Newsletter #2 - Material flow analysis and the use of GDSE tool in assessing the waste to resource opportunities

Our recent work was focused on assessing the waste to resource opportunities in urban and peri-urban areas. The idea was to gather relevant data on waste streams (material flows and stock) in terms of their availability and potential for delivering qualitative SRM in relevant amounts that can be of used for manufacturing of SRM-based construction materials. In order to systematically assess the flows and stock a classical Material Flow Analysis (MFA) has been implemented as an innovative Activity-based Spatial Material Flow Analysis (AS-MFA), which augments the traditional way of executing MFA in two ways: (i) the storage and visualisation of geographical locations of nodes and links of material flows; and (ii) breaking down aggregated economic activity data into individual actors that can be georeferenced.

For this purpose, CINDERELA consortium developed its own methodology for material flow analysis, including three phases (1) data collection, (2) data study and refining and (3) data valorisation. In phase 1 (Data collection) data on waste (type, location, availability and flow) in specific urban and peri-urban areas have been collected for the six case-studies Maribor area (Slovenia), Istria (Croatia), Basque country (Spain), Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (the Netherlands), Trento area (Italy) and Katowice area (Poland). Gathering of needed input data turned out to be quite challenging. Therefore, partners had to use multiple data sources, e.g. official waste databases, consultations with local business associations, interviews with stakeholders, etc. In relation to Phase 2 (Data study and refining), data has been refined according to needs of specific MFA tool (GDSE tool in our case) and supporting GIS-based visualizing tool for current waste flows. Figure 1 presents the steps involved in Phase 2.

Figure 1: Simplified flowchart of the CINDERELA AS-MFA methodology.

During data gathering in the six studied MFA cases the data was screened (1st cut-off rule). The selected data served as an input to the GDSE tool (Geodesign Decision Support Environment) enabling to represent material flows and stocks in relation toactivitiesand spatial distribution for each of the six cases.

In addition to visualising economic activities, the GDSE tool applies AS-MFA to visualise the material streams and processing methods in of a form Sankey diagram (Figure 2). Hereby, material stocks and flows, their respective quantities and the responsible actors are geographically visualised on a map.

Figure 2: Visualization of the outcomes of the GDSE tool - left a Sankey diagram and right a Sankey map with an activity based spatial material flow analysis for selected waste streams in Maribor and surrounding municipalities, Slovenia.

The GDSE tool can be used to predict optimal waste-to-product solution based on waste availability, quantity and location. For example, the tool combines a list of the NACE (Nomenclature des Activités Économiques dans la Communauté Européenne) codes of the economic activities with the appropriate codes from European List of Waste (LoW) and actors that generate them with the support of the ORBIS database (2018).

Figure 3 presents a graphical representation of GDSE outcomes for all six case-study regions. Within the investigated regions, the largest quantities of suitable waste streams to be used as secondary raw materials (SRM) for construction products included different fractions of construction and demolition waste (CDW, group 17 from European List of Waste, such as concrete, brick, ceramic, mixture of CDW, and dredging spoil), waste generated by the municipal sector (heavy fraction after municipal solid waste treatment or sewage sludge from wastewater treatment), and other waste reflecting the local economy/industry (mining waste, waste from thermal processes (slags and sludges) and others).

Figure 3: GDSE tool outcomes.

As shown above, the GDSE tool provides a solid  basis for bringing various stakeholders together within a certain area, serving as the ideal tool for hands-on, insightful and interactive data and evidence-based decision making and setting up new and more local circular business opportunities. With these functionalities, the GDSE tool will be incorporated as part of the CINDERELA One-Stop-Shop (CinderOSS). More information on the specific application of the GDSE tool for CINDERELA cases is provided in Deliverable ‘D3.1 Flow maps and data based for selected urban areas’ that will be available on the CINDERELA website soon.