The objective of Upcycle Your Waste was to accelerate the adoption of circular business cases by SMEs that transform waste flows into resources at local level. Project partners aimed to achieve this by developing and introducing knowledge, tools and facilities that enable SMEs and local authorities to make this transition. The overall result of the project was an increased adoption of circular business cases by SMEs in the partner areas, quantified as 360 SMEs adopting circular business cases and a percentage of the pre-existing waste stream being upcycled on a structural basis. Additionally, the project would lead to an improved capacity of local authorities, business district managers and SMEs in other parts of the 2 Seas area to introduce circular business practices, through their capacity building and dissemination&transfer activities. They specifically focused on circular solutions for company waste at the local level. This was considered to be the most sustainable form of circularity, combining resource efficiency with local economic development while avoiding transportation of waste. This unique approach allowed partners to work closely with local SMEs to enable cooperation and synergies across sectors, combine waste streams, look for local industrial symbiosis and introduce circular business cases on a broader scale.

The main outputs of the Upcycle Your Waste project are: 

● A guide to waste management Opportunities;

● A training and capacity building programme for SMEs;

● A guidance for upcycling for local authorities and business district managers;

● Six pilots introducing upcycling of business waste streams at local business area level.

Check the “Outputs” section below to download related material and see “Main Achievements” section for further information about the achieved results.

Local authorities and business district managers in all 2 Seas Member States can play a leading role in facilitating SMEs to make the transition to a circular economy at the local level. To develop and demonstrate solutions and tools that can accelerate the adoption of circular business cases by SMEs in the 2 Seas area, partners have created an ambitious partnership. The previous expertise for each of the partners was very different and complementary. On top of that, each partner operates in different kinds of environments, at different geographical scales and with different associated partners to count on. This made a very interesting exchange of best practice and input for the 6 local pilots to be set up. The Academy had a big impact and will continue to be offered for free worldwide, with input from all partners and 2 Seas participants being used to educate new generations of circular economy adepts. This has led to more visibility for the topic of upcycling which was necessary to motivate some of the local authorities and SMEs the project is trying to reach. A concrete change that partners have experienced is the increased attention internally to the topic of upcycling. People still too often refer to waste management as recycling only and the upcycling approach is very different. The active guidance to raise awareness and the waste scans can lead to a real benefit environmentally and economically speaking. It was an important finding that although circularity can benefit companies in the long run, this is not well known. Making business owners aware of the importance of sustainability and the cost savings needs to be done bottom-up. The behavioural change is probably the most important change that this project has facilitated, and it will continue to live on after the project has ended.