Urban cocreative, sustainable and inclusive ecosystem, for the recycling of reinforced polymers on-the-truck

Project Information

YouRban

Grant agreement ID: 101135997

DOI

10.3030/101135997

Project closed

EC signature date 10 November 2023

Start date 1 December 2023

End date 31 May 2026

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 2 469 385,00

EU contribution

€ 2 469 385,00

Coordinated by

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - YouRban (Urban cocreative, sustainable and inclusive ecosystem, for the recycling of reinforced polymers on-the-truck)

Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2025-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Fiber-Reinforced Plastics (FRPs) are widely adopted in several massively used products in the electronics, sport equipment, medical equipment, automotive, construction, wind energy, aeronautics and marine industries, due to their better lightweight and corrosion resistance compared to metals. However, the recovery of plastics and fibers after the use phase of such products remains a challenge. Currently, the only solution is landfilling. The lack of a European sustainable circular value-chain for the recovery and re-use of such plastics materials into high value-added applications would then lead to both untapped business opportunities and economic losses and to a serious environmental burden.
Leveraging on a cross-sectorial approach can open new potentials for composite made parts recycling, reprocessing and re-use under a systemic circular economy perspective. Moreover, a demand-driven, specification-compliant Circular Economy Solution could foster a systematic transition towards more sustainable products. According to this view, the circular value-chain is transformed into a “pull” system, where the requirements on the materials to be re-used are transferred directly from the demand side in terms of characteristics and functionalities.

In this context, YouRban aims at CoCreating an active and conscious urban demand for creative solutions for the recycling and upcycling of dismantled objects and materials, primarily in relation to reinforced polymers, materials coming from the local environment. In Europe in 2025 almost 700.000 tons of waste of reinforced polymer materials are expected. The main objective of the project is to activate an urban ecosystem of citizens, artists, designers, architects, and small-scale producers as FabLabs and artisans’ laboratories (Urban Factories), engaged in building together a sustainable and inclusive system, beautiful for eyes, minds and souls and encouraging dialogue across cultures, disciplines, professions, talents, genders, and ages. A local, flexible and modular decentralised production system will be promoted and generated in two European cities, both linked to the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, Milan and Barcelona. Two complementary pilots will CoCreate new objects, spaces and experiences through a Neighbourhood Participatory Approach supported by Collaborative Digital tools and a Truck. The strong experience in demanufacturing and reprocessing materials will be supported by physically providing examples and experiences locally, through a 10-day event around a mobile plant on board of the Truck, that will be placed in the city and open to all actors. Citizens will be involved to provide needs and challenges, artists will be engaged through artistic residences to provide solutions inspired by art and culture and able to go beyond functionality, Urban Factories will be encouraged to participate thanks to a Cascade Funding mechanism. Lessons learnt will be all collected along the project, to fix research results and define a replication strategy. The results described in the success stories will demonstrate future potential industrial uptake.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In the first period of YouRban the “Truck”, a mobile pilot plant for the decentralized treatment of post-use reinforced polymer parts and their transformation into valuable and reusable secondary materials has been designed and commissioned. The requirement gathering process has been conducted, considering both the technical requirements related to the target materials but also the requirements of a pilot mobile unit that has to communicate the multi-disciplinary complexity of the circular economy problem to a wide audience along different urban environments in Europe. The designed truck will be composed of two inter-connected units, i.e. demanufacturing and reprocessing, compounded by the entire set of tools, equipment and digital tools for supporting a set of multi-stakeholder oriented activities which will take place around the truck addressing citizens, designers, urban factories, associations, artists and companies.

Furthermore, several stakeholders activation actions have been implemented, organizing workshops with fab-labs, repair labs, collaborative spaces as well as citizen groups within the cities of Milan and Barcelona. This has led to the generation of specific urban challenges that will be used in Milan to trigger the proposal of new products, integrating secondary materials and targeting solutions to these challenges.

In line with the stakeholders activation actions, the co-creation methodology, aiming at support the conception of technically feasible products and solutions following the circular economy principle and exploiting the technical capabilities of the mobile plant, has been formalized. The methodology will be supported by the digital tools for facilitating ideas exchange, at different level of maturity and formalization, i.e. the so called Co-Creation Journey. The use of this methodology and the related digital tools will be validated in the second period of the project, through the involvement of the designers, with awarded proposals in Open Call A.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The “Truck” will be ready on road soon for the Milan 10-days event pilot scheduled on the 25th September – 5th of October. Through the presence of the Truck in Milan, in an area called Fabbrica del Vapore, the designers, selected through Open Call A, as well as the Urban Factories, selected through the Open Call B, will be provided a dedicated hands-on learning experience, that will enhance the knowledge towards the collaborative realization of the objects responding to the designed “Challenges”. In parallel, a series of artistic performance acts, conferences, open discussion forums, as well as specific training sessions dedicated to primary and secondary schools as well as young talents will enrich the detailed program of events that has been designed The second 10-days event pilot will take place in Barcelona and has been planned for April 2026. All logistics and areas have been defined, together with collaborations with local organizations, among which the Design Museum, that will host an exhibition of the manufactured objects, and the local fab-labs. Moreover, the city of Vienna, through the involvement of Design Austria, has evidenced the will of hosting a third pilot event, of a more limited duration of 3 days for project budget limitations, showing the attractiveness of similar practical eco-system activation initiatives at urban level, a model that could be fostered also beyond YouRban. The “Truck” together with the output of the co-design and co-creation activities of the Open Call winners will constitute Key Exploitable Results themselves.