The GO-GRASS project, funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, has recently published a White Paper for grassland opportunities to guide policy makers and increase opportunities for farmers and rural businesses to enhance the sustainable use of grasslands. Bioeconomy can be supported at the field level through best practices for the development of innovative and replicable business models.

To this end, the GO-GRASS project has analysed data and evidence for policy action and published a list of recommendations in the White Paper in order to promote solutions and sustainable products using grass and green fodder.

The final White Paper will be published at the end of the project (in 2024), supplemented with further findings and inputs from European, local and regional stakeholders.

Longstanding research on wood cascading has identified a variety of factors to enable more efficient, circular use of forest-based products in Europe.

This paper finds that two of the most critical barriers to wood cascading are:

• Competition between energy and material uses of waste wood in policy, market and infrastructure
• Inadequate information on and low quality of waste wood, including pollutant content.

It makes the following recommendations for policies and business:

• Redesign production processes to deal with contamination and increase quality
• Coordinate energy and waste policies
• Advance reporting standards about material composition of bioproducts
• Explore the best forms of involvement, awareness raising, communication and policies.

Romania’s recycling rate of 13% is one of the lowest in the EU with most waste going to landfill. The publication explains how the city of Sălacea, in the north-west of Romania, not only managed to quickly rise from almost no waste recycling to 40% in 3 months, but also how the community reduced its overall waste by 55%.

The case study also explains how political will, commitment from local waste operators and involvement of the community were key to the success of the strategy. The municipality introduced door-to-door household separate collection for 5 types of waste (paper and cardboard, plastic and metal, glass, bio-waste, residual waste) and implemented a four-week education programme with citizens before changing the collection infrastructure.