Circular Economy Models - Episode 1
When I discovered the FabBrick project in France, a start-up that transforms textile waste into bricks to be used in interior design projects, I thought, "How wonderful it would be if something similar could be done in Romania!"
The good news is that it can be done. Meaning, the technology, the science, and the environmental engineers are there, who know how to give a new life to various types of waste, not just textiles.
The bad news is that it's not happening beyond university labs, because there isn't yet a businessman or investor to turn this know-how into a business.
Let's start with the positive side, though. With science. At the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Materials and Environmental Engineering, I had the pleasure of meeting Ancuța Tiuc in the Noise Control laboratory. A researcher who has won four invention patents for successfully transforming various waste materials into acoustic panels, just as efficient as conventional panels made from virgin materials.
Ancuța Tiuc was ambitious enough to show that textile waste from clothing factories, sawdust from wood furniture processing, used tires, or corn cobs can become raw material for noise-absorbing panels. An unseen environmental problem that kills 12,000 Europeans every year.
Where acoustic panels can be used
Road traffic, for example, is the main source of noise pollution in Europe, affecting 113 million people. And Ancuța's invented panels, made from tire scraps, could successfully replace the panels installed on highways, which protect nearby residents from vehicle noise.
However, depending on the material they are made from and how well they can absorb strong vibrations and sounds, acoustic panels can have many other uses.
Associate Professor Dr. Eng. Ancuța Elena Tiuc: “They could be used in industry, primarily as mats for reducing vibrations and impact noise. In any type of industry where such damping mats are needed.
Those materials based on sawdust and polyurethane foams could be used both indoors and outdoors. We could use them for insulating walls in industrial halls or for encasing certain equipment, again, in an industrial environment. But we could also successfully use them in our homes, in civil constructions. And for improving the acoustics of halls, amphitheaters, lecture rooms.”
Why all the effort
Besides noise pollution, acoustic panels made from waste materials solve two other environmental problems: waste reduction and the protection of natural resources.
All at lower costs. Because raw material can be purchased at reduced prices compared to new materials or can even be obtained for free. Instead of paying to dispose of waste, factories could get rid of it by donating it to a new factory where these waste materials could be processed.
Except that the new factory doesn't exist yet. To see these inventions put into practice, in everyday life, the next step must come from industry. Academia has done its part. It has shown that it's possible. The ball is now in the court of the business sector.
A business sector that faces unprecedented pressures to transition to a circular economy and which, as you can see, has the opportunity to turn challenges into business opportunities.
You can watch the whole story of waste transformed into objects that make our lives easier in the video report. The first episode of the campaign "A Second Life. Circular Economy Models", created by Asociația Soluții Sustenabile with the support of Stratos and Eco Synergy, with the aim of inspiring companies to transition more easily and quickly from a linear economy to a circular economy.
