CuCilento (which can be understand to mean both "Sew slowly" and "Sew in Cilento", a region in Campania) is an innovative business project designed by Sarah Khoudja as part of the EU's 'Empowering Women in Agrifood' programme led by the Future Food Institute. It is an upcycling workshop which processes agricultural by-products and other materials (boat sails, factory scraps, etc.) classified as waste and turns them into net or fabric bags that can be used for food packaging or shopping.
Skanska is a leading construction and development company that has made sustainability a crucial part of its operations. With the assistance of Cyrkl, it has taken on the challenge of deconstructing the Merkuria building, revolutionising the industry, saving materials and helping charities in the process.
Arany Kapu (in English "golden gate"), a private company in Kunfehértó, Hungary, collects grape processing and winemaking byproducts from all the country's wine regions for valorisation in diverse forms, including distillation.
The Swedish company Re:Lab AB has developed a chemical circular economy solution to convert plastic items used in research laboratories into a syngas comprised of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. These two components are in high demand for the production of chemicals and plastics.
Blue Plastics technology, called CleanBlueTech, is a pioneering, solvent-based, closed-loop washing technology that removes smell, glue, print-ink and organic residues from any plastic flexible film waste.
CleanBlueTech is a game changer as it uses 70% less energy and 100% less water than existing technologies.
IOBAC avoids adhesive and attaches its flooring materials partly by means of magnets. Its Dual-Grip technology affixes flooring using both magnetism and tack. This means that tiles can be taken up and reused, keeping the components in the value chain, or recycled. The technology is manufactured using plant-based VOC-free resins, recycled rubber tyres and additives from scrap iron.
The Hungarian Ministry of Finance approved a HUF 197.85 million non-refundable grant for Hutoepito, the parent company of KleanLabs, in order to fund research, development and innovation activities under the Upcycling of closed-cell rigid polyurethane foams project, which ran until 31 January 2025.
Tarkett is pioneering post-use flooring recycling in Europe. It is working with IKEA to transform used Tarkett flooring from the IKEA Kungens Kurva store into new flooring.
Tarkett worked with the Swedish environmental company Ragn-Sells to develop carbon negative mineral fillers for vinyl flooring using Estonian oil shale ash.
