Alignment of representative sectors of the Valencian Community with the Circular Economy and Industrial Symbiosis – Eco-INDUSTRY

The objectives of sustainable development promote the generation of new policies that guarantee efficient waste management, encouraging the circular economy and the reuse of this residue as feedstock in different applications, while favouring industrial symbiosis.

Residue from the Valencian main strategic industrial sectors, such as habitat, footwear, toys, and textiles, share a common characteristic: the multicomposition of their materials, which prevents them from being recycled and, therefore, their reintegration into the production chain.

But can these products be disassembled in such way that the multiple materials of which they are composed can be revalued into new products?

In the Circular Industry CV project, the first pilot plant was designed, built, and set up to process multicomposition residue from the footwear, toy, and textile sectors, testing the use of the materials obtained in injection, extrusion, and 3D printing processes. The company is now committed to optimizing and expanding the scope of the plant by including the habitat sector.

To achieve this, the first step was to analyse the required technologies and the applicable transformation processes for the optimization of the demonstrator to improve the processing of multicompound waste from the industrial sectors involved.

Next, waste is obtained from the collaborating sectors and companies, studying its recyclability and characterising the specimens obtained in order to analyse their reimplementation potential into the value chain.

Finally, the waste processed and validated in the previous step is reintroduced into the value chain by testing manufacturing technologies specifically addressed to each target sector and studying their properties in order to identify their applicability in the desired sectors.

Until now, 10 different types of residues from the footwear, toy and textile sectors have been successfully processed on a pilot scale, from which 10 different demonstrators have been made. Thanks to this action, the capacity of the pilot plant to increase the value of multi-component residues for the Habitat sector will be proven.

Eco-Industry Project, a new circular economy model suitable for the idiosyncrasies of industry in the Valencian Community.

We are grateful to IVACE (IMDEEA/2023/85) for providing financial support.

File number: IMDEEA/2023/85

Funding: IVACE