The Baltic Sea, one of the most polluted seas in the world, faces significant challenges from nutrient runoff, leading to eutrophication and biodiversity loss. Recognizing this critical issue, the EU Interreg Baltic Sea Region (BSR) core project CiNURGi—Circular Solutions for Nutrient Recovery—aims to foster nutrient recycling, enhance agricultural sustainability, and advance a circular economy across the region. Central to CiNURGi’s success is stakeholder engagement, which ensures sustainable and impactful transnational collaboration.
The stakeholder-centric vision
CiNURGi integrates perspectives from business owners, wastewater treatment operators, policymakers, research institutes, and private industries across the Baltic Sea Region. By collaborating with such a diverse stakeholder base, the project ensures its efforts are scientifically robust, practical, inclusive, and adaptable. This multifaceted approach enables CiNURGi to address critical environmental challenges while fostering regional cooperation. By focusing on circular nutrient systems, the project facilitates the recovery of valuable resources such as phosphorus and nitrogen from wastewater sludge and promotes practices like biochar production to reduce dependency on synthetic fertilizers. Moreover, cross-sector collaboration bridges agriculture, wastewater management, and policy, creating synergies that amplify the project’s regional and long-term impact.
Circular economy practices: The example of Sweden
The Testbed Ellinge project in Sweden exemplifies the transformative potential of integrated pilot projects and stakeholder engagement in advancing the circular economy. Led by VA SYD at the Ellinge Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant in Eslöv, the facility demonstrates the cutting-edge capabilities of sludge pyrolysis technology. The testbed operates with a multidisciplinary team comprising universities, research institutes, and companies, reflecting a robust collaboration across sectors. Part-financed by the Swedish Innovation Agency, Vinnova, the project also includes four additional municipal water and wastewater utilities as key partners, enhancing its reach and impact.By converting wastewater sludge into biochar, the testbed achieves several significant outcomes. Phosphorus is efficiently extracted for reuse, reducing dependence on synthetic fertilizers while promoting sustainable agricultural practices. Additionally, the pyrolysis process sequesters carbon, contributing to climate change mitigation. The resulting biochar acts as a highly effective soil improver, enhancing long-term soil fertility and resilience in agricultural systems.
Beyond its technological advancements, Testbed Ellinge serves as a model of stakeholder engagement. The facility hosts workshops and site visits, enabling business owners, municipal planners, researchers, and other stakeholders to observe its processes firsthand. This open and inclusive approach fosters transparency, trust, and active knowledge sharing, inspiring similar initiatives across municipalities and regions. By combining practical demonstrations with active collaboration, Testbed Ellinge provides a compelling example of how circular economy solutions can be effectively applied in real-world settings.
Policy alignment and advocacy
Policy alignment is a cornerstone of CiNURGi’s stakeholder engagement strategy, ensuring its initiatives resonate regionally and at the EU level. By aligning with the EU Green Deal, CiNURGi contributes to reducing reliance on fossil-based fertilizers and mitigating nutrient runoff into the Baltic Sea. The project also actively supports the Baltic Sea Region Nutrient Recycling Strategy by advancing the objectives outlined in this HELCOM Action Plan. Through its workshops and dialogues and collaboration with and the EU Strategy for the BSR Policy Area Nutri, CiNURGi advocates for practical policy measures, such as introducing quotas for recycled nutrients in fertilizers and providing financial support for pilot plants that develop innovative recovery technologies. Furthermore, the project emphasizes the need for tax incentives to make bio-based fertilizers economically competitive. These initiatives collectively aim to drive systemic change, ensuring that nutrient recycling solutions are scalable, cost-effective, and widely adopted across the Baltic Sea Region.
Future outlook: Scaling impact
Looking ahead, CiNURGi aims to amplify its impact by scaling its initiatives across the Baltic Sea Region. Building on the success of pilot projects like Testbed Ellinge, the project plans to replicate its solutions in other countries, demonstrating how circular economy practices can adapt to diverse environmental and economic contexts. Equally important is policy integration, where CiNURGi’s findings will inform regional strategies, influence funding priorities, and shape regulatory frameworks that support nutrient recycling and sustainable agricultural practices.In addition to scaling solutions, a potential further outreach and impact of CiNURGi is to broaden stakeholder participation by actively involving underrepresented groups. Smallholder farmers, for example, are directly impacted by fertilizer policies and stand to benefit significantly from circular practices. Community organizations also play a critical role in driving local-level implementation and advocacy. By engaging these groups, CiNURGi can continue to enhances its social equity dimension while fostering grassroots support for circular economy initiatives. As the Baltic Sea Region transitions toward sustainability, CiNURGi’s stakeholder-driven model serves as a blueprint for inclusive and transformative change.
Conclusion
CiNURGi exemplifies how circular economy principles can thrive through cooperation, innovation, and shared responsibility. By fostering collaboration across sectors and nations, the project not only addresses nutrient pollution but also builds a resilient and sustainable future for the Baltic Sea Region. With its stakeholder-centric approach, CiNURGi paves the way for global efforts to close the nutrient loop and advance sustainable agricultural practices.
Cheryl Marie Cordeiro
Senior Researcher, Department of Circular Wastewater Systems, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden
Sweden
