Project details
Status: Ongoing
Project period: 2020–2028
Principal: Research Council of Norway (RCN) (310042)
Coordinating institution: Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Collaborators: The centre is based on close collaboration between research institutions, industry partners and the public sector: NMBU, NORSUS, BI, IFE, NIBIO, NIVA, NILU among others.
earthresQue is a Centre for Research-based Innovation (SFI) funded by the Research Council of Norway. The centre develops technologies, systems, value chains and frameworks for sustainable management and treatment of waste and surplus materials.
The background for the project is that large amounts of contaminated soil, waste, slag, ash and clean surplus materials are currently sent to landfills in Norway, representing a loss of resources, land area and landfill capacity.
The main objective of earthresQue is to develop technology, system innovation and governance frameworks to achieve more sustainable handling and treatment of these materials.
The research is organised in three main areas:
- Recycling and reuse, including new treatment processes that make contaminated soils and surplus materials suitable as raw materials in new products
- Sustainability assessment, developing methods and models to document environmental, economic and societal aspects
- Regulatory and governance frameworks, addressing barriers to reuse and improving material flows and business models