CityLoops has joined its European sister projects HOOP, Valuewaste, SCALIBUR and WaysTUP in the ROOTS initiative, aiming to promote innovative solutions for the European circular bio-economy and bring down the regulatory barriers blocking a more sustainable future. ROOTS stands for circulaR pOlicies for changing the biOwasTe System.

All projects participating in ROOTS are piloting new solutions to transform urban biowaste and wastewater into valuable products like Feed, Fertilisers, Bioplastics, Biopesticides, Proteins, Bokashi, Biochar and Bioethanol. This has given them a good understanding of the policy barriers hindering new innovations that promote a circular economy for urban bio-waste.

ROOTS has decided to address four key topics:

• Recylcing targets and treatment plants
• Waste and by-products
• Biopesticides
• Insects for animal feed

In the next few months the ROOTS group will issue a number of recommendations relating to these key topics and engage in discussions with relevant stakeholders. By doing so,the ROOTS projects want to contribute to the creation of a more sustainable society and show that Horizon 2020 projects and their partners can speak out loud and concretely contribute to transform and improve society.