CirclELab
What is it possible to do with wastes? In which sectors are they recycled? CirclELab project aims to set up toolkits and laboratory demonstration for 10-18 years old students in order to explain advantages and opportunities of recycling and circular economy. Learning by experimenting.
The CirclELab project aims to show to 10-18 years old students, and their teachers, the main characteristics of Circular Economy: what is possible to do with wastes, and where materials are usually recycled even in the industrial sector. A new methodology is proposed based on disruptive toolkits that allow students to experience a recycling process with their hands. Also a toolkit consisting "from waste to product" examples will be developed.
There are a lot of recycling campaigns with the goal of raise awareness to the people about the importance of Circular Economy concept. However, these are mainly focused on urban waste like organic, glass or plastic and the process is not always shown. For many people the waste deposition on the right container and the use of a product made with recycled materials is an unlinked process. The aims is to show the importance of Circular Economy as continuous process, mainly focused on industrial waste which represented more than 90 % of total waste production in EU on 2014. Also, many of them are used again in the industry but the society does not know this, so some industries are judged without the vision of the Circular Economy.
The EU is very concerned about the raw materials sector, dependence on the importation of resources, the negative vision of the industry and in general the future of the sector. CirclELab will contribute to address these topics.
The industry is seen as a polluting and consuming sector therefore, it is necessary to show society that many of the industrial products are manufactured with wastes.
Teaching children the importance of the Circular Economy in industry will promote the use of recycled materials, so industrial companies will adopt these concepts reinforcing the EU economy and reducing the external dependence of raw materials.
The project will allow to get closer the raw materials sector and concepts to students who are in an age to decide their professional future.
Download the CirclELab pdf presentation
Person in charge: Prof. Luc Courard
Researcher: Jules Muvuna
Financing: The total budget of the project is 99.995€. The project is financed by EIT Raw Materials 5european Union).
Partners: Bay Zoltán Non profit Ltd. for Applied Research (Hungary), Gomez Pardo foundation (Spain), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy), Viasiatome-CEA (France)
Duration: 1 year (starting January 2020)
