Sustainable material recycling requires superior technology and a clear assessment of the larger picture – circular economy. The research program Material Value Chains strengthened these both.
The significance of circular economy is increasing in the entire world as the climate is warming, waste amounts are growing and natural resources are diminishing. In circular economy products get new users and use before they are parted with and their materials are reused.
The research program Material Value Chains focused primarily on the sustainable recycling of materials. The program brought together the industry’s most significant Finnish technology and service companies, as well as research institutes to work on joint research questions for the first time. Thanks to the program researchers were able to study material flows from a systemic point of view, i.e. as entities and explore their significance for circular economy in Finland and abroad.
The research results offer ways to promote methods of recovering and reusing individual materials. In addition, the operational procedures created in the program support local analysis of material flows and thus promote the large-scale recycling of materials. All in all, the program strengthened domestic competence in the industry and competitiveness in the growing international markets. In this report we present examples of research results.
The nearly three-year ARVI Material Value Chains research program ended at the close of 2016. The program’s participants included 22 companies and 10 research institutes. The full value of the research was 10 million euro of which 35 percent came from companies, 15 percent from public research institutes and 50 percent from Tekes.
The research program is a part of CLIC Innovation Ltd’s project portfolio. CLIC Innovation Ltd was born with the merger of CLEEN, a hub of cutting edge strategic energy and environmental competence, and bioeconomy hub FIBIC in September 2015.
Pirjo Kaivos
ARVI Program Manager
CLIC Innovation Ltd