HOOP Lighthouse Cities Share Experiences on Circular Bioeconomy @hoop_eu Biowaste management practices vary greatly around Europe. As part of our HOOP project, stakeholders from ten European cities and regions visited Münster, Germany and Almere, in the Netherlands to learn more from these two frontrunner cities. The inaugural study tour links to the project’s overall aim to improve urban biowaste management practices, such as separate collection and valorisation. A central goal of the tour was to foster cross-city learning: “It’s not only really important to develop tools to foster European circular bio-economy, you also have to guarantee that other parties across Europe or worldwide have the opportunity to understand what you are doing to be able to apply it in their own territories,” noted Elisa Gambuzzi, Research & Development Technician at the Environment Department of CETENMA, a HOOP project partner,. In the study tour, members of the HOOP Network of Cities and Regions as well as other HOOP Lighthouses learned more about how Münster and Almere manage their biowaste. In Münster, participants took part in a guided tour of the AWM biowaste management facilities to learn how the city processes organic matter – from sorting to anaerobic digestion and composting of the digestate (i.e. the material remaining after anaerobic digestion). They had also a chance to visit Münster’s “Landfill Learning Trail”, exploring guiding principles of a modern and resource-conserving circular economy. Finally, the participants experienced firsthand Münster’s biowaste composting facility and learned how it produced quality-sealed compost from green waste. In Almere, the highlight was one of the most successful biowaste projects to date in the city’s history, namely the production of green concrete. Participants observed this process directly onsite at CIRWINN’s premises. Green concrete was used to build a 3 kilometer-long bike path in Almere. A visit to the Floriade Expo 2022 concluded the tour, where participants could experience new bridges built from residual material from old bridges and buildings and other constructions made from organic material. As a result of the study tour, Münster and Almere received both recognition and constructive suggestions for their waste management innovations and facilities. For further questions, please contact Carina Diedrich.