembureau 2012.

CSS UNI Classification and DM 22/2013 END OF WASTE

PARAMETERS

UNIT OF MEASURE

Pci

WASTE

CLASSES 1

2

3

4

5

Mj/kg t.q

≥ 25

≥ 20

≥ 15

≥ 10

≥3

Cl

% s.s

≤ 0.2

≤ 0.6

≤ 1.0

≤ 1.5

≤3

Hg

mg/Mj t.q

≤ 0.02

≤ 0.03

≤ 0.08

≤ 0.15

≤ 0.50

To be “End of Waste” the CSS must fall within class 3 (PCI, CL) and 2 (HG) Es. CSS [3,3,2], [3,2,1] etc.

Ministerial decree of 22/2013 regulated the CSS sector according to three chemical and physical characteristics: lower heating value (LHV), chlorine content and mercury content.

The innovative element of this decree is that certain CSS, with higher energy and environmental characteristics, if used in cement factories with over 500 tons/day nominal capacity of clinker production and thermal power plants with over 50 MW power capacity are no longer considered waste, but they become to all intents and purposes conventional fuels. Therefore, the decree applies the concept of “End of Waste”, which the European Union has already adopted for scrap metal, glass and copper. “According to us, the decree raised spurious criticism both in Italy and in Europe”, Gizzi claims.

“In some European countries, people fear that in Italy a CSS market will be created, since most CSS produced here are burnt in European cement plants. This happens in Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Austria. Here, they receive CSS produced in Italy, mainly from plants in the north, but not exclusively. Today, three years on from the publication of the decree, only three cement plants were granted an AIA for an ‘End of Waste.’ Any CSS becoming ‘End of Waste’ must be registered in the Reach Regulation and so far only one company has done so.

But it is not producing it because in Italy there is no demand.”

77

78

renewablematter 09. 2016

27 Million

MESSAGES

On a cruise liner, about 4 million cans are consumed every year.

Since 2007, 27 millions have been recovered, the equivalent of 334 tons of aluminium. But more can be done: the second phase of the “Message in a can� is already underway, promoted by CIAL and Costa, involving the municipality of Savona and the port authority.

Case Studies

by Roberto Giovannini

“Message in a can”, www.cial.it/news/ message-in-a-can/

But actually, considering that we are talking about a heap of aluminium cans patiently collected one after the other since 2007 on board Costa Crociere cruise ships, these are impressive numbers: a staggering 27 million cans, i.e. 334 tons of the precious metal.

Enough to make 37 high-speed railway carriages, or 221,000 desk lamps, or 43,500 car rims, or 722,000 3-cup coffee makers, or 300,000 5-mm thick professional pans or 33,400 bicycles similar to the famous Ricicletta, the recycled aluminium city bike.

And it’s all thanks to “Message in a can”, the collection campaign promoted by CIAL (Consorzio Imballaggi Alluminio, “Aluminium Packaging Consortium”) and Costa Crociere.

Now, nine years on, the programme has evolved and multiplied, involving the Port Authority and Savona’s citizens but above all it is targeted to the mobilization of social media.

The new phase of the initiative for the collection and recycling of soft drink cans on board cruise liners calling at Savona was presented during the last few weeks in the city itself.

“The project of separate waste collection and aluminium cans’ collection on cruise liners, which started successfully some years ago thanks to the collaboration between CIAL and Costa Crociere – commented Gian Luca Galletti, Minister for the Environment – has brought some benefits and results, both in economic and environmental terms.

This proves that it is extremely important to raise awareness on prevention of the generation of waste in every context, including that of the very important maritime sector.

This is a positive experience, that should inspire an increasingly efficient waste management system on ships, ferries, marinas and ports.” Naturally, the ministry

offered support and sponsorship to the programme.

Message in a can boasts three main activities: besides recycling aluminium from ships, it runs an awareness campaign aimed at Savona’s citizens to give the city a kind of urban fabric in recycled aluminium and another on the mobilization of social media.

Starting from 1st March and up until 30th June, in Savona, a poster will be hung explaining how to carry out a proper separate waste collection of aluminium packaging. During these four months’ campaign, the collection will rise by at least 25% compared to the same period in 2015, CIAL and Costa Crociere will give Savona three benches – produced with recycled aluminium – which will decorate one of the city’s parks.

Lastly, from 1st March to 6th June, “Message in a bottle” will reach the social media.

Instagram and Twitter users will be asked to share a snapshot with #messageinacan hashtag. The photo will have to be in line with “entrust a can with your message to save the planet”. The best photographer will win a Costa Crociere cruise for two people in the Mediterranean. While the three special mentions will be awarded a “Ricicletta”, CIAL’s recycled aluminium bicycle.

So far, the project proved very alluring: the collection modality and the recycling of aluminium from Costa ships in Savona represents a model of excellence in the maritime sector. Since the beginning of the project, the quantity of recovered aluminium has more than doubled, from 23.2 tonnes in 2007 to 48.6 in 2015. With a total of 334 tonnes of collected aluminium, equivalent exactly to 27 million of the traditional 33 cc cans.

Everything starts from the organization of the system of recovery of aluminium: on board the ships there are numerous waste

79

80

renewablematter 09. 2016

Info www.cial.it

The endless life of aluminium Aluminium is a metal that is used in a variety of ways. For example, thanks to its lightness and resistance to corrosion it is playing an increasingly important role in a high-impact sector such as that of transport. Suffice it to think that if in the 50s and 60s in a car there were on average 40 kg of aluminium, today this quantity is more than doubled and bodywork and chassis are now entirely produced in aluminium.

It is truly an ideal material to develop properly a circular economy. First of all, for costs: the raw material to produce aluminium is certainly not in short supply – bauxite is abundant, although not in Italy – but the key issue are production costs. To obtain a kilo of aluminium, a lot of energy is necessary, namely 13 Kilowatt/hour. Instead, by using recycled and recovered material, huge savings are achieved, up to 95%, let alone savings in terms of carbon dioxide emissions (9 tons of CO2 for each ton of aluminium produced).

