Inauguration of the Study Center “Circular Economy. Waste, materials and sustainability”.

It was inaugurated on October 7, 2021, during the Festival of Sustainable Development, the CEWMS Study Center – Circular Economy – Waste, Materials and Sustainability at the University of Padua, a structure dedicated to research and promotion of issues related to the circular economy in the territory.
The Center, born within the Department of Engineering, involves more than 40 professors, belonging to different departments of the University (Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Technique and Management of Industrial Systems, Biology, Chemical Sciences, Public, International and Community Law, Economic and Business Sciences, Psychology of Development and Socialization, Geosciences, Territory and Agro-forestry Systems), which contribute to develop interdisciplinary research and create new synergies, becoming a reference point for theimplementation of circular economy practices.
“The circular economy is a new way of interpreting not only the economic system and that of waste management but also that of the relationships between institutions, the world of research, the world of business and services, and civil society. At the University of Padua – says Professor Maria Cristina Lavagnolo, professor at the Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering, University of Padua and Principal Investigator of the Center – there are already high-level competences in the key areas of circular economy such as environmental sustainability, treatment and recycling of waste and materials, the impact of unsustainable actions, monitoring and protection of fragile environments. The center wants to create a synergistic network between the various stakeholders, leveraging not only on the results that can be obtained through advanced research, but also on its ability to propose sustainable cultural models through training”.
The activities of the Center, with the collaboration of local businesses and UniSMART, the University of Padua’s foundation for technology transfer, also contribute to raising public awareness through information initiatives, and aim to enhance research activities on the themes of the circular economy. Among the objectives there is also that of encouraging the definition of an adequate regulatory framework at the basis of the implementation of new technologies for the circularity of production processes and the adoption of new models of consumption, to limit the impacts on the environment and ecosystems.
The University has also invested in the circular economy in terms of teaching: in fact, 2021 saw the launch of a new master’s degree course in Sustainable Chemistry and Technologies for Circular Economy, delivered in English and with a strongly interdisciplinary approach.