Profile & Expertise
The Wcycle Institute Maribor – Institute for Circular Economy (Wcycle, www.wcycle-maribor.si) is one of three partners participating in the circular and collaborative economy scheme (i.e. WCYCLE) launched by the City of Maribor, in an attempt to promote sustainable development. WCYCLE is a strategic development project in the field of integrated management of all waste generated in the region on the basis of circular economy policy, energy and water management and the use of processed waste as a new resource. The strategic objective is to promote cross-sectoral cooperation in the processing and re-use of material, energy and aquatic waste sources. The expected outcome of this circular economy model will be a) the emergence of new business opportunities for the city, local community, industry and SMEs, b) the creation of high-quality and predominantly green jobs, and c) a new economic boost to be followed by the emergence of territorial industrial symbiosis ecosystems. The project’s idea is based on the foundation that companies and institutions in the urban environment share information and work together to achieve the highest possible re-use of resources. The Institutes’ role in the Wcycle project includes the implementation of R&D activities, the introduction of new technologies that promote waste recovery into the market, the use of integrated IT tools for information sharing and activities’ monitoring, and promoting the cooperation of companies owned by the municipality each within its own circle to achieve the project objectives.
Role in the project
Wcycle is ZAG’s task partner engaged with the design of a kick-start funding scheme for services supporting the INNOCAT approach (T5.3). Wcycle will deliver guidelines on how to stimulate the emergence of start-ups and support the proliferation of business activities in the field of PGMs recycling and substitution. Additionally, Wcycle will assist ZAG with the organisation of transfer of experience events (i.e. thematic workshop and matchmaking event) in Slovenia (WP4).
Contribution to knowledge building in the region
Through its participation in the INNOCAT project, Wcycle aspires to expand the WCYCLE project’s scope of activities to include actions for retrofitting publicly owned fleets of heavy-duty vehicles and PGMs’ recovery and recycling. This will be realised by raising public authorities’ awareness and diffusing knowledge about the gains associated with PGMs’ recycling and setting up the specifications and the implementation path for the deployment of such territorial ecosystems.
