From Waste to Value: Valorisation Pathways for Organic Waste Streams in Circular Bioeconomies

From Waste to Value investigates how streams of organic waste and residues can be transformed into valuable products, to foster a transition towards a sustainable and circular bioeconomy. The studies are carried out within a cross-disciplinary framework, drawing on a diverse set of theoretical approaches and defining different valorisation pathways.

Organic waste streams from households and industry are becoming a valuable resource in today’s economies. Substances that have long represented a cost to companies and a burden for society are now becoming an asset. Waste products, such as leftover food, forest residues and animal carcasses, can be turned into valuable products such as biomaterials, biochemicals and biopharmaceuticals. Exploiting these waste resources is challenging, however. It requires that companies develop new technologies and that public authorities introduce new regulation and governance models.

This book helps policy-makers govern and regulate bio-based industries, and helps industry actors to identify and exploit new opportunities in the circular bioeconomy. Moreover, it provides important insights for all students and scholars concerned with renewable energy, sustainable development and climate change.

Antje Klitkou has a PhD from Humboldt University, Berlin (1993). She has worked at the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU), Oslo, Norway, since 2002, as Senior Researcher until 2014 and as Research Professor since 2014. She has research interests in research and innovation policy and the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy, energy and transport. She has been Project Coordinator for several international research projects, such as “SusValueWaste: Sustainable path creation for innovative value chains for organic waste products” (2015–19) on the transition to the bioeconomy, funded by the Research Council of Norway; “Technology opportunities in Nordic energy system transitions – TOP-NEST” (2011–15), funded by Nordic Energy Research; and “InnoDemo: Role of demonstration projects in innovation: Transition to sustainable energy and transport” (2013–15), funded by the Research Council of Norway. She has published several journal articles on bioeconomy topics.

Arne Martin Fevolden is a Senior Researcher at NIFU. He holds a Master’s degree (cand. polit) in Economic Sociology and a PhD (Dr. polit.) in Innovation Studies from the University of Oslo. Much of his earlier research was concerned with the development of the ICT (information and communications industry) and defence industries. His more recent research has looked at the controversies surrounding biofuels and at potential valorisation pathways for urban waste streams.

Marco Capasso is a Senior Researcher at NIFU. He has worked in the scientific fields of econometrics, economic geography and economics of innovation, and his research has been published in a wide variety of scientific journals, including Industrial and Corporate Change, International Statistical Review, Regional Studies and Small Business Economics. He is currently participating in the projects “Sustainable path creation for innovative value chains for organic waste products”, funded by the Research Council of Norway, and “Where does the green economy grow? The geography of Nordic sustainability transitions”, funded by the Nordic Green Growth Research and Innovation Programme.