Furthermore, aluminium can be 100% recycled an infinite number of times without ever incurring in losses of its original characteristics. This is good news for Italy that has no bauxite mines.

Figures are very clear: in 2014, thanks to recycling of 47,100 tonnes of packaging of aluminium, 402,000 tonnes of CO2 were avoided and 173,000 tonnes of oil equivalent energy were saved.

In Italy, aluminium collection and recovery from packaging has been entrusted with CIAL for over ten years. They have

a motto, which is also their target, “Zero landfills, 100% recovery.” This has been gradually extended to other possible sources, envisaging, together with separate waste collection, the consolidation of new modalities and aluminium recovery options: in mechanical biological treatment (MBT) for the production also of refuse derived fuel (RDF), caps and capsules from glass treatment plants and ash recovery plants.

In this field, CIAL’s work has been very successful: in 2014, 74% of aluminium from packaging was recovered, equalling 47,000 tonnes. A system regulated by a series of agreements and conventions between CIAL and ANCI (Associazione Nazionale Comuni Italiani, “Association of Italian Municipalities”), regulating the management and valorisation of aluminium waste from packaging from separate waste collection.

Municipalities do receive a very interesting economic incentive, compared to the quantity of collected and landfilled aluminium packaging waste, with an additional economic and environmental benefit from not landfilling.

Nevertheless, packaging represents only a minor component of the circulating aluminium: there is still a lot to do in order to exploit what could be defined as the very rich “urban mines” of secondary aluminium: the apparent overall loss, from industrial and urban uses of aluminium is 40%.

Case Studies

There is nothing better than aluminium cans whose recycle allows a 95% saving of the necessary energy to produce new metal.

collection points, both for passengers and crew alike, scattered in the entertainment areas, bars and restaurants, on outer decks but also where the crews work and rest.

Moreover, there are specific containers for aluminium cans, compacted directly on board, thanks to a machine every ship of the fleet is equipped with, crushing them in small bales.

Once arrived in the port of Savona, the aluminium bales are stocked by SV Port Service and then CIAL picks them up.

A few numbers: considering just 2015, in the port of Savona 11 Costa ships came by, with a total of 233 dockings, with one million passengers.

It has to be said the economic value given by CIAL for the collected recycled material is given directly by Costa to the staff who, on board the ships, deals with the aluminium recovery operations after collection, with the cleaning of materials and compacting in useful shapes for best stocking on ships and at the recycling platform in the destination port of call.

“If we look at numbers, our ships are small cities, made of about 6,000 people – Stefania Lallai, Costa Crociere’s director of Sustainability and external relations – the project we are introducing is a perfect example of collaboration amongst various situations, leading us to recover an extremely precious material.”

“But there is a very interesting piece of information: when people go on a cruise they are on holiday and therefore more relaxed.

We reckon that if on average a person consumes about 30 cans a year, here the quantity goes up to 100,” Gino Schiona added, CIAL’s general director. We are talking about 4 million cans a year. Such numbers have a great impact on the reduction of energy and emissions.

“Our long term objective – Lallai insisted – is extending this sustainability message to the whole city of Savona and a wider public, so that it becomes second nature in everybody’s everyday life.”

“Savona’s Port Authority – commented Gian Luigi Miazza, the very president of the port authority – is proud of such initiative on the waste management produced within the Savona-Vado port area. In 2007, a recycling area was created that today can rely on the authorization for the stocking of 79 different types of waste, carrying out a separate collection on the total produced waste that has amounted to 87% over the last few years.”

“For a new and revamped global economic development – Gino Schiona highlighted – the key words are energy saving and efficient use of resources. Waste recycling will enable a regular reduction of the use of raw materials in all developed countries. Nothing better than the case of aluminium cans can explain such phenomenon. Through this, there is a 95% saving of the necessary energy to produce new metal. This is perhaps the main message contained in the aluminium can. A strong and important message of sharing and participation. A message of environmental and social protection and a guarantee for a development and a truly sustainable growth. In a nutshell, cans become symbols of a kind of packaging able to reconcile the consumption needs with those of respect for the environment.”

81

82

renewablematter 09. 2016

In Italy

GLASS

Generates €1.4 Billion

by Marco Gisotti

Marco Gisotti is a journalist and adviser.

He heads Green Factor, an environmental communication and studies agency.

Dossier Glass Recycling and the New European Targets for the Circular Economy, Fondazione per lo sviluppo sostenibile, Assovetro; tinyurl.com/j5wj2vy

In Europe, production and recycling employ 125,000 people. In Italy, 77% of glass packaging is recovered and the 3 million tons of unused raw material save 316 million cubic metres of methane and ensure a cut of 1.9 million tons of CO2. Today, though, 512,800 tonnes of glass still end up in mixed waste collection.

While the traditional economy struggles to go on and sometimes it stops, glass keeps on rolling, making the wheels of economy spinning. These are not just mere words but an accurate snapshot of the glass packaging industry in Italy and Europe.

A few numbers are enough to understand that it is a healthy sector. According to the recent report Glass Recycling and the New European Targets for the Circular Economy, made by Foundation for Sustainable Development for Assovetro, (Italian Glass Association) glass recycling is a vital sector for the Italian economy: 20,200 employees, 1.4 billion of GDP with 70% of green investments.

If we look beyond the national boundaries, glass production and recycling in Europe have generated 125,000 jobs – totalling €9.5 billion of European GDP – reducing by 48% the use of raw materials. In plain English, an excellent example of circular economy.

“From one kilo of glass cullet – the report reads – a kilo of glass is produced, if on the other hand, raw materials are used (sand, soda, lime, dolomite and feldspar) it is necessary an input of about 1,17 kilos. Glass recycling curbs natural resource consumption, cuts the damaging effects from mining and reduces energy consumption, thus containing greenhouse gas emissions deriving from the production process.

