The EU-funded Biorectors Project is strengthening the certification scheme for biological waste-based products, ensuring sustainability, traceability, and consumer confidence, and driving the transition to a circular bioeconomy.
The acceptance of biological waste-based products by consumers, and the intake of recommendations and guidelines by bio-based industries, accredited bodies and policy makers, rely heavily on the active participation and feedback of relevant stakeholders as Biorecer aims to represent the demands and needs of the EU bioeconomics.
Their insights will be used to adapt current certification schemes by including new criteria to demonstrate the sustainability, origin, and traceability of biological resources.
European bioeconomies emphasize the courage and sustainable use of biological resources. With increasing awareness of climate change and environmental degradation, the transition to a bio-based economy is seen as an important step towards sustainability.
Biological residues and waste, including food waste, organic urban waste, by-products from forestry, agriculture and fisheries, are expected to contribute significantly to the EU’s green transition and bring environmental and economic benefits.
Biological waste is often considered a burden and is incinerated or disposed of, but has the potential to be a renewable resource that replaces fossil ingredients. However, inadequate certification of biological ingredients and value chains is hindering its industrial use.
To increase the acceptance of biological waste-based raw materials and products by both industry and consumers, the EU-funded Project Biorector (Biological Resource Certification Scheme) aims to strengthen the current certification scheme by including new standards for sustainability, origin and traceability. This ensures applicability on the EU and worldwide.
Since its launch in September 2022, biorectors have already achieved several milestones on the path to a competitive, independent and sustainable EU bioeconomy. Bioeconomic stakeholder insights are crucial to the success of the project, and therefore Bioreka stakeholder platforms are set up to collect and pool knowledge, opinions and feedback.
Now that the project is in its final stage, we will develop guidelines for existing certification schemes by including new standards for certifying the traceability of biological resources from waste to product, using current project results and future insights from bioeconomic experts (e.g. bioplastics, fertilizers, fertilizers, and neutrals).
Milestones on the way to concise certification: Evaluating raw material flow in four case studies
The transition to a bio-based economy characterized by the sustainable use of renewable biological ingredients is expected to bring significant benefits to the EU’s economic growth, environmental protection and social development.
Advances in sustainable value chains based on biological ingredients are a prerequisite for the European green transition. However, stakeholders face a variety of challenges to ensure the large amount of biological ingredients available to a variety of industries.
Biorectors evaluated the value chains of four highly promising sectors: fisheries, forestry, agriculture and municipality. These sectors produce substantial amounts of biowaste, wastewater, residues and byproducts that are directly generated either at harvest or downstream.
Violesser performed material flow analysis (MFA) to map these biological raw material journeys to the value chain, identifying sources, trades, fates, and identifying the possibilities of optimizing closed-loop processes of biowaste and residues.
The evaluation of the case study shows that in the EU, significant amounts of organic residues are not collected and thus is inaccessible in bio-based industries. Biological waste (water) and by-products are primarily treated by waste, landfills, composting, anaerobic digestion, incineration, or energy production.
According to MFAS, only a very small percentage of organic residues are valued and proceed to bio-based industries (e.g. forests: 3%, OFMSW: 2%, sewage sludge: 0.3%). Current uses of organic residues for bio-based products are organic fertilizers, bioplastics, biocomposites, space subjects, and pesticides containing surfactants.
However, there is a lot of prospects for the development of a circular bio-based industry, as many technologies are under development and are already available or are progressing commercialised.
Biorecer ICT Tool (BIT) – Biorecer’s innovative digital backbone
The Biorecer ICT Tool (BIT) is the technical foundation of the Biorecer project, which aims to enhance environmental performance, traceability, and social acceptance of biological organisms based on biological waste and residues.
This digital platform is an automated assessment tool that collects information about environmental performance in a bio-based value chain. For example, it provides real-time access to stakeholders and the origin and use of specific raw materials or CO2 emissions during transportation. Therefore, it supports environmentally friendly decision-making and sustainable practices in the bioeconomics.
Bits also allow companies to assess whether they meet the minimum requirements for sustainability authentication, and what advanced criteria they need to meet to achieve a higher level of authentication.
BIT is currently in its final development and evaluation stage and is highly profitable from test user feedback from raw material providers, bio-based industry stakeholders and certified authors.
Standards for the EU Bioeconomics
The user-friendly standardization toolkit built by Biorecer is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the bio-based sector.
By adhering to the highest standards and considering relevant certification schemes, bioeconomic experts can adopt best practices to ensure the success of a variety of bio-based projects.
This toolkit offers a comprehensive selection of 26 national and international standards (such as UNI, EN, ISO standards) and 26 certification schemes (including key schemes such as ISCC) that span various aspects of the bio-based sector with a particular emphasis on circular economy strategies, environmental management, recycling, product usage and product comparisons.
Valuable recommendations for policymakers
Based on project findings such as material flow analysis, case studies, and identified circulation indicators, Biorecer developed policy recommendations compiled in a brief policy brief.
The simplest thing to do is to elaborate on seven recommendations, including:
It clearly defines organic residues and corresponding sustainability ambitions in bio-based materials and products, and clearly defines the potential entry points for organic residues into the processing value chain. It promotes the use of organic residues in EU bio-based products, particularly when organic residues cannot be reduced or avoided, and justifies use with safety standards when necessary. Clearly set quantitative sustainability goals and strategies for exploiting organic residues. If possible, clarify future bio-based requirements for the product and which of these requirements can be met by organic residues. An adapted certification scheme should be recognized as a central solution to avoid greenwashing and consumer deceptions and ensure corporate due diligence. Implementation of Mass Balance and Free Attribution (MBFA) in EU policies to promote transformation of the EU economy into a circular biological economy. Concise consumer information and awareness campaigns regarding bio-based products should be promoted.
With immediate anticipated additional project results, the final policy brief will be released in the summer of 2025, along with guidelines for certification schemes. Stakeholders are invited to provide feedback regarding the current version.
The importance of stakeholders to successfully complete a biorector
Violessers benefit greatly from expertise and exchange with stakeholders of bioeconomics, accreditation bodies, consumer organizations and policy makers. Their views, inputs, and feedback will help you identify and overcome project challenges and requirements.
To maximize collaboration and stakeholder engagement, Biorecer has established the Biorecer Stakeholders Platform (BRSP). BRSP is part of the Bioresources Innovation Ecosystem Living Labs (BRIE-LL), a digital web portal that evaluates methodologies for assessing methodologies developed within biolexers.
So far, biorector stakeholders have provided various forms of expertise, including biological ingredients incorporation, workshops, focus group discussions for the identification of barriers that prevent intake of training actions, webinars to test and evaluate bits, and DELPHI surveys to provide information on the development of various authentication scheme holders and biorectors and identify requirements for enhancing authentication schemes.
BRSP is still open to participate. Stakeholder engagement is highly recommended for those who wish to implement their opinions and opinions in future recommendations for policy makers and accredited scheme owners. Interested parties can be registered here: https://biorecer.eu/brsp/
For more information about the project, please visit the project website (https://biorecer.eu).
The project video provides a brief overview of the biorector’s objectives.
European Union funding. However, the opinions and opinions expressed are solely by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the European Union or European research enforcement agencies. Neither the European Union nor the permitting authority can be held liable for them.
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