Bio-based and waste-derived materials are often marketed on the strength of their environmental credentials – percentage of bio-content, carbon reduction, circularity narrative. But for manufacturers, specifiers and buyers, origin is not the deciding factor: performance, cost-competitiveness, regulatory compliance and reliable availability are. A product with strong bio-based credentials that cannot compete on these terms will not scale, however sound the environmental case. 

This workshop asks how secondary raw materials – recovered and valorised from waste streams into feedstock, including in the built environment – can move from environmental proof-of-concept to market-ready product. Drawing on real use cases from Horizon Europe projects Wood2Wood, and ICARUS and leading organisations working with biomass CENTROCOT, FederlegnoArredo, Levery and i-Foria Italia, the session will address research calculations with market requirements. 

Key guiding questions:  

• What actually proves a material is “ready” – which standards, certifications or tests does the European market require before it counts as market-ready? 

• Why do the numbers from research and pilot projects often not match real production costs, including the role of workforce skills and training gaps in that divergence? 

• How do these requirements – especially performance, cost, compliance, availability – change depending on the application?

Workshop details

Date: Nov 3
Time: 14:00-15:30 pm
Location: Rimini Expo center, Italy