As a Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI) Project, HOOP provides research and innovation to generate and share knowledge, create skills and demonstrate systemic solutions. Having successfully deployed local bio-economies in eight European cities and regions known as Lighthouses, HOOP transforms waste management practices and develops high-value products from urban biowaste, boosting circularity at local and regional levels, in line with the CCRI’s goals.

The challenge: extracting value from biowaste to boost the circular economy

HOOP is focused on managing and valorising urban biowaste, which is a huge problem for the environment as each person in Europe generates around 200 kg of urban biowaste each year. The current solution, composting, does not use the waste’s full potential, resulting in low-value final products. Additionally, urban wastewater treatment produces sludge, a major water pollutant.

In our interview with HOOP coordinators, the CETENMA team explained that HOOP can support investments at local and regional scales across Europe in the circular economy to turn biowaste into high-value products beyond the typical compost and biogas:

‘HOOP has developed tools to evaluate the maturity and circularity of the projects using the advice of the Circular Investors Board and the guidance of the Investment Package Manual. Our experience allows us to identify any challenges/barriers in the project development, which is essential to increase bankability.’

The Bio-Circularity Label tool: enabling cities and regions to evaluate their own circularity

HOOP helps innovate circular urban biowaste processing by creating tools to assist Lighthouses and projects. One successful HOOP tool is the ‘Bio-Circularity Label’, which enables cities and regions to self-evaluate their initiatives to assess their circularity performance. The Label considers four insight areas (policy, society, resource consumption and resource management) with a special emphasis on urban biowaste and wastewater.

HOOP Lighthouse Murcia (Spain) used the Label to implement a stakeholder platform, introduce a taxation system for landfill, and invest in an anaerobic digestion plant using bacteria to break down biowaste, which cost an estimated EUR 7 million.

In Almere, the Netherlands, the Label revealed the separate collection rates and quality of biowaste was subpar. This insight led change to improve the biowaste separate collection system and boost investment by EUR 4.46 million in the city.

Using Label, Greece’s Western Macedonia identified people were reluctant to use bioproducts derived from biowaste. They then launched a series of educational campaigns to enhance bioproduct acceptance, which stimulated the bioeconomy. Through HOOP’s Label tool, this Lighthouse generated innovative solutions to increase acceptance of waste reuse and promote circularity, a key CCRI objective.

The ‘Project Maturity Level’ (PML) tool: empowering cities and regions to assess the bankability of their circular initiatives

Benefitting promoters, developers and investors of urban circular bioeconomy projects, the PML tool provides guidance for self-assessing the bankability of urban circular bioeconomies. The tool evaluates and ranks project maturity and identifies areas for improvement, with insights from the HOOP Circular Investors Board.

The PML tool has been used in Albano, Italy, to highlight the business model shortcomings in the valorisation of used cooking oils into biopolymers. This led to actions to address business model challenges and improve stakeholder engagement.

Western Macedonia also used the PML tool to evaluate the potential of producing functional ingredients from used coffee grounds where it proved essential for identifying the need for pilot-scale steps before final production. As a result, the region successfully applied for Interreg funding to implement the circular solution project in the region.

HOOP’s support to other projects

Beyond producing tools for the management of urban biowaste, HOOP has supported the development of bio-based and circular solutions in cities across Europe. The team behind HOOP explained the circular economy experience they bring to the CCRI community as one of the longest running CCRI Projects:

‘We can offer methodologies, tools and guidance (HOOP Hub) covering all phases of circular bioeconomy projects, until they reach enough maturity for bankability. This covers the initial assessment (urban metabolism, technologies), business models, stakeholder engagement, identifying funding/financing opportunities and innovation public procurement.’

In Bergen, Norway, HOOP helped get the ‘Production of microalgae from food by-products’ project off the ground, having supported the proof-of-concept on a large scale to demonstrate the project was feasible. As a result, the project has secured EUR 1 million in equity and EUR 661.000 in funding of its goal of EUR 2 million.

Likewise, in Kuopio, Finland, HOOP supported the ‘Pyrolysis pilot plant for the production of biochar’ project by analysing urban metabolism and suggesting best available techniques for the city. HOOP suggested developing pyrolysis, which led to successful biochar production. Consequently, the projected achieved a budget of EUR 830 000, obtained from both European funding (ERDF, ESF) and private investment.

HOOP has also been used by Porto, Portugal, to facilitate an open market consultation organised by the municipal waste management company LIPOR. The goal was to address wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery in an anaerobic digestion plant for urban biowaste, for which they secured an investment of approximately EUR 50 million for 2025.

Ultimately, the HOOP project has been instrumental for implementing circular biowaste solutions in its eight Lighthouses. HOOP has successfully supported the development of bio-based and circular solutions across Europe, developing the Bio-Circularity Label and Project Maturity Level tools to help Lighthouses and projects to self-assess both the circularity of their urban bioeconomies and the bankability of their circular projects.

If you are interested learning more about the HOOP project, in November 2023 we interviewed the team who run the project to find out about its work with the CCRI. Read the interview here.