Autumn is in full swing – and with it, the realisation that our project will soon enter its last year of activity! It feels like only yesterday we were kickstarting this journey and yet, we already accomplished so much, and it has been a pleasure working with such dedicated colleagues…whom we will soon meet in person! 😍
But enough with the nostalgia – welcome to our fifth edition of the REDOL newsletter, where you get a rundown of everything that has happened in the past few months, whether we’re talking about high-level events, developing robots, or establishing meaningful collaborations with sister projects and initiatives working on our areas. 👐
So grab your favourite beverage (pumpkin spice still allowed!) and take a couple of moments to go through our newsletter! 💌
What happened ✨
We are proud to announce that we wrapped up our working sessions of the Zaragoza Circular Hub! Since our last newsletter was sent out, we’ve organised and conducted the third and fourthsessions, online and in-person, respectively.
- The 3rd session benefitted from insightful contributions from James Woodcock, François Vulser, and Elena Nasarre García, who shared experiences and data with us, that would prove a real support for us moving the Hub forward. We also brainstormed on potential funding mechanisms that would help turn the Hub from a promising vision into a real structure.
- The 4th and last session included introductory words from Gobierno de Aragón – Government of Aragon, and ICLEI Europe (the organisers of the session), a presentation of the Circular Economy Cluster initiated by Ibersyd | Iber Sostenibilidad y Desarrollo (we discussed its formation, governance, objectives, roles of each member), a co-creation session, and an overview of the REDOL Circular Community and next steps
You can now also find information on the Hub here 👉 https://www.redolproject.eu/replication/
They say a picture is worth a thousand words – but then, a video should be worth a novel! And we have several such novels prepared for you, showcasing the innovative solutions we came up with to make the sorting of waste – something that is a real obstacle in the management of waste everywhere – easier and more efficient. The videos are short and they walk you through each of the sorting systems, step-by-step. You can find them all in the playlist above! ⬆️
Events we took part in 🗣️
We often cannot keep up with all the events our team is attending or organising – from big conferences, to workshops, meetings, fairs, exhibitions, awareness-raising events in schools… you name it and someone from REDOL has done it! Let’s see which boxes we ticked in these past months, in reverse chronological order:
- We joined the popular European Researchers’ Night initiative and went to the activities in Zaragoza, where researchers from Universidad de Zaragoza explained basic concepts related to recycling, sustainability, and circular economy – also our focus in REDOL – to participants 🧑🔬
- Our colleagues at CIRCE – Centro Tecnológico and AMB impulsa / AMB electrónica went to this year’s Burgos Industry 4.0 Technology meeting where they presented the AI-powered solutions developed in REDOL i.e. our machine that extracts PCB components 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXQpFdOF6qg&t=5s
- We were present at ITENE‘s Research in Progress corner at K – The World’s No.1 Trade Fair for Plastics and Rubber that featured the EU-funded projects they are contributing to 📔
- Back to school is (still) so cool – we held our first workshop with students as part of our Café Repair initiative and we taught them basic welding techniques to understand how, and why, we should extend the life of our electronic devices to reduce waste and take better care of our planet 🔨
- Our colleagues at Next Technology Tecnotessile attended the ECOSYSTEX Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden (a network that we also joined recently, more on that below), to promote their work on the sustainable transition of the textile sector, as shown in several EU-funded projects and initiatives, including ours 🙌
- Next Technology Tecnotessile was also present at the first edition of the Textile Recycling Expo in Brussels, where they presented our poster focusing on the textile value chain and how they optimise the sorting system for textile waste, while facilitating the recycling of certain textile materials through a specific pre-treatment 👕
- Last but not least, we went to the Prato Textile District Days, an event that explores the transformation of Prato, famous for its textile industry, due to digital transition, sustainability issues, and new EU regulations 🚀
Media appearances & blogs ✍️
- Great news for our visibility: we were featured with an article in innovaspain.com, the leading Spanish publication on all news concerning innovation! ✨
- Another one for our Spanish speakers: CIRCE – Centro Tecnológico, our coordinating institution, also published a blog post on their website the technology they developed that helps identify and sort materials for better waste management
Synergies and collaborations 🤝
- We are honoured to have become a member of ECOSYSTEX, the European Community of Practice for a Sustainable Textile Ecosystem, which reunites a staggering 77 member projects and more than 440 experts! We already had one meeting where we outlined the terms of our cooperation and explored potential synergies, so there’s more to come!😊
- We joined Remedies‘ Anti-Litter Campaign in Spain, an initiative designed to raise awareness of the dangers of plastic pollution and the innovative ways through which we can promote waste reduction. Read more about the campaign: https://remedies-for-ocean.eu/innovating-for-cleaner-futures-aitiips-anti-litter-campaign-in-spain/
- We took on the REVOLVE challenge and joined the Steady Race, an initiative designed to spotlight EU-funded projects working on sustainability matters ♻️
- Our colleague Jorge Arroyo, PhD took part in a joint webinar with LIFE POLITEX and Life ANHIDRA EU project where he introduced REDOL as a developer of circular, scalable solutions for a more competitive and sustainable Europe; you can watch the webinar recording here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knUyIDxQnVk
- We have been a part of the #CircularConstructionCluster for some time now and we’re always delighted to meet our fellow members and discuss upcoming priorities, milestones, or simply update each other on our work and explore potential synergies
Upcoming events – where you can find us 📌
- Next week, our colleagues at Cemex go to Ecofira, an international fair in Valencia, that explores waste collection, treatment, recovery, recycling etc. and more importantly, innovations towards better waste management! We cannot wait to hear their impressions.
- On 10 December, we are joining a webinar organised by ICLEI Europe as part of a series focused on Industrial-Urban Symbiosis. You can download the flyer in their post and register 👉 https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7389575573628526592/
- And we kept the best for last: our whole team will reunite for a General Assembly meeting in sunny Valencia, where we will be hosted by ITENE ! We’re looking forward to two days of presentations, workshops, a site visit, and of course, some informal catch-up sessions… 🥰
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