[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/10460\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EBeyond the bin: giving biowaste a second life\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s hard to imagine a world without coffee given how many people enjoy kick-starting their day with a freshly brewed cup.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EOnce the coffee beans are roasted and brewed, the leftover powder \u2013 coffee grounds \u2013 is often thrown away. Millions of tonnes of the powder end up every year in landfills, where its decomposition worsens the climate crisis by emitting methane.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cb\u003EOld matter, new goods\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBut coffee grounds can be recycled into a wide range of products. The EU-funded \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/818308\u0022\u003EWaysTUP!\u003C\/a\u003E project is coming up with different ways to give coffee and other organic waste from European cities a second life.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We are trying to open the gates for products that were unthinkable before,\u2019 said Amadeo Semper, who works for SAV \u2013 Agricultores de la Vega, a Spanish waste-management company that coordinates the project.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EValencia-based SAV collects coffee grounds from local coffee shops, which sort the waste in a separate bin stockpiled along a \u201csmart\u201d collection route that prevents the material from rotting.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThrough a series of chemical and extraction processes, the company then transforms this waste into a range of high-quality food ingredients. These includes carotenoids, which are natural pigments that can be used for their orange colour, and polyphenols\u0026nbsp;\u2013\u0026nbsp;antioxidants that can help protect against various diseases.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Carotenoids are usually made synthetically, but we have developed a process to do this in a natural way,\u2019 said Semper.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe four-year project, which ends in August this year, also works with 25 other partners to collect, process and refine more bio-based products.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cstrong\u003EBeans to bioplastics\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAmong the partners is a UK-based company called bio-bean, which turns coffee grounds into coffee oil or upscales it into high-value products such as barbecue charcoal, heating logs and natural flavours.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile bio-bean already had experience extracting coffee oil to make renewable biofuels, the EU\u2019s research funding allowed the company to expand to a new application: bioplastics.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EWe are trying to open the gates for products that were unthinkable before.\r\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EAmadeo Semper, WaysTUP!\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Coffee oil is an exciting area where we could deliver a clean technology and promote sustainability,\u2019 said Ben Mills-Lamptey, chief technology officer at bio-bean.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ELike SAV, bio-bean collects coffee grounds from large chains such as Costa and Starbucks, which store the waste in a separate container, and from factories that produce instant coffee.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EWith the help of urban waste-management companies, bio-bean receives tens of thousands of tonnes of coffee grounds every year. After the removal of anything that isn\u2019t coffee, the powder is dried and coffee oil is extracted.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EUltimately, the coffee oil is sent to other WaysTUP! partners. It is first fermented to create bio-degradable polyesters, which are then turned into bioplastic.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There is nothing like waste,\u2019 said Mills-Lamptey. \u2018We should all change our minds towards that and use the resources that we have more efficiently.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERange of uses\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBio-bean is now extracting the coffee oil at a factory while creating other goods from used coffee that are sold commercially. Its dried coffee grounds product, \u201cInficaf\u201d, has a range of applications including in cars and in home, shop and restaurant interiors.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It can be used in brake pads or to make kitchen cabinets,\u2019 Mills-Lamptey said.\u0026nbsp;\u2018And most of the backgrounds at Costa or McDonald\u2019s are now made with spent coffee grounds.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBut the potential of biowaste isn\u2019t limited to coffee.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBack in Valencia,\u0026nbsp;SAV also uses the leftovers from meat and fish to create new types of food.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EIt collects the fish and meat by-products from the city\u2019s Central Market, one of the biggest food markets in Europe. With the help of the municipality, it gives back value to hundreds of kilos of animal leftovers that would otherwise be costly to discard.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESAV developed a way to turn fish waste into collagen, a protein used both to feed animals and to make food such as jelly desserts as well as pharmaceutical pills. It also found a way to reuse animal blood from slaughterhouses as a component in bio-fertilisers.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cb\u003ENetwork of cities\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The range of products and applications that we can get from urban biowaste is huge,\u2019 said Martin Soriano, an environmental scientist at CETENMA, a private non-profit technology centre in Spain.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe products span proteins for food and animal feed, compost, bio-fertilisers, construction materials and cosmetics ingredients.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESoriano is using his academic background in biowaste applications to manage \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/101000836\u0022\u003EHOOP\u003C\/a\u003E, an EU-funded project that was inspired by WaysTUP! and other research initiatives in the field.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003EThe range of products and applications that we can get from urban biowaste is huge.\r\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EMartin Soriano, HOOP\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EHOOP, which began in 2020 and runs through September 2024, is helping European cities and regions use technologies developed in those other initiatives to recycle biowaste into valuable products.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ESoriano\u2019s team focuses on recovering solid biowaste and wastewater sludge in eight so-called lighthouse cities and regions in Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain. Coordinated by CETENMA, HOOP is building the legal, financial and technical expertise in these areas for biowaste investments.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EHOOP also includes 44 other members committed to replicating the practices and the aim is to have a network of 100 cities and regions in total.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERecycling urban biowaste and wastewater on a large scale would reduce the strain on landfills, help tackle global warming and generate green jobs in urban areas.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cb\u003ESpreading the word\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003ETo promote the circular economy further, WaysTUP! and HOOP are speaking with people across Europe to increase their awareness and acceptance of bio-based products.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe message is being spread at public events, in interactive exhibitions, on regional television and radio and even at local food markets.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EBy sharing the results of their work, the two projects aim to highlight the safety and environmental benefits of bio-recycled products.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The best way to convince consumers is to show them the benefits,\u2019 said Mills-Lamptey of bio-bean.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EResearch in this article was funded by the EU. 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