The Italian company CIA has found that the most appropriate way to reuse coffee husks is as a fertiliser and soil conditioner by composting them in organic farms.

Ricehouse natural mortars are obtained by expertly mixing aerial lime with rice husks, a agricultural by-product derived from husking raw rice.

Italy's Puglia Region has large expanses of olive groves. Pruning these trees yields around 800 kilotonnes of residual biomass each year and Fiusis uses this biomass to produce energy.

Coffee grounds contain many nutrients which are excellent for growing mushrooms. This secondary raw material is even ready for use, having been sterilised at 80 to 90°C by the coffee machine. What's left once the mushrooms have been collected is a good fertiliser.

EntoGreen aims to develop sustainable feed and organic fertilisers by using bio-based technologies to recycle nutrients from agricultural and food waste and reintroducing them into the food chain, thus closing the nutrient cycle.

In May 2019, the Belgium-based fruit and vegetable cutting business Allgro set up its own water plant. The facility turns wastewater into drinking water, thereby slashing the food company’s mains water consumption.

“Staramaki” is a straw made of wheat. It is produced by a social cooperative KoinSep in Kilkis, northern Greece. The most widely produced local product wheat is used to create a viable eco-friendly alternative to single use plastic straws. At the same time they create employment opportunities and promote social cohesion, as well as local and regional development.

Alchemia-nova, the Institute for innovative phytochemistry and closed loop processes, has colloborated with vertECO, GRETA and LooPi to develop three types of green walls, which treat wastewater to service water standards and create plant biomass and fertiliser.

Ateliere Fără Frontiere is a social enterprise fighting against the exclusion, marginalisation and discrimination of the most disadvantaged categories of people, and acting for their social and professional integration.

Legno Urbano is an innovative project developed in Italy to promote wood recovery from trees which are felled in urban areas because of their age, their instability or spatial planning needs.

This Life DOP project operated in partnership with the Italian dairy company Consorzio Latterie Virgilio uses livestock waste in anaerobic digestion plants to produce renewable energy and renewable fertilisers (solid digestate) which are then exported to non-livestock areas.

The Lavandula project focuses on using agro-food by-products to produce active ingredients used in cosmetics.

In order to create a new commercial use for raw wool, the Italian association Post Industriale Ruralità has developed a form of vertical hydroponic cultivation using wool instead of soil.

PET is currently the only plastic that can be 100 % recycled. Food grade PET is the key to plastic waste recycling. No other plastics are permitted for reuse in the production of new food packaging.

Enrich manufactures organic compost in an open windrow system using source segregated green waste such as garden clippings and landscaping materials.

PermaFungi is a Brussels-based social cooperative that recycles waste coffee grounds into different upcycled products.

By identifiying good practices in turning biomass to heat or power, the uP_running project is unlocking the strong potential of woody biomass residues produced by Agrarian Pruning and Plantation Removals.

AgriChemWhey seeks to build first-of-a-kind bio-refinery with a view to transforming dairy waste into added-value bio-based products.