At the end of September, the Valmiera hackathon “Daibe Zero” was the gathering place for ambitious, young, and creative individuals, all united by a common goal: the generation of innovative ideas for recycling waste raised on the principles of the circular economy. Event was organized by Valmiera Municipality Government and Regional Waste Management Center “Daibe” with support of many other stakeholders involved.
Guided by professional and knowledgeable mentors, 11 teams dedicated two days to improving their ideas of polymer, textile, and compost waste recycling concepts. The teams performed market potential analyses for their products, outlined the necessary resources and financial investments, and discovered effective ways to educate the public about circular economy concepts through their products.
As part of the Baltiplast project, with one of the targets being the development of technical and technological solutions for recycling plastic waste, project partners from the Valmiera Region Municipality asked hackathon participants to evaluate the application potential of the new technology, TrinamX, which provides new methods of plastic sorting. The teams familiarized themselves with this solution and provided feedback on which stage of waste processing would benefit from the use of this technology and create the most added value.
Five of the teams addressed challenges related to plastic waste recycling. What goals did they want to achieve, and what ideas did they aim to develop?
One of the ideas was to develop soundproof panels from polymers. Another concept was to create slabs for indoor and outdoor landscaping using polymer materials. A different approach involved utilizing polymer leftovers to craft puzzles featuring young artists’ artwork. These puzzles could serve as both a board game and home decorations when assembled. An additional idea was to transform currently non-recyclable polymer waste into a material suitable for producing various construction materials. Finally, there was a proposal to invest in more modern pyrolysis equipment. This modified equipment would process plastic waste to generate reusable crude oil and biogas, which could then be used as raw materials for electricity production.
The hackathon “Daibe Zero” brought together stakeholders, a diverse group of talented and innovative individuals as well as mentors, who tackled challenges in waste recycling and plastic in particular and generated great ideas in alignment with the principles of the circular economy.
Please find out more on project’s website: https://interreg-baltic.eu/project-posts/hackathon-daibezero
