BRINC workshop and international conference on innovation procurement

This BRINC workshop gathered the BRINC network of public authorities and other key relevant actors working on public procurement of innovation and circular economy to exchange insights and learn from mutual experiences in this field.

Organised in parallel to the International conference on innovation procurement, this one-day workshop focused on:

• the importance to change the organisational mindset to boost the uptake of circular and innovative practices;
• learnings from the two BRINC project cases (on single use sanitary waste and diaper recycling) including the challenges and opportunities faced during the different stages of the procurement process.

Summary

The BRINC project showcased its activities to facilitate the purchasing of innovative solutions to foster circular economy during the workshop.

Two public buyers presented their procurement cases and gathered useful feedback and inputs from participants on how to move forward. Institut Català de la Salut (ICS) aims to procure a solution to reuse or recycle single use sanitary materials. However, several factors hamper the search for a suitable technological solution (e.g. lack of capacity to handle the high volume of waste or the legal obligation of sterilization prior to recycling). One of the proposed solutions to overcome these hurdles that came from the BRINC workshop is to begin by a smaller procurement for the recycling of one single group of products. The City of Copenhagen aims to procure a diaper recycling plant and has run a successful pilot of collecting diapers as a separate fraction. During the workshop, Copenhagen received valuable insights from a working plant in the Netherlands. Participants highlighted the need to futureproof a plant to be able to handle diapers of the future and discussed the possible recycling rates. The need and interest for cross-border collaboration to increase the volume of diapers was also reiterated.

The BRINC project has so far shown the importance of facilitating exchange between market innovators and public buyers, and of building capacity on the topic of procurement. The BRINC workshop featured other initiatives at European and regional level striving towards this same goal. One of them is the Public Buyers Community Platform, a forum aiming at connecting, informing, collaborating, and focusing efforts to promote digital, green, and social transition pathways. Participants also learned about the Flemish Region's Programme for Innovation Procurement and the Brussels Region's Sustainable public procurement strategy, which both aim at supporting local administrations in transitioning to circular and innovative purchasing practices through customised assistance. In addition, the Catalan Government presented the regional Public Procurement Action Plan (2022-2025), outlining the objectives to enhance environmental sustainability in procurement practices.

Lastly, the session closed with the presentation of the C-PRONE initiative, a newly created community on circular public procurement offering avenues for information exchange, a robust knowledge repository, and valuable policy insights to facilitate successful circular procurement endeavours. More information on how to join the C-PRONE community here.

Presentations

• The BRINC project | Joan Juul, CLEAN
• EU initiatives on Public Procurement | Anita Poort, DG GROW, European Commission
• Flanders' Programme for Innovation Procurement - Opportunities for a circular mindset | Veerle Lories, VLAIO
• Sustainable public procurement strategy within Shifting Economy – Brussels Region | Estelle Andre, Bruxelles Environnement
• Green Public Procurement Action Plan of Catalonia | Itziar Müller Aguilar, Government of Catalunya
• Healthcare waste management | Jordi Pujadas Rovira, Institut Catala de la Salut
• Diaper recycling in the City of Copenhagen | Dorthe Bach Egemose Aggen, City of Copenhagen
• A one-stop-shop for circular procurement: the C-PRONE initiative | Lisanne Van t'Hoff, Rijkswaterstaat & Anita Lombardo, ACR+
• How can we accelerate circular economy in the construction, plastic and textile industries through public procurement of innovation? | Emilie Kamuk Christensen, CLEAN

Agenda

Supporting documents

• Diaper recycling in the city of Copenhagen
• Healthcare waste management - Institut Catala de la Salut