THE UPCYCL: Industrial-symbiosis reveals great environmental benefit of upcycling

Through the knowledgebridge project “CO₂-assesment of Industry ressource-symbiosis”, great results to strenghen upcycling activities between companies are revealed.

The project is now completed and th results show that the choice of guideline has a significant meaning to calculate ones environmental improvements and impacts.

The results will be used as teaching material at Aalborg University, and for THE UPCYCL, the project confirms their efforts to make residual materials available for companies to use while at the same time reducing their material waste. There is now research evidence of the positive environmental impact of these activities.

Today, multiple guidelines or methods to evaluate environmental impacts of a company’s circular practices exit – also by how to use industrial materials from one production to another.

The methods investigated are based on three well-established guidelines commonly used in industry: Greenhouse Gas Protocol Product Life Cycle Guideline (GHGP PLC), the ISO 14040-44 series and the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology from the European Commission. These methods were used to assess three concrete upcycling cases with members of THE UPCYCL.

The companies have contributed data and knowledge about specific products and materials, which Aalborg University has analyzed on a scientific level – Final report

Aalborg University has been responsible for selecting the three guidelines and analyzing the methods in practice in the three cases. In addition, the university has carried out a critical assessment of the scientific levels of the different methods and their effectiveness in promoting positive environmental change.

This project was really useful to learn and explore the diversity of existing guidelines to evaluate the environmental impacts of industrial symbiosis, and the different incentives they produce. It was particularly valuable to work with specific industry cases so that we could take the complexity of the real world into account, and give more relevance to the study – Massimo Pizzol, researcher, Aalborg University

Results

The project results show that the choice of guideline and methodology has a significant impact on the incentive to engage in circular practices. In the case of upcycling, the GHG PLC and the PEF model favor buyers of residual materials, while the ISO standards primarily benefit suppliers of industrial material flows who forward their residual materials. For suppliers, the environmental improvements are between 0-14%, while the upcycled material buyers experience improvements of between 2-100%, depending on the methodology used and the case.

An important insight from the project is that: “the choice of method is of great importance for the result, as otherwise uncertainty can arise when companies want to talk about possible environmental improvements”.

Deciding whether to classify the material flow from the activities as resource or waste streams was a key challenge, as it has a significant impact on which method to use – Final report

Another important lesson learned in the project was that the classification of the material flows as either ‘resource’ or ‘waste streams’ affects the choice of methodology and can influence the results. Detailed knowledge from the companies about their materials and current and/or alternative use and disposal was therefore extremely relevant to the project. This confirms how data availability and quality is a key element in the preparation of life cycle assessments.

Part of something bigger

The results of the project will in the future be part of Aalborg University’s teaching activities and will be presented at conferences. Through the Knowledge Bridge project, THE UPCYCL has strengthened the bridge between academic knowledge and practical use of residual materials from industry and continues to promote a more circular future through increased collaboration in industry-symbiosis.