THE PROJECT
Decentralised bio-waste management
The DECISIVE project brings together a multi-disciplinary consortium willing to design and implement innovative bio-waste management schemes, targeting urban bio-waste. The growing attractiveness of cities leads to an increasing dependence of urban centres on food importations and waste exportations. By developing decentralised bio-waste management schemes to be implemented in urban and peri-urban area, DECISIVE aims to promote a local waste management system producing valuable products for urban farming, thus closing the organic loop. Therefore, The project will contribute to shifting from a linear
paradigm relying on imports of goods and exports of waste, to a circular concept promoting local production, consumption, and waste management.
A work approach in two steps
To reach its objective, the DECISIVE project will rely on a two-step approach, mixing research activities and practical implementation.
- A concept and tools consolidation step to validate the methods and processes allowing the implementation of a network of decentralised anaerobic digestion plants. New technologies, methods and indicators will be developed and integrated in a decision-support tool to allow their implementation in urban contexts.
- An innovative demonstration step to prove the efficiency of the methods and processes. It will focus on the implementation of two demonstration sites, the assessment of the integrated social, ecological, and economic impacts, and the identification of business outlooks.
New concepts and tools
The consortium will develop new processes allowing to treat municipal bio-waste in urban and peri-urban context, namely micro-scale anaerobic digestion units allowing to treat the bio-waste production of a district and solid stade fermentation plants to produce valuable bioproducts out of the micro-AD’s digestate. Moreover, a decision making tool will be also develop to allow public authorities and waste experts to assess the potential of such processes for their territory. Finally, communication and training materials will be designed to promote the new system to local stakeholders: citizens, restaurants, urban farms…
Demonstration sites
The new methods, tools and technologies will be implemented and tested in two demonstration sites:
- In Lyon (France) the system will be implemented on the site of an urban farm to test the coupling of urban bio-waste management with urban farming
- In Catalonia (Spain) the concept will be tested in an urban context with mainly household waste
These pilot sites will be closely monitored to determine the benefic environmental, social and economic impact and prove the theoritical concept in concrete situations.