Enabling REuse, REmanufacturing and REcycling Within INDustrial systems (REWIND)
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Chalmers Tekniska Högskola AB - Industrial and Materials Science |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 4 999 999 |
| Project duration | March 2019 - February 2022 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | The strategic innovation programme for Production2030 |
| Call | Strategic Innovation Programme Produktion2030, call 11 for proposals within research and innovation. |
Important results from the project
To remain competitive on the global market, companies need to continuously improve their economic, social and environmental performance. The REWIND project took advantage of current industrial trends in digitalisation and sustainability. Although sustainability principles are well-known and mature, their implementation remains complex and challenging. The REWIND pilots provided a platform to develop and test novel applications of circular economy (CE) concepts in various industrial sectors and raise Sweden’s CE research profile on the international scene.
Expected long term effects
All three pilots resulted in lessons learnt about the barriers and challenges faced by companies when engaging in a CE. The main project contributions are recommendations about how companies can overcome these hurdles. Such lessons learnt and recommendations are invaluable to achieve impact at the scale required to move towards a more eco-efficient and circular industrial systems, with the ultimate goal to shrink human activities’ environmental footprint within the planetary boundary for a more sustainable society.
Approach and implementation
Capitalising on the expertise of the academic and industrial partners, the consortium investigated how technological advances, sustainability assessment methods, and production/materials research can help realise opportunities towards a CE. Applying the principles of eco-efficiency within the processes of Stena Recycling, Volvo AB and DyeCoo, the objective was to retain the value embedded in materials with circular strategies (reuse/recirculate, remanufacture, recycle, repurpose and other recovery routes).