All the glass cullet used by glassmakers in 2014 alone (including secondary raw materials from independent or agreed management, flat glass industry and cullet from rejects) reduced the use of traditional raw materials by 3,020,000 tonnes.”

In Italy, glass separate waste collection is

on the rise – it has now reached 77% – and also the recycled quantity, in defiance of – so to speak – the economic crisis that certainly did not encourage the number of bottles and jars on the Italian market. Over the last five years taken into consideration by the research – from 2010 to 2015 – recycling went from 68.3% to 70.3%. It is only two percentage points, which meant a wider availability of renewable matter for the production of new glass containers.

Also, from an energy point of view, the 3,020,000 tonnes of unused raw materials meant savings of as much as 316 million cubic metres of methane and fewer emissions of about 1,9 million tonnes of CO2.

“Glass – Marco Ravasi explains, Chairman of Assovetro’s hollow glass section – is a material that fully achieves the concept of circular economy based on the notion of produce-

Recycling of glass packaging 1,000 tonnes 1,596

1,570

1,568

2011

2012

1,615

1,471

2010

Source: Conai, COReVe.

2013

2014

Case Studies Recycling of glass packaging waste and targets by 2050 and 2030

Comparison between glass packaging waste pro capita recycling in 2014 and recycling estimates for 2025 and 2030 by geographical macro areas

Thousands of tonnes and %

kg/inhab

Recycling 1,615

1,723

1,953

2014 recycling 40.7

85%

34.9

35.9

2030 target

32.7 28.8

75%

Recycling rate 70%

2025 target

24.6

25.8

22.7 16.6

2014

2025

2030

2014

2025

2030

2014

NORTH Source: Elaboration Fondazione per lo sviluppo sostenibile.

Glass is an inspiring model for the circular economy aimed to reduce the extraction of raw materials from the environment, by minimizing waste production and improving product longevity and their use.

Info www.assovetro.it

2025

2030

2014

CENTRE

2025

2030

SOUTH

Source: Elaboration Fondazione per lo sviluppo sostenibile.

consume-reproduce, allowing to have containers with the same characteristics of the original ones. Following the new European targets, it will be necessary to improve and increase separate waste collection and strengthen innovation in the sector in order to obtain quality cullet feeding a virtuous cycle.”

Given the recycling targets envisaged in the recent EU package on the circular economy with a percentage of 75% by 2025 and 85% by 2030, the warning from Assovetro is that we have to do more. Today, it is still estimated that 512,800 tonnes of glass end up in mixed waste, let alone losses recorded in the glass cullet selection and treatment processes. Here, at least 150,000 tonnes of waste – 90% of which being glass – end in landfills due to poor quality during collection.

We need to do more. In what terms, though?

To meet the glass packaging recycling targets compared to the glass waste produced, national glass packaging recycling – the level of consumption being equal – will have to reach 1,725,000 tonnes in 2025 and 1,953,000 tonnes by 2030 respectively. This means, in terms of pro capita recycling, 28.4 kg/inhabitant for the first deadline and 32.2 kg/inhabitant for the second.

This is assuming that the total waste of glass stays the same.

“The effort to meet these targets – the report explains – will differ according to the area in Italy.

A greater contribution is required from the South that, in order to reach the 2025 target, will have to catch up with the delays compared to the rest of Italy, increasing by 6.1 kg/inhabitant pro capita recycling achieved in 2014 and by 3.1 kg/inhabitant to meet the 2030 target. Central Italy will have to increase pro capita recycling by 4.2 kg/inhabitant to make 2015 target and by 3.9 kg/inhabitant that of 2030. The North is in a better position. Here people are required to increase by only 1 kg/inhabitant by 2025 and by 4.8

Comparison glass packaging waste recycling rate in 2014 and forecasts by 2025 and 2030 by geographical macro areas 85% 75% 2014 72.9% recycling

63.9%

54.9%

2025 target 2030 target

NORTH

CENTRE

SOUTH

Source: Elaboration Fondazione per lo sviluppo sostenibile.

kg/inhabitant by 2030. As for percentages, in the south the recycling rate to meet the 2025 target will have to soar by 20%, 11% in the Centre.

The North is more virtuous, having to improve by only two percentage points.”

Edo Ronchi – Chairman of the Foundation of Sustainable Development – who supervised the study, glass is thus the ideal model for the European economic future.

“The research shows – Ronchi explains – that glass, which can be recycled many times and reused to obtain the same products, is an inspiring model for the circular economy aiming to reduce the extraction of raw materials from the environment, by minimizing waste production, improving product longevity and their reuse, reintroducing materials into the cycle while maximizing waste recycling and eliminating waste disposal into landfills.”

83

84

renewablematter 09. 2016

Successful

GRANULES Thanks to its efficient and widespread supply chain, Tuscany recycles 95% of waste from separate collection, thus giving new life to plastics, aluminium, steel, glass, and multi-layered cardboard.

by Marco Gisotti

Most of Tuscany’s separately collected waste – paper, glass, plastic, multi-layered packaging, steel, and aluminium – is recycled in a way that minimizes the impact on the environment.

In 1986, in Italy, the Italian Ministry of the Environment was created.

At that time, environmental law was still extremely indefinite. Waste was collected and then sent mostly to landfills and words such as recovery, recycling and reusing were pathfinder terms. It was only eleven years later that, thanks to the Ronchi Decree, the system was organized for the first time and recycling started being discussed.

In 1986, however, someone had already started to commit themselves to this business.

With respect to glass recovery, for example, a company was founded in that year in Empoli (Tuscany), named after its main activity: Revet (Glass Recovery Tuscany). Then, when the Ronchi Decree (Legislative Decree 22/97) was passed, the company committed to recovery exclusively, also thanks to Tuscany’s strategic vision and the participation of partners such as Tuscan public companies for waste management. The latter still believe in this project, considering it as the cornerstone of the successful integrated waste management cycle which has been implemented in this area.

