Through an innovative collaboration between civil society actors, the municipal authority and industry, local organic waste is utilised and turned into pellets feeding the biomass boiler of a municipal building, a kindergarten.
Specifically, the Energy Community of Karditsa (ESEK) operates a biomass pellet production plant in the rural area of Karditsa. Traditionally, they have been working with woody biomass, including agricultural and forest residue, municipal pruning and wood residue from local carpentry. Through a collaboration with our project partner incommon, a civil non-profit company based in Thessaloniki working to promote the circular economy across several communities and sectors, coffee waste was added to the supply chain of the pellet production plant. Incommon implemented several activities in the area with the aim to raise awareness and train a few local coffee shops into the habit of separating coffee waste at source. The coffee waste is collected from the coffee shops that participate in the scheme, transported to the premises of the plant, dried and then used as feedstock in its production process. The resulting pellets are a combination of woody biomass and coffee waste, arrived at through testing and experimentation, with the support of CERTH | Centre for Research and Technology Hellas. At the same time, the local authority in collaboration with ESEK and with the support of the Horizon 2020 BEcoop project, replaced the boiler of a municipal building with a biomass boiler. The pellets produced are then given to this municipal building, which is a local kindergarten, to cover its heating requirements for the entire relevant period of the year.
This scheme is a socially and technologically innovative collaboration between local stakeholders with multiple benefits for the environment, society and the economy:
- It closes the loop of several waste streams, including coffee waste, municipal pruning, wood residue and forest residue, diverting them from the landfill or other harmful disposal practices, and creating added value by incorporating them into the production process as raw materials.
- It strengthens the community by bringing together actors from across the bioeconomy sector, including private and public sector, industry, local authorities and civil society, fostering a resilient local ecosystem of stakeholders.
- It reduces municipal costs as the cost associated with pellet heating is significantly lower than the cost of burning oil, which was the case for the kindergarten prior to replacing its heating system.
- It reduces greenhouse gas emissions both by diverting the waste from the landfill and by replacing a fossil fuel with a renewable source of energy. Finally, the supply chain of the plant becomes more resilient and inputs are diversified, as these waste streams are essentially renewable.
In a nutshel: This circular bioeconomy initiative takes waste from the community and gives it back to it as input to cover the heating needs of its youngest generation, bringing value to the environment, society and economy of the community. The project is currently at the stage of collecting technical data in order to frame its positive environmental and financial impact and generate replicable results and to expand ESEK’s business operations.