Centers for Urban Re-manufacture: Lessons from the CURE Pathfinder Project
Paper in proceeding, 2019

The reuse and remanufacturing of materials in urban areas is an important step towards
closing local material cycles. Despite high potential, the use of these materials is currently hampered
by various reasons, such as lack of coordination or insufficient exchange between the actors. There is
no central point of contact at city level for bundling competencies in this field. The importance and
possibility of establishing a central Center for Urban Re-manufacture (CURE) for sorting, storing and
preparing for reuse and re-manufacturing of these materials was investigated in Gothenburg and
Berlin, in a EIT Climate-KIC Pathfinder project. This article summarizes the findings and lessons of
that project, which include an initiative review, market analyses, and participative workshops in both
cities. The studies show that Gothenburg had a strong local authority engagement in the topic, while
Berlin counted with several independent organizations already providing reuse services. The project
managed to generate interest in this topic among local actors in both cities, which will hopefully result
in the future establishment of some type of CURE in these locations. The article concludes that a
combination of bottom-up and top-down engagement is needed to provide material recovery services
at a city scale, involving stakeholders from across the existing material value chains.

Author

Isabel Ordonez Pizarro

Technische Universität Berlin

Oskar Rexfelt

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Design and Human Factors

Paul Mählitz

Technische Universität Berlin

Shea Hagy

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology

Beatrice Decker

Technische Universität Berlin

Dina Padalkina

Circular Berlin

Vera Susanne Rotter

Technische Universität Berlin

the 3rd PLATE Product Lifetimes And The Environment 2019 Conference Proceedings

577-581
978-3-7983-3125-9 (ISBN)

the 3rd PLATE Product Lifetimes And The Environment 2019
Berlin, Germany,

Subject Categories

Other Mechanical Engineering

Other Social Sciences

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Innovation and entrepreneurship

Areas of Advance

Production

DOI

10.14279/depositonce-9253

More information

Latest update

9/13/2021