Later on, Revet was moved to Pontedera (Pisa), where the two main recycling plants are found today: one – which is going to be dismantled in the future – for manufacturing heavy multimaterial waste, and the other, more innovative, for light multi-material waste.

Today, Tuscany can boast a recycling network and supply chain that are particularly efficient and widespread. Its various facilities achieve up to a 95% recovery. Virtually, most of Tuscany’s separately collected waste – paper, glass, plastic, multi-layered packaging, steel, and aluminium – is recycled in a way that minimizes the impact on the environment, as reminded by Toscanaricicla, the first campaign common to the region’s operators in this field. Paper and cardboard are sent to paper mills in the area surrounding the city of Lucca; glass packaging is recast in glass factories near Empoli (Florence); mixed plastics are recycled in Pontedera and transformed into city furniture’s sections and granules suitable to mould other plastic products; multi-layered cardboard for beverages is recycled in a plant near Lucca,

Case Studies while steel and aluminium in foundries located in northern Italy.

In this landscape, Revet is responsible for collecting, selecting and recycling five materials – plastics, aluminium, steel, glass, and multi-layered cardboard (such as tetrapak) – coming from Tuscany’s separate waste collection and industrial and manufacturing activities. The company carries out this task by means of its own facilities and logistics and thanks to satellite centres spread in Tuscany as well.

However, Revet also handles the collection and selection of local industries’ and commercial activities’ waste in order to recycle it, thus meeting all the territory’s needs in a structured and effective way. In addition, the company copes with the ever-changing regulations and laws and updates its technologies and processes.

In 2015, Revet recovered 16,000 tonnes of Tuscany’s waste, made up of 65% glass, 30% plastics and 5% aluminium, steel and multi-layered packaging. Indeed, separate waste collection is the aspect which draws citizens’ attention the most. In a sense, it is at that stage that waste stops being discarded material. On a conceptual level, it is like reopening “mines”, in other words those places where matter is extracted for creating new materials and products, even though such a “mine” is the end-of-life product itself.

Ultimately, it all comes to closing the circle of the so-called circular economy, which is very similar to biological cycles – and imitating them – where a cycle’s end is the condition for another’s beginning. In nature, any waste deposit is destined to be processed again.

Sooner or later, every discarded material undergoes conversion, dismantling or reduction in order to be reintroduced in nature.

Indeed, over the last thirty years, one of the most innovative aspects regarding Revet’s most successful period was related to plastics.

If we looked at the waste supply chain from the same perspective, we would realize that the step immediately following separate waste collection is the circle’s closing, because it is the starting point for reprocessing materials according to their own specificities. This way, they will become the basis for creating new materials and, consequently, new productions.

From the citizens’ point of view, separate waste collection could also be considered as the tip of an iceberg: below it, there is a heap of industrial processes needing means, skills, specific professional competences and specialized facilities in order to reintroduce materials in the productive cycles. This is definitely what happens within the industrial recycling supply chain created by Revet over the last thirty years.

The first phase is a selection aimed at recycling.

Once brought to Revet’s facilities, the materials collected from companies and citizens’ separate waste collection undergo various selection processes, after which they are sorted into uniform material bales ready for being recycled

at Revet Recycling’s or other companies in this business.

Then, the materials are sent to the “bale opener”– whose name explains its function: by means of metallic teeth, this machine opens the material bales, thus releasing their contents.

However, the bale opener does not only tear, but also quantifies the proper amount of materials that flow into the first drum and end up in a spinning trommel screen.

At this point, a first selection takes place.

Thanks to variously sized openings, bulkier materials are separated from the medium and smaller parts, in order to be destined to a final manual sorting. On the contrary, medium sized materials continue their journey for further selection.

Plastics, aluminium, and multi-layered packaging (especially tetrapak) – which can be defined as “light” waste – are vacuumed and sent to the RDS sorting plant. On the other hand, glass and steel are separated by means of magnets, which draw metal and tinplate.

At this point of the process, glass is sorted manually again and then brought to Revet Vetri in Empoli – which, though being Revet’s partner, is an autonomous, self-governing company. Here, after having been cleaned one last time, glass is considered “furnace-ready” and sent to glass factories.

Similarly, steel tins are brought to foundries to be recycled.

Light materials’ journey is as much elaborate.

Aluminium, for instance, is separated by means of an induction machine exploiting Gauss’s law, then baled and sent to foundries to be recycled.

Plastics and multi-layered packaging are separated thanks to mechanical and optical selectors. Thus, uniform bales – of tetrapak, for example – are obtained and made ready to be sent to a specific facility near Lucca, where it is possible to recycle tetrapak’s whole cellulose fibre (almost 75% of it).

Plastics need greater care, because they have to be sorted out first by type (PET, HDPE, LDPE, PP, PS and so on) and then by colour (transparent, coloured, or blue-tinted PET). Only after these selections can plastics be sent to the companies forming a consortium with COREPLA (Italian Consortium for Plastic Packaging Collection, Recycling and Recovery) in order to be recycled.

Indeed, over the last thirty years, one of the most innovative aspects regarding Revet’s most successful period was related to plastics, or rather that fraction which was harder to handle. The system created by Revet Recycling is able to manage business relationships with over 600 Tuscan plastic manufacturing companies.

As the company explains, “Revet addresses this vast audience of manufacturing companies, offering them a material that combines all virgin polymers’ features with environmental sustainability. After careful selection and cleanup, mixed plastics from Tuscany’s separate

85

86

renewablematter 09. 2016

Roberto Rizzo, “How to Turn a Plastic Cup Into a Scooter”, Renewable Matter issue 6 and 7, OctoberDecember, 2015; tinyurl.com/hhrwdgj

waste collection are crushed and recycled, thus obtaining a polypropylene and polyethylene-based granule – which can be compounded and mastered – suitable for the injection or blow moulding of products ranging from basic to top-notch” (compounding refers to both chemical and mechanical manufacturing processes, through which new plastic materials are obtained from different polymers, editor’s note) .

