By 2030, renewable Energy Sources (RES), and its infrastructures, are expected to increase 40% in Europe. Parts of RES strategies are onshore and offshore wind energy. The investment into new RES infrastructure implies an update of the current wind turbines, resulting in waste of the composite materials that constitute blades. To turn RES into the most promising and economically viable sources of renewable energy, we need to provide clean renewable energy without any emissions during operation. The blades, among the most important components in the wind turbines, made with composite, are currently regarded as unrecyclable. It is estimated that by 2050 the end-of-life (EOL) blades waste will generate more than 2 Mt annually, and cumulative blade waste in 2050 will lie between 21.4 Mt and 69.4 Mt, worldwide. EOL options for decommissioning wind turbine blades should be explored with the aim of providing environmentally favorable guidelines for managing wind turbine blade waste, and the possibility for material recovery and recycling is crucial if circular economy is the goal in the wind power sector. One possibility to avoid the accumulation of EOL blades in the environment is to convert the composite blades into new environmentally friendly building materials such as green cement. This option would demand some processing of the composite waste. Another option could be the reuse of the blades directly without much processing, e.g. . as new blades or as other products. Furthermore, the composite waste from blades could be combined with similar waste from other industrial sectors to enlarge the potential of a composite wind blade recycling process. Therefore, the general scope of the proposed project is to evaluate and demonstrate in large scale the possibility of recycling or resource recovery from blades and similar waste materials in a large consortium with some of Europe's key players in areas of importance for the project.

The transformation of the European Process Industry needs to embrace circular economy and restorative feedback loops, as a key pillar of the design of entire value chains. Construction, as a waste-intensive sector, is expected to greatly benefit from the potential impacts of circular economy models, to optimize the use of resources, reduce exploitation of raw materials and costs associated with its supply. In the construction and manufacturing process industries, a key challenge to allow the actual uptake of circular economy models and of upcycled /repurposed and/or recycled materials, lies on the need to guarantee that reclaimed materials can offer the same level of quality, performance, and safety of new secondary products. The aim of CIRCULess, is to contribute to foster circularity in the construction and manufacturing process industries, by minimizing Construction and Demolition waste (C&DW) as well as Manufacturing waste (CDM), with focus on mineral (i.e. concrete) and timber-based material streams, which is aligned with the objectives of the Processes4Planet Partnership, by developing new processes for circularity of secondary materials from wastes/residues for all industrial processes, without compromising quality and performance as well as sustainable-by-design circular products. CIRCULess main objective will be addressed by experimenting new circular products and novel processing techniques to improve the quality and performances of secondary materials up to industry expected standards, improve value chain environmental friendliness, maximize recycled components. These actions will benefit from the support and will provide inputs to a tailored digital platform to orient decision making and operational activities. Finally, to foster uptake by the construction sector, recommendations for standards updates and relevant training material for both upskilling current construction workforce and create new specialized profiles in the sector will be created.