Circular Economy project took place at Barcelona Circular (BAC). This collaborative initiative is led by CREC – Waste Cluster of Catalonia, together with the Advanced Materials Cluster of Catalonia (MAV), Tèxtils.CAT, and the Packaging Cluster.
The session brought together companies, technology centres, and stakeholders from different industrial sectors with the aim of identifying opportunities for industrial symbiosis and advancing the development of circular business models based on technical textile waste with a high polymer content.
- A Project to Connect Sectors and Transform Waste into Resources
The SINTEC project was created with the goal of fostering collaboration between industrial sectors that have traditionally had limited interaction, such as textiles, advanced materials, packaging, and waste management. This cross-sector approach makes it possible to explore new ways of valorising waste and by-products, transforming them into valuable resources for other industries.
One of the main challenges addressed by the project is the circularity of technical textile waste, particularly materials containing complex polymers that currently present significant recycling and reuse challenges. The objective is to explore and activate new recovery pathways that enable these materials to be reincorporated into new industrial applications, such as the packaging sector.
- A Workshop Focused on Co-Creation and Collaboration Opportunities
During the workshop, participants took part in an intersectoral co-creation exercise facilitated by TeamLabs, which enabled companies and organisations from the different clusters involved to share knowledge, experiences, and needs.
Through this collaborative process, participants explored topics such as:
- The different types of polymer-based waste available across sectors.
- The technical and economic challenges associated with their recovery and valorisation.
- Opportunities to incorporate these materials into new products and industrial processes.
- The identification of new R&D&I opportunities and collaborative projects.
This exercise helped uncover new industrial synergies and potential avenues for the development of prototypes and pilot projects involving companies from different sectors.
- Advancing Towards New Industrial Symbiosis Models
The third workshop of the project marked an important step in translating the opportunities identified during previous sessions into concrete collaboration projects between companies from the participating clusters.
This process is part of a broader roadmap launched in May 2025, combining technical workshops and co-creation sessions with the aim of promoting industrial symbiosis and the circular economy across strategic sectors of the Catalan economy.
Next Steps for the Project
The SINTEC project will continue with a final workshop scheduled for April, where the study’s conclusions, identified synergies, and future collaboration opportunities among participating companies and organisations will be presented.
At CREC, we would like to thank all the companies and professionals who contributed to this workshop through their participation and commitment. Collaboration across sectors is essential to advancing towards more circular, efficient, and sustainable production models.