As is often the case, solving complex problems is certainly harder, but it gives cause for greater satisfaction. Basically, this is what happened with plasmix, that today accounts for 55% of the collected plastic packaging weight and whose treatment is the most crucial, since it is usually dispatched to energy recovery. Nonetheless, by creating Revet Recycling, Revet managed to capitalize it in a different way and reintroduce

it in the production cycle. Revet production plant can turn plasmix into a densified substance and granules. The former is used, for example, to manufacture outdoor furniture’s sections, while the granules are suitable for moulding even the best quality plastic products.

Issue 6 and 7 of Renewable Matter had already explored plasmix’ success, which caused Revet to extend its range of action from Tuscany to international markets, with demands actually exceeding the current production.

This also means that, in Italy, few companies are similar to Revet, with respect to its activity and achievements. In fact, at the Pontedera production site, they keep saying that their model is worth being exported and, after thirty years, it is hard not to agree with them.

Case Studies Interview

edited by Marco Gisotti

Sensitive but Ambitious Alessandro Canovai, Revet Spa and Revet Recycling Chairman

Alessandro Canovai – who has been Chairman for few months but has already fit in perfectly – explains that “Revet’s anniversary proves that Tuscany’s sensitivity towards recovery and recycling is rooted in its distant past. Over the years, Revet’s structure changed: born as a private company, now it is mostly public. Today, we could say that the time has come for Revet 2.0.

Its partners, who are mainly companies holding public service concessions, have become concessionaires for the whole waste management cycle. This was possible since Tuscany started with the heavy multi-material management and shifted to mono-materials more recently.”

If VAT on recycled products were eliminated, not only would costs be reduced for end consumers, but also the situation would be fairer, since, during those materials’ life cycle, VAT has already been paid at least once.

Info www.revet.com www.revet-recycling.com

Plastic is Revet’s key to success.

This is the reason why you created Revet Recycling as well…

“Today, the plastic supply chain serves 86% of Tuscan citizens. We are aiming to extend the service and improve material selection skills by opening two new production plants – one in Prato and the other expanding Pontedera’s plant – and, subsequently, turning to southern Tuscany. As usual, the goal is optimizing our products to the outmost.

“Creating Revet Recycling for hardest-to-recycle plastics proved to be a successful choice, not only as regards the processes and technologies involved, but also with respect to the market it started off: today, demands are actually twice our current production.

“Indeed, granules selling has become Revet Recycling’s core business and accounts for exports as well. Our current ambition is to manage to manufacture the granules autonomously in Tuscany, thus closing, in a sense, the supply chain. On this point, we are expecting to be helped by the new green public procurement regulations.”

“However, such a change has been possible thanks to intense research activity, meaning new skills and professional competences...

“Undoubtedly, Research & Development is the most important phase, since plasmix requires a “formula” fitting local research facilities and relying on materials technology experts.

“In 2008, Revet counted little more than a hundred workers. Today, we are 157, plus the number of workers from the allied activities.

In this sense, professions and competences are important, not to say crucial.”

Since the Environmental Bill was passed, this field is facing new prospects. In your opinion, what kind of incentives are needed?

“Apart from promoting green purchases with any means, it would be necessary to take action on VAT. If VAT on recycled products were eliminated, not only would costs be reduced for end consumers, but also the situation would be fairer, since, during those materials’ life cycle, VAT has already been paid at least once.”

A Logo for the 30th Anniversary Communication must keep up with the times. Even if waste was not very appealing in the past, today, boasting about a scooter made of recycled plastic is fashionable, as well as wearing a polyester dinner suit made from water bottles, like the English actor Colin Firth did on the occasion of the Academy Awards ceremony.

Indeed, communication is fundamental.

As regards waste, this means bringing up citizens to separate waste collection and showing them the purpose of their efforts with facts and figures. Therefore, a logo is attached great importance, especially since it has to say “I am here and have been for thirty years.”

Consequently, in order to celebrate Revet’s birth in Empoli in 1986, a celebratory logo will be used for the entire year 2016.

“Actually, the 30th anniversary logo already includes Revet’s new logo which will be used from 2017 on – the company explains. The font’s style is more industrial and modern, and the image composition has been better harmonized, by adjusting proportions and modifying the arrows. On the contrary, the colours remain unchanged, so that a comprehensive view assures natural continuity with the past, thus allowing all Tuscans to recognize the logo immediately.”

87

88

renewablematter 09. 2016

The Village

OF MATERIALS Interview with Emilio Genovesi How is our relationship with innovative materials and new technologies changing?

Increasingly focusing on the value of sustainability.

Case Studies

Emilio Genovesi, CEO of Material ConneXion Italy since 2001, has been Managing Director of Domus Academy. Since 2007, he has written a column dedicated to the topics of design and corporate strategy for a major Italian newspaper.

He was project leader of the Biodiversity Park, theme pavilion in ExpoMilano2015.

edited by Marco Moro Materials Village – Milan 2016, tinyurl.com/zf3lhx3

If there is a place where designers’ attention and curiosity regularly threatens a collapse due to an excess of stimuli, this is at Milan Design Week, scheduled between April 12th and 17th. Having attained the status as a leading global event for the world of design and project in general, Milan event once again offers an almost endless programme of events, where thousands of objects (and ideas) are simultaneously displayed in a competition between locations more and more scattered around the city.

The continuous search for new spaces modifies every year the map of this “temporary metropolis of design”, however some fix points still remain, as safe docking bays (at least for a few hours) in this fluid and ever-changing landscape. Supertudio Più has been for years among the most solid moors, and it is exactly here that Italy Material ConneXion accomodates an area dedicated to materials, the substances with which the innumerable ideas that circulate during the Design Week are made.

