Zero waste cities: Leading an example with Zaragoza

The city of Zaragoza, Spain, is the circular hub in a project aiming to make recycling more efficient.

Is garbage the new circular gold? In 2040, the city of Zaragoza in Spain will be completely climate neutral – and this will happen by revolutionizing the city's waste management, where Luleå University of technology will play a part.

In Europe, approximately 500 kilograms of garbage is generated per person per year, but not even half – 45 percent – of it is recycled. An EU project in which the Robotics and AI Subject and ProcessIT at Luleå University of Technology is a part will change that. The city of Zaragoza in Aragon, Spain, will be the circular hub.

– Urban waste is an underutilized resource. We hope that the project creates a sustainable waste and recycling industry that uses new, digitized innovations that make the processes more efficient and that can then be spread further, says Jan Niemi, project manager at Luleå University of Technology.

About 140,000 tons of garbage in some form is recycled, reused or refined. That equates to the weight of around 20 Eiffel Towers or 1,000 blue whales. The project aims to lead to reduced greenhouse gas emissions of 280 kilotons per year, which is approximately one of the following*:

• The annual air travel by 250,000 Swedes

• 16,500 newly manufactured medium-sized cars.

– Our aim is to utilize AI in processing a very large set of data being generated from multiple sensors throughout the waste management processes. As such, we are trying to create intelligent data driven models that will predict the flow of waste and perform a better decision making in optimizing the waste management, says George Nikolakopoulos, Chaired Professor on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at Luleå University of Technology.

Researchers from 12 countries are helping, and a total of 36 partners with different expertise or social responsibilities are making this effort. The goal is that by 2030, 65 percent of the garbage will be recycled and Zaragoza will be climate neutral by 2040, ten years ahead of the EU target.

Finding a new how-to

There is a wide span of project partners – everything from researchers, such as the research groups from Luleå University of Technology, to business developers, local social actors, decision makers and citizens. In the process of creating a sustainable future, everyone is needed. But in future, it should be easier to do the correct thing.

– Garbage management will become smarter and more efficient through digitization. We are mainly responsible for the placement and typology, i.e. classification, of various sensors and how these should function and be used. We will also  contribute to developing guidelines for building circular hubs, as well as developing business models for marketability, says Jan Niemi.

– We are seeing a massive interest in Europe towards research in AI methods, either in data driven approaches or active approaches e.g. robotics in the field of Green Transition and our subject is trying to lead such initiatives in this direction in Europe, says George Nikolakopoulos.

Other project participants will, for example, develop suitable new products that can be created from the waste, or improve the various types of collaborations required for the project to succeed.

From zero waste to copy + paste

The plan is for the developed model to lter be replicated in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Prato in Italy and Bornholm in Denmark. In the end, it should result in guidelines for decision-making bodies.

– The hope is that what we are doing now will ultimately be used throughout Europe, and really take advantage of the potential that exists but is not yet used. It is extensive work that can make a big difference, says Jan Niemi.

The project, called REDOL, is part of the EU's larger climate goals and the Green Deal initiative, which aims to make the entire EU climate neutral by 2050.

*Calculating the exact environmental impact is difficult. However, illustratuing it makes big numbers more accessible.

Flight: Naturvårdsverket
New cars: The Guardian

Pär-Erik Martinsson, Jan Niemi, Rucha Sawlekar, and George Nikolakopoulos.