Context
The Walloon State of the Environment (2022) identifies 40,000 ha of potentially polluted land, i.e. 2.3% of the territory. The vast majority of the wastelands are located along the Haine-Sambre-Meuse corridor, particularly in the provinces of Hainaut and Liège.
Their reconversion is a regional priority that pursues three main objectives: economic for the recycling of abandoned land, environmental because polluted sites present risks for human health and ecosystems, and social to improve the quality of life of citizens and create jobs.
Brownfields are an opportunity to install a vegetation cover with multiple services: restoration of soil functions and biodiversity on degraded lands, stabilization of pollutants, management of water resources, adaptation to climate change, improvement of the quality of life and health of citizens, job creation and development of the biosourced materials sector in Wallonia.
Rationale
The SII Waste2Bio wishes to play the role of a dome to federate the Walloon actors, to arouse new synergies, to create new opportunities of projects and to contribute in fine to an economic and environmental revalorization of the wastelands
A multi-actor approach
The Waste2Bio initiative relies on a consortium of more than 100 partners, Walloon actors in the redevelopment of brownfields, the biobased economy and ecology involved at all levels of the value chain: land owners and managers, public authorities, soil experts, research organizations, service providers, farmers, biobased companies, non-profit organizations…