Conceived as a meeting and discussion point for (and amongst) designers, manufacturers of materials and companies that are potential users, the 2016 edition of the Materials Village is also intended as a place to reflect on trends and global phenomena that affect our relationship with material resources, focusing on sustainable innovation.

The words of Emilio Genovesi, CEO of Material ConneXion Italy, concerning this choice are very clear: “The issue of environmental sustainability has become so important so as to be almost indispensable in any event where it comes to innovation, especially when talking about materials.

Innovation is no longer conceivable separated from sustainability.”

Innovation, which today corresponds also to economic policy guidelines, as is the case for the bioeconomy and the circular economy. Such trends promise to have a strong impact

89

90

renewablematter 09. 2016

on the relationship between productive activities and resources, and thus also on the design culture. In the perception of someone who is part of the largest international networks for research and counselling on the subject, are these trends having a significant impact already?

Info it.materialconnexion.com

What is, in your opinion, the main obstacle to the diffusion of products made from secondary raw materials or from renewable raw materials?

“The main problem is of an economic nature: renewable raw materials are currently squeezed between an excessive delta-cost and a market that does not recognize the value.

This is due to the fact that in times of crisis, environmental sustainability is perceived as a luxury, not as a priority, therefore we lose important opportunities.

“Oil at $ 30 a barrel, for example, is a problem for an increase in the use of vegetable plastics, because it diverts investments and drains away significant funds for research on new technologies that would make biopolymers to become more competitive. In short, it is a vicious circle that should be broken, perhaps by means of a more significant use of public incentive policies.”

Is the interest, the impetus for sustainable innovation, currently more evident on the demand side (designers, companies of the sectors protagonists of Design Week) or on the supply side (manufacturers of materials)?

“It is difficult to answer as they are the two sides of the same coin. In the area of materials for interior and architecture we notice interesting proposals and experiments

Material Connexion, the material bank Material ConneXion is the largest international centre for research and consultancy on innovative and sustainable materials.

Established in New York in 1997 by George Beylerian, with the first library of physical materials, it has nowadays several locations throughout Europe and Asia. Material ConneXion Italy has been active since 2002 in consulting, promotion and training for all types of production and design companies, developing a significant experience in strategic support to enterprises belonging to various sectors. Milan’s headquarter is home to a physical library of more than 4,000 materials, 2,500 of which on permanent display.

Case Studies

by small to medium sized enterprises, whereas large companies adopt more generic environmental policies, dictated by applicable laws mainly focusing on production processes and plants rather than on finished products. As per design, we are certainly witnessing an increase in architectural competitions that reward the use of sustainable materials and building systems.”

If you were to point out some areas where sustainable innovation is catching faster and / or is more widespread which would those be?

“On the one hand the sectors in which the life of the product is shorter: packaging, food containers and other disposables in general, as the use of environmentally friendly material has a positive effect on disposal phases. On the other, to the opposite, those areas where the product is of longer duration, such as architecture and construction, because the output has an impact that will last over a very long period of time thus requiring a design approach aiming at future.”

Material ConneXion conducts, since 1997 at an international level and in Italy since 2002, an activity of census and information gathering on innovation in the field of materials.

What are the main changes you have observed in this period? What do you expect for the future?

“When Material ConneXion was established, material innovation was characterized mainly by performance, with a typical American approach. From the early twenty-first century on, we have witnessed a shift towards aesthetic-sensory contents of the material.

This trend has also influenced the choice of Milan, creative centre of fashion and design, as the first European outpost of Material ConneXion. Today sustainability certainly dominates as an essential value.

The future will be increasingly focusing on processes, treatments and functionalization of materials rather than on new materials outright, thanks to the impetus provided by nanotechnology.”

In times of crisis, environmental sustainability is perceived as a luxury, not as a priority, therefore we lose important opportunities.

91

92

renewablematter 09. 2016

Columns Natural Capital

Priceless and Unnoticed Gianfranco Bologna is Scientific Director and Senior Advisor at WWF Italy. He is Secretary General of the Fondazione Aurelio Peccei, which represents the Club of Rome in Italy.

Sustainable Development Goals, sustainabledevelopment. un.org/sdgs

We are talking about the link between the environment and the Stability Act passed just before Christmas. In particular, Art. 67 stands out for its innovative nature: it sets up the National Committee for natural capital whose activities (including the drawing up of an updated report on Italy’s natural capital state) are included in the domestic economy planning process.

It is undoubtedly a step forward that brings Italy on a par with similar realities already present or being created in several counties. For instance, the UK set up its Natural Capital Committee in 2012 (www.naturalcapitalcommittee.org), formalized after the publication of “The Natural Choice: Securing the Value for Nature,” aiming to provide expert independent support to the British government on the state of the national natural capital. Chaired by Oxford University economist Dieter Helm, the committee has already published three reports on the state of England’ natural capital in 2013, 2014 and 2015, besides several secondary works thus sparking off a successful parliamentary debate on how to assess and report the importance of national natural capital.

So, finally, Italian regulations are heading towards considering the value of nature as a central issue and not just as marginal and accidental, as it is the case at the moment.

As a matter of fact, the future of our society cannot do away with taking into due consideration economic mechanisms affecting the actions of governments and businesses, and natural systems that have evolved over 3.5 billion years. It is an extraordinary wealth that offers daily and free of charge a series of services to the development and wellbeing of humans societies: from water resources to terraforming and the preservation of biogeochemical cycles to the chemistry of our atmosphere, from biodiversity richness to photosynthesis.

This invaluable wealth – that is our natural capital – should take centre stage in economic

development models. On the contrary, our societies put extraordinary pressure on our natural systems. Not only by exploiting and depleting resources, but also by setting up production processes that produce a huge amount of waste that natural systems find very hard to metabolize.

