Advanced recycling and upcycling technologies are unlocking new secondary material streams, but their real value lies not just in what they recover, but in who can use what they produce and where else the same approach can work. 

The second Wood2Wood webinar on “Lessons from Horizon Europe pilots on wood waste, textile waste and high-performance composites in aviation sector“ brought together EU-funded project pilots from Wood2Wood project, ReBoat Project and CompSTLAR project, and waste management insights, particularly from the African and developing world lens (Covenant University in Nigeria) to examine how advanced recycling and upcycling technologies are generating secondary material streams that can substitute virgin feedstock across recycling, process, and manufacturing industries.

The Horizon Europe projects featured in the session tackle different waste streams, from contaminated wood waste from construction and demolition to post-consumer textile waste recovered from islands- the technologies being validated today are producing outputs that industries can actively procure and integrate into their supply chains.

What we learnt from the presentations is that: Advanced recycling and upcycling technologies are already generating secondary material streams. But the real challenge is processing (especially in Africa and in the developing world more broadly), trust, and scaling these outputs into usable industrial feedstock.

Four presentations, four key takeaways:

W2W / CIRCE (Jaime Guerrero) — Hydrothermal carbonisation of contaminated construction wood and industrial sludge produces hydrochar, which is then gasified into syngas for conversion into long-chain fatty acids for personal care products (with Procter & Gamble). Microwave-assisted HTC achieves the same outputs as conventional HTC but with 2–3x less energy and time.

Key insight: contaminated wood that traditional recycling cannot handle can still be valorised through thermochemical routes.

ReBOAT project (Omar Maschi) — A decentralised, mobile recycling model targeting textile waste from tourism-heavy islands (Corfu, Lipari). Uses sorting, carding, and spinning technologies at small scale to produce yarn and fabric locally, with strong community and stakeholder co-creation.

Key insight: industrial recycling logic can be adapted to localised, non-industrial settings – and awareness among end consumers remains a major barrier.

CompSTLAR project / Fraunhofer IPT (Marc Wilms) — Developing a value-retaining recycling process for aerospace-grade thermoplastic carbon fibre composite tapes, aiming for only 5–10% mechanical property loss versus near-total loss in conventional recycling. Paired with a digital twin for traceability and quality tracking.

Key insight: circularity must be designed in from the start, not retrofitted at end-of-life – and trust in recycled materials requires data, traceability, and updated standards.

Covenant University, Nigeria (David Olukanni): Processing is where the money is – generation and collection are relatively solved problems; it’s the valorisation step where most countries, especially in Africa, fall short. His university (Covenant University, Nigeria) is running student-led projects on biogas from cassava peel and organic waste, plastic sorting and recycling on campus, and composting — with industry offtake partnerships already in place. He called for prioritising waste prevention and circular design, banning single-use plastics, targeting 50% landfill reduction by 2030, and using digital twins and blockchain to track material flows.

Key insight: Processing is where the money is – generation and collection are relatively solved problems; it’s the valorisation step where most countries, especially in Africa, fall short.

Cross-cutting themes raised in Q&A round:

• Recycled materials often cost more than virgin inputs – policy and scale are needed to close the gap
• Consumer and industry awareness of recycled material potential remains low
• End-of-life materials should be treated as valuable assets, not waste
• The EU Circular Economy Act is anticipated as a key enabler, but regulatory frameworks around waste classification are lagging behind technological reality
• Developing nations generate less waste per capita (0.44–0.66 kg/day) than developed ones (0.70–1.20 kg/day), but their processing and recovery infrastructure is significantly weaker – which is where the real problem sits, particularly across Africa.

The video will be published soon. Watch this space.

This event was part of the Wood2Wood webinar series where we are highlighting four pillars of the circular economy and European competitiveness compass, including Green Skills, Circular Manufacturing Practices, Policies and standardisation.

The first webinar on Green Skills is now available to watch on YouTube. You can also read the blog summarising the main takeaways from the session.