Information platform to enhance the use of waste and side streams

Challenge

Finland generates a lot of waste and production side streams that could be used as raw materials much more than at present. It has been difficult for those producing the waste and side streams to find users for them. There has also been demand for reliable information on material flows to be made available from a single source. For new innovations and recovery methods to emerge, enterprises would need information on any material flows suited for their use and potential users of their own side streams.

Solution

The use of waste and side streams can be promoted by providing information on the material flows available and the operators that may need them. A national information platform of waste and side streams is currently under preparation as part of the Waste Act reform. The Ministry of the Environment will start to develop the platform in 2019, and the intention is to introduce it in April 2019.

In the future, Motiva will manage the platform and increase awareness of it through the regional coordinators and experts from the Finnish Industrial Symbiosis System (FISS), which is nationally coordinated by Motiva. With the help of the information platform, it will be possible to build new digital services that use the platform data. The key objective is to ensure that different operators have up-to-date access to information on the quantity, quality and location of the side streams and what is available for their use.