In so doing, we have dramatically depleted the natural capital essential for our future and that can still guarantee a lesser unsustainable path for years to come – as indicated by the 2030 Agenda with its 17 sustainable development goals adopted by the last UN General Assembly. It is no accident that the law we are talking about also provides for the creation of a National Strategy for Sustainable Development.

The natural capital cannot carry on being invisible to economics models, but it must be considered crucial for humanity. This is why today we try to identify ways of assessing nature so as to put a value on it that cannot be quantified in monetary terms because the value of structures, processes, functions and services of natural systems goes well beyond a mere financial assessment. It is an extraordinary challenge for the future of us all.

We have no other choice but to pick up the gauntlet.

Columns

The Blue Yonder

Turnkey Seaweed Farms Ilaria Nardello is the Executive Director of the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC), the European infrastructure for scientific and applied research on marine biology and ecosystems.

AT~SEA project, www.atsea-project.eu

Sioen Industries, specialist manufacturer of technical textiles, yarns and fabrics, has started up a seaweed farm test-bed in Norway. Joining forces with six other European partners – including Ocean Harvest (IE), Tecnored (ES), Devan Chemicals (BE), Hortimare (NL), Eurofilet (FR) and J2M (BE) – Sioen industries started growing 1 ha of seaweed in Solund (NO), to be harvested in May 2016, with a plan to quadruple the experimental cultivation in the season 2016-2017 and start selling turnkey seaweed farms under the name of “At-Sea Technologies”.

Joining up the thinking capacity of textile specialists, biologists and health & food seaweed application specialists, with the production capabilities and business experience of a major industry player, At-Sea Technologies holds a promise to be a market revelation for industrial-scale seaweed cultivation. Their patented substrates for seaweed cultivation already won Sioen Industries the Techtextil Innovation Award 2015, in the category New Materials, together with Centexbel, the Belgian Textile Competence Centre.

The story starts with the EU FP7 project At Sea, which Sioen Industries coordinated, dedicated to the development of advanced technical textiles to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of open sea seaweed cultivation for a sustainable and renewable source for food and feed additives, for biochemical and biomaterials, and for bioenergy. The concept to be proven was a sensibly increase in the open-sea seaweed harvest yields by introducing one-two extra dimensions to the algal cultivation techniques, traditionally based on the use of lines, or ropes.

Bi-dimensional fabrics were utilised for the purpose, with surfaces engineered to provide a most suitable growing habitat to the algae, endure the harsh environmental conditions which they are exposed to and prevent the growth of unwanted plants or molluscs.

These advanced technical textiles were then cut in large strips or mats, 1 mm-thin,

on which young seaweed plants would grow, kept at a depth of 2 meters beneath the sea surface until they reached 1-2 meters in length, in springtime, when the seaweed was harvested for further processing.

The project rapidly showed that the textile can yield up to 16 kg of wet seaweed per square meter, i.e. three to five times the yield of traditional seaweed farming.

The feel good factor in this story lies beyond the merit of a research project in supporting a potentially very rewarding economic spin-off experience, contributing to the EU Blue Growth policy. The innovation proposed can provide support to the preservation of natural algal populations and avoid the depletion of a stock which is more and more in demand at a global scale.

93

94

renewablematter 09. 2016

Innovation Pills

Go Sailing, for a Change Federico Pedrocchi, is a science journalist.

He directs and presents the weekly programme Moebius broadcast

by Radio 24 – Il Sole 24 ore.

Go Sailing, for a Change, www.gs4c.com

Travelling by sea has always changed many things in the history of our species.

To encapsulate this historical fact in a contemporary acronym we could write GS4C, Go Sailing for a Change. Granted, this connection might be too far fetched.

GS4C is a very young Milan-based company and perhaps the historicity of sea maybe is a too general reference. All things considered, what do all big changes consist of?

It was a small vessel that gave up the square sail and replaced it with a mast and a piece of cloth that allowed catching the wind sideways and sailing straight. And the first submersible – that had a tendency to be a little too submerged, more similar to a non “emergible boat”– had a pedal-powered propeller.

So, now this is the story I am telling you.

There are plenty of boats at sea with carbon or fibreglass hulls. These are wasteful materials because the residues generated in the shipyard have to be thrown away and when boats come to the end of their life cycle, they too have to be discarded.

We are going to talk about technologies connected with the circular economy.

This is it, so it suddenly becomes very important. Their mission is to build highly sustainable hulls. GS4C is accomplishing this with a 6.5 m vessel, mini650 class, for solo ocean racing. It builds them with mineral fibres, from basalt, to be precise.

In other words, lava. There is a way to process it leading to a very stable material with standard performance. It is a 100% recyclable material, so no waste at the beginning and full hull recovery at the end of its life cycle.

By the way, how many challenging races can a boat endure? If it is something like the America’s Cup, one could be enough.

But we need to look at the bigger picture: if I have a non-recyclable hull, I will dispose of it; if it is recoverable I can recoup a large amount of the invested funds.

Why does GS4C invest in boat races?

Because they attract a great deal of attention and so they are good pacesetters for innovations in general. This is a valid reasoning

and hopefully a successful and viable one. Indeed, there are pleasure boats, but also other sectors – away from the sea – where mineral fibres (or vegetable ones like bamboo for example, the potential is enormous) allow virtuous economies.

Wind turbines, for example. In Italy there are about 6,000 about to expire. If we built them with basalt fibres the advantages would be obvious, given that a 24 m turbine, built with fibreglass, produces 500 kilos of waste material.

The Milan-based company is building a network of expertise with other businesses, aimed at spreading this high-sustainability technology in many sectors where it can be applied. For example, in the automotive sector or for many sports equipment.

Of course, these alternative fibres cost more than fibreglass: but it is precisely here that we have to break the spell that makes us look at the immediate costs rather than at a longer cycle that needs far-sightedness to show its economic advantages.

