Circular economy is a business model in which we firmly believe and whose lines of action define the vision and mission of our entity
As the United Nations Organization reminds us, today more than ever, on this International Mother Earth Day (April 22) we need a change towards a more sustainable economy that works for both people and the planet. It is necessary, he points out, to promote harmony with nature and the Earth.
From CETIM Technology Centre we have been since our inception, strategically betting on incentivizing circular economy through research and innovation in recycling processes and methodologies to obtain high value-added products from by-products. It is a business model in which we firmly believe and whose lines of action define the vision and mission of our entity.
In the last five years, at CETIM we have collaborated with more than 125 companies and 25 national and international universities and centres in circular economy projects that have mobilized investment in research of over 80 million euros and generated, directly and indirectly, from more than 300 qualified “green” jobs.
Several real cases, among the many on the curriculum of our entity, show both the potential of the circular economy and a transversal tool, as well as the concern of companies to optimize their production processes in line with the high level of market demand.
Innovation tested in real cases
Projects with practical application are the chemical and biochemical treatment of cellulose manufacturing waste fractions and their successful application in the automotive industry or chemical additives for concrete, obtaining biopolymers of food by-products and their application in water or cosmetic adsorbents, extraction and bio-extraction of critical raw materials from electronic waste and its use for industrial pigment synthesis; or obtaining, from fishing and aquaculture waste, fertilizers and protein concentrates for both human and animal nutrition.
The applied research for the use of waste is, without a doubt, an added value applicable to any type of company or business to “close the circle”; beneficial both for the economic sector itself and, by extension, for Mother Earth, protagonist of this April 22.