Identification of eu success factors for sustainable wood waste valorization

Absorbing the potential of wood waste in EU regions and industrial biobased ecosystems is the objective of the BioReg project funded by the European Union. Overall, the project aims to identify, develop and fully unlock the unused wood waste potential at European level and allow for the implementation of the full range of wood waste valorisation practices among European regions. For the purpose, five model regions were analyzed and three recipient regions will be engaged in replication of good practices. Demonstrator case studies have been selected among European regions – Gothenburg, Sweden; Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany; Lombardy, Italy; North West England, United Kingdom and Vorarlberg and Styria, Austria; which have set up renewable wood waste-based systems at different stages of the waste wood value chain including different wood waste source, pre-sorting, sorting, collection, recycling and wood waste treatment (to materials, biochemicals or biofuels). Three recipient regions were selected for this project: singled out in regards to their unused waste wood potential: Normandy (France), Lubelskie (Poland) and Alentejo and Lisboa (Portugal). Therefore, the current work aims to identify ‘success factors’, i.e. factors that have contributed to the development of successful wood waste ecosystems in the model regions as well as factors that seem unsuccessful in this respect. The analysis shows that all the model regions have common features: a) National legislation and policies push forward the wood waste valorization; b) Landfilling with organic waste is prohibited/restricted; c) Existence of a good network within the region or in the country to collect, to classify and to sort the wood waste. Most of the model regions are constructing a pathway of valorization, that ranks first recycling and after energy, following the EU policies and recommendations and this should also be taken into account by the recipient regions. A toolbox of EU success factors was also constructed and will be available at the BioReg platform.