HR4RS stamp
Raul Garcia Hemonnet
The Circular Economy is a production and consumption model that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, renovating and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible. It aims to address global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, efficient waste management and pollution. It is defined in contrast to the traditional linear economy.
In order for the Circular Economy model to be carried out efficiently and completely, the collaboration of three basic pillars is essential: the research drive of universities and research centers, the financial muscle of the business fabric and the capacity for awareness and transformation of public policies.
With the aim of uniting these three actors, the Rey Juan Carlos University celebrates today, on the Móstoles campus, the event 'The circular bioeconomy in the urban waste environment: the role of the public administration'. Through this 'Workshop' different innovative projects will be announced (BIO-3, REMTAVARES and Deep Purple) that are being carried out within the framework of the circular economy in the URJC, as well as public policies to promote it in the local, regional and national levels.
As explained by Juan Antonio Melero, professor at the URJC, general coordinator of the BIO-3 research network and one of the organizers of the conference, "we, as an academic environment, can develop innovative technologies, whose objective is the comprehensive treatment and use of of bio-waste, but the role of companies and administrations is important so that these technologies reach the end user. Events like this serve for the latter to see that there are other innovative technologies, alternatives to those that are currently being implemented, that can be developed with the support of the business and institutional sectors.”
To this end, an event has been organized with the presence of researchers from the URJC, representatives of the business fabric, specifically from the company Aqualia-FCC, which acts "as a bridge between research and citizens, who are the end users of the technologies we develop”, explains Melero, and those responsible for waste management and circular economy of the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Community of Madrid and Junta de Castilla-La Mancha and municipalities of Móstoles, Alcorcón and Fuenlabrada, among others.
It is a workshop open to students in the field of environmental sciences and engineering and to the general public interested in the circular economy and in knowing "what is being done and what is going to be done in terms of municipal waste management", Melero points out.
The Workshop will be chaired by the rector, Javier Ramos, who will be accompanied by the Deputy Minister for the Environment and Agriculture of the Madrid Community, Mariano González Sáez, and the Deputy Minister for Universities, Science and Innovation, Fidel Rodríguez Batalla.
The URJC in the sustainable management of bio-waste in the urban environment
As Juan Antonio Melero points out, the role of the Rey Juan Carlos University in the management of biological waste from cities is twofold, on the one hand, it has to do “with the development of innovative technologies for the comprehensive use of waste. Current technologies allow partial use”. On the other hand, the role of dissemination, “it is important that everything we investigate reaches the citizens, one of the things that worries me the most as a researcher is that the citizen sees that all this work is useful. One of the most important aspects of the BIO-3 network, in addition to the research work, has to do with dissemination”. Indicates the Professor of the URJC.
In support of all this work, it is expected that the creation of a new Circular Economy Chair between the Rey Juan Carlos University and the Fuenlabrada City Council will be approved at the next Governing Council, an instrument that will allow the URJC to position itself even more in the fight against one of the greatest challenges of our time: climate change.