People are the foundation of all cross-border cooperation. Interreg Aurora is happy to present the people and different professions working across borders with the aim to improve our daily lives.
Meet Øivind Østbø, Head of Development, Remiks Miljøpark AS
My name is Øivind Østbø. I am originally from Bodø, but I have been living in Tromsø for over 20 years. I moved to Tromsø to study law and economics at UiT, the Arctic University of Norway. After completing my studies, I started working in the waste management industry, a natural choice since my family ran a private waste management company in Bodø. I chose to work in the public sector to help create great public services and ensure that waste becomes more than just waste.
Making more recycled material available in the Interreg Aurora programme area
Remiks Miljøpark AS is one of the project partners in the Interreg Aurora-funded NOWA project, which aims to develop sustainable waste management practices.
Together with my colleagues at Remiks, Stian and Mari, we are working to create an overview of the waste (or resource) market in the Interreg Aurora programme area. We firmly believe that there is significant potential for more cross-border collaboration and value creation through cooperation within this sector. When it comes to waste resources, it is often a numbers game – being able to create profitable and sustainable industrial recycling solutions requires gathering as many resources as possible to create room for investments and profitability.
Boosting regional recycling
Different industrial sectors, as well as anyone looking to create more opportunities and utilize resources more locally or regionally, will benefit from increased availability of recycled materials. Unfortunately, many resources are exported from our areas to larger markets in other parts of Europe because we are too small to create opportunities for managing the waste ourselves. If we combine our resources in projects like NOWA, which bring together the academic sector, the private industry, and the public sector, I am confident we can create greater opportunities.
Interreg create valuable connections
The best part about working on a cross-border project is definitely meeting all the remarkable and highly knowledgeable people who are “just across the border”. These are people I am sure we would not have been able to connect with in such a positive way if it were not for Interreg projects. I believe we have built strong connections from which we will all will benefit. We face similar challenges and opportunities, and the discussions, joint work, and knowledge-sharing we get from the NOWA project are invaluable and essential.
Not an early bird
The worst thing about working on an Interreg Aurora project is adjusting to different time zones. An 8 a.m. meeting in Finland is very early in the morning for me in Norway, especially since I prefer the midnight sun to the morning sun. Fortunately, our partners are very flexible when it comes to meeting times, so it is not really an issue.
Arctic Waste Forum – bringing together waste management actors
On a more serious note, I would say that one of the greatest challenges for cross-border collaborations is the different rules and regulations in each country, especially for Norway, which is not part of the European Union. One of the outcomes of the NOWA project will be the Arctic Waste Forum, which will continue to promote cross-border collaboration among waste management actors in both the public and private sectors across the North Calotte.
Making the world a little better by waste management
The waste management industry keeps our societies running, and we are now tasked with even more than just taking care of waste. “We are creators of products and resources that society will depend on for functioning in the future. There are so many opportunities just waiting for us to seize and make something of, we just need to find the right way to do it. Being able to provide excellent public service while making the world a little better is incredibly rewarding. And we need more talented people!”
Products should from the beginning be designed for recycling
I hope that in the future, we will be able to do even more with the resources we have, and that products will be better designed for recycling. I also hope that producers and consumers will place even more focus on quality and sustainability. There are so many products around us that have no future at the end of their life other than incineration (burning) or landfill, simply because the producers did not begin with the end in mind.
Learn more about the NOWA project and the project partners:
- Kajaani University of Applied Sciences
- Remiks Miljøpark AS
- Haurun Jäteauto Oy
- Kiertokaari Oy
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