Across the EU, between 60 and 70% of soils are unhealthy, as an outcome of erosion, loss of organic matter, contamination, unsustainable management practices and desertification, among other factors. Soil degradation in turn affects water pollution and scarcity, biodiversity loss, climate change, as well as food security, and thus has cross-border and transverse effects on human health, natural ecosystems, climate and on the economy. On the other hand, bio-waste, which is a valuable resource for improving soil fertility, is currently landfilled or incinerated in the EU at a rate of 80%.
The main objective of BIN2BEAN is to help EU cities meet EU targets and objectives in their transition to healthy soils and soil regenerative systems, by optimising bio-waste recycling into soil improvers through innovative and economically viable value chains. The project will implement 3 Living Labs (LL), as pilot city-regions, to follow a multi-actor and participative approach. In each LL, a tailored evaluation framework to demonstrate the safety, environmental and socio-economic performance of soil improvers will be co-designed and implemented, through field testing on experimental sites, feasibility studies and choice experiments. The data obtained will feed into a pilot scoring system to help cities select the most effective solutions. The highest scored solutions will be selected for the development of innovative and tailored business models.
The pre-market processes will be monitored through Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA). Finally, based on all previous results, local, national and EU policy roadmaps will be drafted, including waste charging policies and citizen awareness campaigns in the city-region, that will be piloted in LLs. All this will feed into a PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) approach, enabling cities to create a continuous value-based improvement loop towards regenerative soil systems. BIN2BEAN will support local waste management with the creation of 40 start-ups specialising in the soil improvers value chains. This will help to reach Europe's 2035 objectives of reducing landfill to 10% of total waste while reinjecting nearly 135,000 tonnes of nitrogen and 45,000 tonnes of phosphorus into soils in an environmental and sustainable way.
Finnish Food Authority’s main role in BIN2BEAN is related to the evaluation framework including improved QA/QC protocols for collection and composting or digestating of biowaste, improved testing methods to demonstrate the safety of soil improvers, including interlaboratory comparison test protocols, and a set of indicators generating data to support improved environmental performance.
Keywords:
Soil improvement, Waste recycling, Food waste, Waste management
In collaboration/project group:
CONSORZIO ITALBIOTEC (Coordinator), N3 NACHHALTIGKEITSBERATUNG DR.FRIEGE & PARTNER WIRTSCHAFTS- UNDNATURWISSENSCHAFTLER, DANMARKS TEKNISKE UNIVERSITET, STICHTING WAGENINGEN RESEARCH, WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY, STICHTING AMSTERDAM INSTITUTE FORADVANCED METROPOLITAN SOLUTIONS(AMS), ETA - ENERGIA, TRASPORTI, AGRICOLTURA SRL, DIMOS EGALEO, STADTREINIGUNG HAMBURG AOR, HIICCE HAMBURG INSTITUTE FOR INNOVATION CLIMATE PROTECTION AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY GMBH, EUROQUALITY SAS
Duration:
1.9.2023 – 31.8.2026
Funding:
Horizon (HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01-02)
Publications
Maunuksela L., Lehtonen M., Pelkonen A. & Relander A. (2023) Innovations for soil improvement from bio-waste - BIN2BEAN. Poster (pdf).
Contact in Ruokavirasto:
Liisa Maunuksela (liisa.maunuksela@ruokavirasto.fi), Anne Relander, Aija Pelkonen, Mikko Lehtonen