Absorbing the Potential of Wood Waste in EU Regions and Industrial Bio-based Ecosystems

Project Information

BioReg

Grant agreement ID: 727958

DOI

10.3030/727958

Project closed

EC signature date 17 October 2016

Start date 1 January 2017

End date 31 December 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 996 056,25

EU contribution

€ 996 056,25

Coordinated by

CABINET D'ETUDES SUR LES DECHETS ET L'ENERGIE
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BioReg (Absorbing the Potential of Wood Waste in EU Regions and Industrial Bio-based Ecosystems)

Reporting period: 2018-07-01 to 2019-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

"Wood wastes also called ""end of waste"" woods or used wood are generated by construction, demolition and renovation works (enterprises, craft and do-it-yourself from household), furniture, packaging, second transformation (joinery) and civil engineering (bridges, railway sleppers, poles, urban furniture, etc.). Wood waste represents an amount of around 50 Mt in Europe and probably more than 30 % of this resource is not or badly recovered. Yet, wood wastes can be a precious resource, by the substitution of fossil fuel avoiding carbon emissions in the case of energy recovery, and thanks to preservation of virgin biomass for both energy and panel production. Wood wastes valorisation enables to participate to the achievement of European Union objectives in terms of recycling or recovery, production of RES, landfilling decrease, and carbon storage (in compliance with cascade use principle). Furthermore, this valorisation leads to avoid bad practices: open burning generating harmful emissions, wild deposit or landfilling which are not sustainable solutions. On the basis of this observation and in order to make this sector more sustainable for society, the BIOREG project aims to improve wood wastes valorisation throughout Europe by acting all along the value chain. In this purpose, the project intends to facilitate dissemination of good practices and favorable environments from model regions towards regions where is existing an unused potential of wood wastes.

In order to reach this goal the project is providing a tool - BIOREG European Wood Waste platform, which is facilitating the sharing of good practices, useful tools, discussions (forums) and above all providing space for the establishing of a new community from diverse stakeholders to address problems and provide solutions together. The project aims to rise awareness of the interests of this resource (renewable energy, carbon storage, reduction landfilling) in particular with regional authorities, in order to incentive them to accompany and support this sector. On one hand, the project provides multiple tools and strategies for assessment of regions with unused potential of wood wastes and transfer of practices from model regions. And on the other, it provided a stage for wider EU level discussions focused on policy measures which can support the sector in all member states."

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

The first period of the project mainly consisted to perform the state of the art in order to highlight success factors in so-called model regions and weaknesses in regions where an unused wood wastes potential is observed. This period has also enabled the implementation of the collaborative platform, launched at the end of 2018. Several workshops and visits have been arranged, and in particular with Eastern stakeholders from Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria. Besides, BIOREG has been involved in the organisation of the first seminar only dedicated to waste woods in November 2017 in Normandy (France), which involved 200 attendees. After this first period which made it possible to install the project, the second period consisted in the dissemination of good practices, by different means and in particular the organisation of numerous events such as conferences, workshops and demonstrations visits. The platform aims to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between stakeholders and in the end promote replication in recipient regions. One of the main challenges of the second period was to convince the maximum number of stakeholders to join the platform to allow BIOREG to be independent after 2019 and to pursue objectives beyond the program. As far as now, more than 80 members joined the platform et the steering committee is established.
The second project period was dynamic and characterized with multiple events and project initiatives. Al Demonstration visits in model regions were held and major conclusions included in project reports and publications. Partners either organized or attended more than 40 events to promote the BIOREG platform and to identify the positions of different stakeholders and maintain regular communication with them. Project strategy documents were issued: supportive tools for recipient regions and research agenda for future projects. The platform is now well identified by the main players and in particular by BAV (Gemrany), the CSF (France) or WRA (UK) which invited BioReg to one of its meetings in 2019. BioReg is also a member of the European network of the Bioeconomy and was invited as a speaker in Brussels to the BBI JU days (biobased industry) in 2019 and to the bioeconomy stakeholders panel in 2018.

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 project increased awareness of stakeholders about this resource, sometimes put aside, compared to some other wastes (as plastic, ferrous...) more interesting at first view in terms of economical incomes. The state of the art shows that consumption of wood wastes could increase in the coming years, making the resource more attractive : massive implementation of biomass plants in UK, increasing need from Sweden, generalisation of incorporation of used wood in the panelboard production in Europe, strong growth of production of panelboard (+ 10% in 2017) and implementation of new plants in eastern countries, favorable evolution of regulatory framework in France...Thus BIOREG and the platform enable the promotion of collaborations and to ease access to information. BIOREG is a support to the sector and will lead players towards a more sustainable management of this resource. Beyond BioReg's regions, BioReg involved eastern countries and others regions where there is an unused potential of wood wastes. Valorisation of waste wood rather than its open burning or its landfilling brings added value in terms of employment (transformation, valorisation) and environmental benefits (carbon storage, fossils energies saving, preservation of virgin wood resources, reduction of harmful emissions).
Supporting the sector by BiRoeg and setting up a more favorable framework (bringing actors together, raising awareness, improving knowledge, proposing research subjects, etc.) enables the development of outlets and reduces transportation. This relocation of outlets creates jobs locally (where the resource is produced) and improves the environmental impact.
In addition, the BioReg model can be transposed to other sectors, identified within the framework of the program, such as RDF or for residues from the olive oil industry.
After multiple conversations, one of the project focuses remain a common legislation/classification on EU level and partners tried to examine to what extend a EU legislation in the field is feasible. BioReg also proposed the initiation of European Wood Waste Association, and dedicated associations in the 3 recipient regions, in order to facilitate relationships with structures of model regions (WRA, Rilegno, BAV).
At last, BioReg proposed to European players to meet once or twice a year (like in Brussel in December 2019) in order to advance the sector.

img-1164.jpg

Final event Brussels 2019

Final Bioreg International conference in Lisbon