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Ƶ Professor Eduard Akim took part in the meeting of the UN working group on the development of circular economy in the forest industry
01 March

Eduard Akim, Professor of the Higher School of Technology and Energy of the Ƶ, who is a member of the working group on the production of sustainable forest products at the UN, took part in a regular meeting in Geneva. The meeting was initiated by two UN entities, the Economic Commission for Europe and the Food and Agriculture Organization, in order to discuss the concepts of projects planned for 2023 that will address the topic of circularity in the forest sector. The results of the meeting of the working group, as well as the conducted research, will be used by scientists of the Department of Cellulose Technology and Composite Materials of Ƶ to create new types of biodegradable packaging as part of the university's implementation of the "Priority 2030" program.

The organizers of the joint section of the ECE and FAO on forestry and timber invited reputable researchers from different countries to give their own assessment and recommendations on projects planned for this year concerning the development of the circular economy in the forest sector. At the next meeting of the working group, the conceptual issues of the study of cyclicity in pulp and paper production were discussed. As a result of the discussion, the topics that will be included in this study were approved. Among them: PPI products and their characteristics, circulation and sustainability at different stages of the pulp and paper industry value chains, including solutions for collection, sorting and processing, examples of successful practices, as well as recommendations for forest industry participants.

The plan of the second study includes the study of the context of the growing interest in closed-loop bioeconomics, the opportunities and problems of the forest sector, the conditions for a successful transition to a waste-free biological economy in forestry value chains, the potential of cyclicity and problems in the management of forest product residues.

The meeting of the working group on the first project has already been scheduled for the end of June 2023.

The Department of Cellulose and Composite Materials Technology of the Higher School of Technology and Energy of Ƶ, headed by Professor Eduard Akim, is engaged in developments based on larch biorefining — a breakthrough technology for processing wood to obtain valuable chemicals from it and their use in the production of new products in demand. In particular, the scientists of the department have developed a technology for creating eco—friendly packaging, which consists of cardboard and a layer of biodegradable plastic with arabinogalactan - a substance that is contained in larch wood.

The materials obtained during the work of the ECE and FAO will be used by the Department as part of the university's implementation of the strategic project "Development of biodegradable packaging production at pulp and paper industry enterprises, transition from plastic to 2030" under the program of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia "Priority 2030".