Originally published by UNDP Eurasia. Edited by Karen Cirillo, Digital Communications Specialist, UNDP IRH.
Biowaste. It’s not just your average trash. Biowaste – anything from egg shells to orange peels, from garden to food processing plant garbage – is quickly becoming a valuable resource and its transformation is fueling sustainable waste management practices.
Innovative technologies and creative approaches are breathing new life into biowaste, giving rise to a host of eco-friendly solutions, from nutrient-rich compost and renewable bioenergy to biodegradable plastics and even insect-based proteins.
In North Macedonia’s capital Skopje, biowaste amounts to a whooping 45 percent of all municipal waste, most of which ends up in landfills. So UNDP North Macedonia, together with UNICEF and the City of Skopje, opened the first-of-its-kind biohacking laboratory in the country to tackle biowaste head on.
Biowaste. Photos: UNDP North Macedonia / Goran Boshkovski (VidiVaka.mk)
Today, cities produce more than 50 percent of global waste (OECD) due to inadequate waste management, higher food consumption patterns in urban areas, and a lack of composting infrastructures. Skopje joins a growing number of cities bent on embracing a circular economy – making and consuming things in a way that minimizes our use of the world’s resources, cuts waste and reduces carbon emissions.
“[Right now], the waste gets thrown in the landfills, which creates a range of other problems, including air pollution…There are a lot of recycling initiatives for glass and plastics, but none regarding organic waste,” says Lazar Pop Ivanov, Head of Experimentation at UNDP North Macedonia.
“Traditional “take-make-dispose” economies have devastating impacts on people and the environment. But the alternative circular economy model is widely considered to be the way forward…
Repairing, recycling and redesigning products and systems have the potential to trigger far-reaching change, and put the world on track to achieve the UN’s’ Sustainable Development Goals,” notes Igor Izotov, Head of Exploration at UNDP North Macedonia.
Making science fun for our future innovators
Rooted in the practice of biohacking, more generally understood as do-it-yourself biology, the fully-equipped Skopje laboratory is not just an innovative experimental facility. It’s also part of a movement to democratize science, making scientific knowledge, research and education more accessible, inclusive and participatory.
Strategically nested in a state high school in Skopje, the lab is opening up science to students and teachers, providing a space to experiment with science and technology-based projects. It uses biowaste as an entry point to foster innovation, education and meaningful community engagement to find solutions to pressing environmental challenges.
“The formal education system is quite resistant to change and over the years that has contributed to a level of disengagement from students. They start to perceive that what they’re being taught is irrelevant, impractical and not connected to the real world,” says Bore Pucoski, an Education Officer at UNICEF.
Research shows that students in North Macedonia have difficulties in applying the knowledge learned in schools in their everyday lives, and that teachers lack the skills and capacity to provide experiential learning. The lab offers much needed tools for teachers to be able to deliver a practical, hands-on learning experience for students on subjects related to chemistry and biology, with a special focus on repurposing biowaste and circularity.
The team also partnered with the National Vocational Education and Training Center, to engage over 40 teachers to organize regional science caravans. Using the laboratory’s mobile equipment, the science caravans travel to schools that teach courses in chemistry, technology, agriculture and veterinary sciences, where teachers deliver preparatory lectures and set up biowaste collection points with students. Then, in close collaboration with leading scientists, they work on experiments to transform biowaste into usable products.
Students learn and experiment at the laboratory.
Sparking a new generation of climate innovation heroes
Biowaste holds immense potential for a wide range of beneficial uses from bioenergy production and bioplastics to innovative textiles. What is more, the biotech industry is catching on, developing technologies that are being optimized to convert biowaste.
In April, UNDP North Macedonia joined forces with Solveo, an innovation consultancy company, to launch the lab’s first three-week program for startups working with biotechnologies. Skopje’s Bio Hack My World 2023 challenge had one main objective – to bring together startups, entrepreneurs and innovators with groundbreaking ideas leveraging biowaste to address environmental challenges and support them to develop their ideas.
Participants of Bio Hack My World 2023 Challenge.
The emerging solutions, showcased during an open Demo Day in May, demonstrated innovations contributing to waste reduction and resource conservation. One idea was to use fermented tea to manufacture kombucha leather as an alternative to animal-based leathers, in a bid to promote ethical manufacturing and reduce pollution. Another harnessed rice straw fiber to create a sustainable alternative to polyester in hopes of revolutionizing the textile industry. Rice by-products were also used to create a wide selection of compostable cups, plates and utensils as an eco-friendly alternative to plastic items, while eggshells were ground to produce a natural calcium powder as a sustainable alternative to conventional sources.
All of these ideas used biowaste to create new, sustainable products. And it’s just the beginning. Participants were connected with UNDP’s Social Inclusion portfolio for launching possible businesses.
Demo Day presentations
A new of thinking and doing
The establishment of the laboratory comes as part of a wider portfolio of interventions under the City Experiment Fund, a regional project at UNDP Europe and Central Asia supported by the Slovak Ministry of Finance. Currently, five cities in the region are embedding innovative methods in the design and delivery of city-level programmes and shifting to systems thinking when approaching urban challenges.
In the initial cycle of the programme, UNDP North Macedonia devised multiple interventions through which to nudge Skopje’s waste ecosystem to embrace circularity, not only as a waste reduction method but also as an opportunity to fuel the economy through new businesses and jobs. In the lead up to the opening of the lab, UNDP collected valuable data on the creation and generators of biowaste in Skopje, evaluated gaps in the current biowaste collection and management, developed a waste index that ranks biowaste in terms of its market potential and conducted laboratory research on how biowaste can be transformed.
With this new approach, UNDP Macedonia – and the city of Skopje – are ready for the next stage, developing new ways to tackle waste collection and support biowaste innovations so the wheels keep moving for a greener and more resilient urban future – one citrus peel at a time.
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