A new European project, SOWISE+ (Solid Organic Waste Into Sustainable End-products), has officially launched in Italy with the goal of demonstrating the first multipurpose biorefinery of its kind for converting urban biowaste and post-consumer absorbent hygiene products into advanced bio-based materials.

The five-year initiative, supported by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU), kicked off in Treviso, bringing together research institutions, industry and waste management partners to develop a scalable model for urban-industrial circularity.

🏭 The flagship biorefinery will focus on industrial-scale production of PHBV bio-based polymers from urban biowaste while recovering cellulose from used absorbent hygiene products. The recovered materials will be combined to develop and validate new bio-based products for industrial applications.

🔬 The project also integrates Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) and Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) methodologies to evaluate environmental performance, product safety and circularity throughout the value chain.

During the kick-off meeting, partners visited Contarina's waste treatment facilities and the i-Foria plant, where future engineering and demonstration activities will support development of the flagship biorefinery.

SOWISE+ aims to demonstrate a replicable model that transforms municipal waste into high-value materials while supporting Europe's circular economy, reducing dependence on virgin resources and enabling deployment in other European regions.