Capacity-building and innovative approaches to support environmentally sound nanowaste management in Central Europe

The increasing number of applications for nanotechnology in many technology and industry sectors has resulted in the generation of waste containing engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). There is no specific waste management strategy for nanowaste. If the ENMs in waste are identified as hazardous, this waste is categorized and treated in the hazardous waste cycle alongside conventional waste. While it poses substantial management challenges and unique environmental and safety hazards different from conventional waste. It is critical that the disposal of this waste does not cause any health impact on workers handling the waste and the environment. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of; data and knowledge on the load of nanowaste, awareness, and safe handling guidelines, fundamental management capacities, cooperation between key stakeholders to reach an agreement for nanowaste management, and regulations on the management (especially for end-of-life materials). The overall objective of Cloacina is to develop and implement simple, robust, and cost-effective strategies to support nanowaste management across central Europe regions by providing a platform where stakeholders such as companies and large industries, leading research organizations, and governmental entities will cooperate and share knowledge, tools, and methods. To this end, the initiatives of Cloacina will be to (a) establish a user-friendly e-infrastructure to foster dialogue, collaboration, and information exchange between key stakeholders and increase the availability of data, knowledge, public awareness, and capacities (b) develop harmonized monitoring approaches for measuring nanowaste, (c) perform pilot activities for upstream prevention of nanowaste and (d) develop educational materials on the safe and environmentally sound handling of nanowaste. A large array of stakeholder groups can directly benefit from Cloacina’s outcome because the innovative approaches of this project will revolutionise our understanding and significantly enhance our capacity for managing nanowaste. The outcome will help to address regulatory concerns, which can facilitate ENMs containing products to reach the market without legal challenges. This will directly increase industrial, company and SME (e.g., textile, paint, and cosmetic companies) competitiveness and economic growth. The e-infrastructure will engage stakeholders from different regions in the central EU and potentially from other parts of the EU. The monitoring approaches and the pilot actions allowed (a) new and valuable insights into the load and sources of nanowaste in the central EU, which are of importance for municipalities, environmental organisations, and NGOs to contribute to mitigation activities and policies and the assessment of environmental risks, (b) the functioning of waste treatment strategies and the capacity for removing nanowaste (e.g., WWTPs and recycling companies), (c) the feasibility of implementing nanowaste treatment technologies. This project's educational materials and protocols will protect employees and workers who handle nanowaste and increase their awareness regarding the possible hazard associated with ENMs and the required measures and minimize environmental releases. The objective of Cloacina cannot be achieved without transnational cooperation between stakeholders due to (a) the interdisciplinary nature of nanowaste management, (b) the collaborative work required to monitor the sources and the quantity of nanowaste in central EU, (c) and the requirements for performing pilot activities, which might be beyond the capacity of one stakeholder alone in terms of e.g., financial, human and technical capacities. The project will create an e-infrastructure, which will enable sharing and comparison of the results and outcomes and transnational discussion of experts as well as the integration of stakeholders.