CircVol – Utilisation of side streams and masses of soil in cities

CircVol project promotes business that subscribes to the ideas of circular economy and the utilisation of large volumes of industrial side streams and earth masses in earthworks.

More than 90 per cent of accumulated waste comes from the extractive industry and manufacturing sector. Side streams from the manufacturing sector are not utilised sufficiently as of yet, even though collection and refining technologies are already highly developed. The efficient reuse of earth masses can be harnessed to achieve significant economic savings and promote the carbon neutrality objectives of cities.

In the CircVol project, companies develop new solutions and apply existing methods. CircVol supports interaction between companies, institutions of higher education and public bodies, which in turn enables the extensive implementation of circular economy solutions. In addition to this, the project brings industry operators together to form a national network that develops operational models to promote business that is in keeping with the principles of circular economy.

Collaboration between four cities

Each city has designated an area for the project to support in terms of circular economy development:

Turku: the dumping and stabilisation of dredged material from the Airisto and the Aura River in the Lauttaranta area
Helsinki: the development of the Östersundom area in keeping with circular economy
principles
Tampere: the zero fibre challenge, assembling a business network
Oulu: developing the Välimaa circular economy area.

In addition to these, the project maps digital interfaces and solutions that, when opened up, can be used to promote the utilisation of large volumes of mass and the development of circular economy areas.

Turku Science Park coordinates the CircVol project and partners include Forum Virium Helsinki, the Geological Survey of Finland GTK, the City of Helsinki, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, the City of Oulu, the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, TTY Foundation/Tampere University of Technology, Turku University of Applied Sciences, the Regional Council of Southwest Finland and Åbo Akademi University. The project will run from 1 August 2018 to 30 December 2020 and has a budget of EUR 2,761,907.

Further information

Collaboration between four cities

Juha Nummila