Closing of the CICEP Project: Driving Circular Economy Innovation in the Canary Islands

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This meeting marked the conclusion of a two-year initiative, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the green and digital transition projects of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. Its purpose was to address one of the main environmental challenges in the Canary Islands: waste management and the increasing pressure on landfills, by exploring circular economy solutions adapted to island regions.

Challenges Addressed by CICEP

The project focused on two key areas:

• Increasing the recovery rate of mixed plastics, reducing the amount sent to landfill.

• Valorizing banana plant residues (raquis), transforming them into high-value natural fibers that, combined with recycled plastics, can be used to create new, more sustainable composite materials.

The core innovation of CICEP lies in developing advanced composite materials using both plastic fractions and banana raquis fibers, opening up new opportunities for waste valorization and industrial scalability.

Collaborative Effort with Tangible Impact

Each partner institution played a crucial role:

• ULPGC: characterization of mixed and non-classified plastics and design of a prototype for fiber extraction from raquis.

• UdG: production and processing of composite materials through injection, compression molding, thermoforming, and additive manufacturing.

• UNESCO Chair ESCI-UPF: assessment of the environmental impact of the new materials, ensuring their sustainability and viability.

During the final meeting, the partners also worked on the last pending steps to close the project, including preparing scientific articles, participating in specialized conferences, and monitoring key indicators to measure the project’s impact. Thanks to the strong synergies between the three institutions, these milestones were addressed successfully, highlighting the value of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Notable Participation from ESCI-UPF

The meeting was attended by Alba Bala, Academic Director of the MSc in Sustainability Management and Executive Director of the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change, together with Cristina Campos, PhD and researcher at the same Chair. Both emphasized the importance of CICEP as an example of how research can translate into practical and sustainable solutions for island territories.

Conclusions and Outlook

CICEP has shown that the circular economy requires collective, ongoing, and multidisciplinary efforts. The results confirm that agricultural and plastic waste can be transformed into valuable resources, but they also underline the importance of scaling these solutions to an industrial level to maximize their positive impact.

The UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change ESCI-UPF reaffirms its commitment to continue advancing projects of this kind, which are essential to building a more sustainable, resilient, and innovative future.