Furthermore, there is also the urgency of sustainability with its significant economic consequences. What I mean is, when going from Piombino to Olbia we would have to resort to tracked vehicles due to excessive evaporation, well, the sector of pleasure boats would indeed be slightly affected.

The largest SPECIALIST

BIOMASS

GATHERING 6-9 JUNE, AMSTERDAM

Programme available REGISTER NOW! 72 Conference sessions +1000 Plenary, oral and visual presentations +1500 Attendees | 76 Countries +50 Exhibitors

EUBCE 2016 24th European Biomass Conference & Exhibition

www.eubce.com Institutional Support

Technical Programme Coordination European Commission DG Joint Research Centre

3° SIMPOSIO SULL’URBAN MINING E SULLA CIRCULAR ECONOMY 23-25 Maggio 2016 - Ex Monastero di Sant’Agostino, Bergamo costs : industry : takeback programs : recycling : sustainability : materials costs : policy sustainability industry : sustainability : separate collection : costs : industry : ciclo della materia : recycling : economy costs : pollution : materials : legal aspects : costs : separate collection : takeback programs : filiere del ricircolo takeback programs : filiere del ricircolo : technology : ecopoint : policy : ciclo della materia : recycling costs resources : costs : filiere del ricircolo : legal aspects : ecopoint : case study : sustainability : technology : industr industry : policy : ecopoint : reuse : sustainability : filiere del ricircolo : costs : separate collection : costs industry : separate collection : ciclo della materia : recycling : economy : pollution Università takeback programs : filiere del ricircolo : technology : ecopoint : ciclo della materia di Bergamo legal aspects : materials : life cycle analisys : resources : costs : sustainability : industry : costs sustainability : reuse : ciclo della materia ecopoint : technology : industry : policy : ecopoint : sustainability filiere del ricircolo : policy : ecopoint : technology : industry : costs : policy : ecopoint : SYMPOSIUM ON URBAN MINING pollution industry : sustainability : separate collection : costs : industry : ciclo della materia : technologa Università pollution : materials : legal aspects : costs : separate collection : takeback programs : reuse

SUM2016

con il SUPPORTO SCIENTIFICO di:

Università di Bergamo • Università di Padova Berlin University of Technology (DE) • Catholic University of Leuven (BE) BOKU University, Vienna (AT) • University of Southampton (GB) Hamburg University of Technology (DE) • The University of Hong Kong (HK) Tongji University, Shanghai (CN) • Tsingua University, Beijing (CN) Vienna University of Technology (AT)

ORGANIZZATO da:

di Padova

IWWG - International Waste Working Group

PROMOSSO da:

Assessorato Ambiente Energia e Sviluppo Sostenibile - Regione Lombardia

Presentazione

Dopo lo straordinario successo della seconda edizione, che ha visto la partecipazione di oltre 200 delegati provenienti da 40 paesi diversi, si svolgerà la terza edizione del SUM - Simposio sull’Urban Mining e sulla Circular Economy.

Il SUM 2016 si terrà dal 23 al 25 maggio 2016 nella suggestiva cornice del Monastero di Sant’Agostino. Il Simposio si focalizzerà sul concetto dell’Urban Mining e sulla necessità di guardare oltre la raccolta differenziata e l’attuale approccio basato sulla responsabilità del consumatore, con maggiore recupero di risorse e migliore qualità, con maggiore tutela dell’ambiente, con il coinvolgimento della responsabilita’ dei produttori, con minori costi per la collettività.

Il Simposio durerà tre giorni e sarà organizzato in sessioni orali, una sessione poster e una visita tecnica guidata a un impianto di selezione materie plastiche

Temi del Simposio

Il Simposio tratterà i seguenti argomenti: Fonti e caratterizzazione di materiali e risorse energetiche nello spazio urbano Rifiuti solidi domestici, commerciali, industriali, RAEE, fanghi di depurazione, liquami civili e industriali, rifiuti di demolizione, scarti del cibo, pneumatici, ecc.) • Rifiuti da autoveicoli dismessi Tecniche di separazione alla fonte • Criticità dell’attuale sistema di raccolta differenziata Programmi di restituzione al produttore (Take back programs) • Centri di riuso (Ecopoint, Tip shops, Banche rifiuti, ecc.)

Tecnologie di estrazione di materiali e risorse • Landfill mining Trattamenti di valorizzazione di materiali e risorse • Filiere del ricircolo e mercati Aspetti economici e finanziari • Aspetti normativi e legali Bilanci ambientali (Analisi di ciclo di vita) Casi di studio

Invio dei lavori e pubblicazioni

La data per l’invio dei lavori è ufficialmente scaduta il 15 Febbraio 2016. Gli autori interessati a presentare un lavoro possono ancora inviare il proprio articolo secondo le modalità indicate al seguente link: http://urbanmining.it/call-for-papers Tutti i lavori presentati, compresi i paper selezionati per la sessione poster, saranno pubblicati negli Atti del Simposio, con un ISBN dedicato.

Inoltre tutti i lavori accettati saranno selezionati per la pubblicazione, a seguito di review, su un numero speciale di “Waste Management” , la rivista scientifica con l’IF più alto (3.220) nel settore, pubblicata da Elsevier.)

Informazioni

Per ricevere assistenza o per ulteriori informazioni sul Simposio si prega di contattare la Segreteria Organizzativa: Eurowaste srl, Via Beato Pellegrino 23, Padova / tel: +39 049 8726986 / info@eurowaste.it / papers@urbanmining.it Informazioni dettagliate sono inoltre disponibili all’indirizzo www.urbanmining.it

A

Y OF

OP

YE

RS

T N P HIL A

R H

Cariplo is passionately philanthropic about art, culture, scientific research, social issues and the environment. It is currently focussed on supporting young people, community welfare and people wellbeing, carrying out projects in collaboration with nonprofit organizations. Since 1991, Fondazione Cariplo has supported over 30,000 initiatives, donating â‚Ź2,8 billion.