A sizeable category that contributes to the organic fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is represented by Absorbent Hygiene Products (AHPs) waste, which are currently considered as non-recyclable fraction of MSW and finds its way to landfills or incineration, leading to important environmental concerns. Indeed, each year 900,000 tons of AHP waste are incinerated or landfilled in Italy, 8,500,000 tons in Europe and over 30,000,000 tons in the world. AHP are mainly composed of a mix of natural fibres (cellulose) and polymers (PP/PE and superabsorbent polymer), valuable materials that currently don’t find a proper valorization. Within EMBRACED project, a first of its kind, integrated biorefinery will be established in order to valorize in a relevant environment scenario the three different fractions obtained from AHP waste towards the production of bioproducts of commercial interest.

This innovative biorefinery model will involve all the main actors of the whole value chain, from AHP consumers and local population to waste management and logistic companies, bioprocesses developers or final products developers. In a view of circular economy, all the fractions obtained from processed AHP waste will be reused through valorization into final products, while the organic fraction of AHP (i.e. cellulose) will be converted and valorized in two parallel value chains, which will lead to the production of biobased building blocks, polymers and fertilizers.