Two Bins, Full Circle: ASMARA and the Future of Municipal Waste in Poland

The 5 bin system is broken

Two Bins Better the Five

Across Poland and much of Europe, the five-bin municipal waste system is failing. Despite years of education campaigns, most citizens remain confused by sorting rules. Packaging is often made from mixed materials—paper laminated with plastic, food cartons with metal linings, shoes composed of textile, rubber, and leather. Even when sorted “correctly,” these materials frequently end up rejected, incinerated, or landfilled.

The ASMARA platform, developed by the Syngas Project, was designed not to patch the system—but to replace it entirely. With just two simple categories—wet and dry—ASMARA enables more than 80% of material and energy value to be recovered, turning municipal waste into a powerful asset for local economies, aligned with the EU’s most ambitious directives.

Why the 5-Sort System Is Broken

The EU’s Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) and the updated Directive (EU) 2018/851 set targets of 55% municipal waste recycling by 2025 and less than 10% landfill by 2035. But Poland, like many EU countries, remains well below these targets in practice.

High contamination rates, mis-sorting, and materials that can’t be recycled using current infrastructure result in true material recovery rates closer to 30–40%—far below the thresholds set by the EU Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP).

This is where ASMARA comes in.

ASMARA: Two Bins, One Platform, Maximum Value

Instead of relying on material type, ASMARA sorts by moisture content and energy potential:

  • Dry waste (plastics, cardboard, composites, rubber, textiles) is gasified to produce Hydrogen Producer Gas (HPG). That gas is then used to power the system and feed into Targeted Microbial Fermentation (TMF) tanks to produce bio-ethanol, chemicals, and biodegradable polymers.
  • Wet waste (food, green organics, bio-sludge) is processed in GasCAN RNG units to produce Renewable Natural Gas (RNG)—a clean methane stream suitable for injection into any of Poland’s 600+ gas grid connection points.

This two-bin model is easier for citizens, cheaper for municipalities, and more effective for the environment. It eliminates sorting confusion, reduces contamination, and transforms nearly all waste into usable products.

RNG + TMF: Closing the CO₂ Loop

Traditional biogas systems rely on internal combustion engines, which are capital-intensive and inefficient, often making up 60% of biogas project CAPEX. ASMARA uses containerised RNG units that strip out CO₂ and compress methane for direct grid use—no engine, no noise, no combustion losses.

But ASMARA doesn’t waste the captured CO₂.

Instead, the CO₂ becomes a valuable feedstock for the TMF fermentation lines in both ASMARA and its rural counterpart, TITAN. Here, microbes convert CO₂ and carbon-rich HPG into bioplastics, fuels, and specialty materials, completing a closed-carbon cycle that meets and exceeds the goals of Directive 2018/2001 on renewable energy, which promotes advanced biofuels and carbon recycling.

Exceeding EU Material Recovery Thresholds

ASMARA enables:

  • >80% recovery of energy and material value from MSW
  • Zero landfill output (fully diverting organic waste)
  • Zero incineration, avoiding toxic emissions and ash residues
  • Grid-injected methane and renewable CO₂ reuse

This positions municipalities for compliance with the European Green Deal, Fit for 55, and EU Methane Strategy mandates. ASMARA turns regulatory pressure into local opportunity.

Local Value, National Security

ASMARA isn’t just a waste solution—it’s a local development engine. Each platform:

  • Generates renewable heat and power
  • Produces advanced materials locally from waste
  • Creates jobs in waste valorisation, logistics, and operations
  • Enhances resilience against energy shocks like those triggered by the war in Ukraine

By rolling out ASMARA alongside Poland’s existing biogas potential, supported by GasCAN RNG and national grid access, Poland can achieve true material sovereignty—reducing dependence on imported fossil carbon while building new capacity to support electrification and industrial decarbonisation.

Conclusion: ASMARA Is Simpler, Smarter, and Ready Now

The five-bin system overcomplicates a problem that ASMARA solves with elegant logic and cutting-edge technology. Citizens sort by wet vs. dry. ASMARA takes care of the rest. And what comes out is not waste, but clean fuel, valuable materials, and circular industrial inputs.

Two bins. One platform. A circular future for Poland.

Would you like this prepared as a downloadable brochure or translated into Polish for submission or outreach?

From Paperclip To Platform: Reclaiming European Sovereignty Through Carbon Reuse

104 Rockets Scientists at Fort Bliss, Texas 1946

At the end of World War II, the United States faced an urgent dilemma. The Axis powers, though defeated militarily, had amassed a trove of scientific breakthroughs—in rocketry, fuels, metallurgy, and chemical synthesis—that risked falling into Soviet hands. Rather than destroy this knowledge, the U.S. launched Operation Paperclip, a secret program to recruit over 1,600 German and Austrian scientists, engineers, and technologists.

Among them were individuals who had worked on the V-2 rocket, nerve agents, synthetic fuels, and aviation—some of the most advanced military-industrial technologies of the era.

Though controversial, Paperclip was not just about weapons. It was about sovereignty through knowledge. The U.S. understood that if it wanted to lead the world, it had to own the future—scientifically, industrially, and ideologically.

It succeeded. Paperclip gave America NASA, advanced materials, synthetic chemistry, and the infrastructure of the Cold War economy.

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ASMARA Hydrogen Producers Gas to Microbial Fermentation the key to upcycling thermoplastics

Warsaw 7 July 2022

The SOLIDEA Groups ASMARA platform converts all waste plastics [except PVC] into new biodegradable plastics. So-called PHA-derived plastics have the same characteristics as oil-derived thermo-plastics however as well as being 100% biodegradable PHA’s are biocompatible. To date, these plastics have been critical in the development of many medical procedures though traditionally expensive to produce.

The ASMARA platform marries two technologies a waste-to-energy plant and a bio-refinery at scale into one cookie-cutter project. The technology at the front of the process is Microbial Fermentation where a carbon-rich Hydrogen Producer Gas is forced into a tank of billions of microbes. This Microbial Fermentation process multiplies, fattens and then terminates the life of the microbes so they can be harvested to recreate a range of chemicals, fuels and materials that we use every day.

The waste-to-energy technology at the back end of the process converts solid waste streams into a Hydrogen producer’s Gas. A well demonstrated tried and tested thermo-chemical process which turns solids into gas in the absence of oxygen. There is no smoke because no burning occurs [because there is no oxygen] which is just as well because there is no smokestack or chimney for such emissions.

Hydrogen Producers Gas is created in a slightly negative pressure environment it is rich in hydrogen [H2] and carbon monoxide [CO] and these elements are suspended in nitrogen [N] together with lesser amounts of carbon dioxide [CO2] and a little methane [CH4].

The ASMARA Hydrogen Producers Gas to PHA process 

ASMARA like its cousin TITAN are platforms on which to convert abundant and or problematic organic waste into Hydrogen Producer Gas. Since we are converting waste into new materials the process is recycling however since we are producing far superior added-value materials we believe we are upcycling.

ASMARA converts problematic sorted Municipal Solid Waste [MSW] such as plastic together with household waste whilst TITAN convert abundant forest floor residues. Both platforms support different outcomes including [i] Combined Heat and Power [CHP] [ii] Gas to Liquid [GTL] tanking fuels via the fermentation of Polyhydroxyalkanoates [PHA] which produce ethanol or [iii] Bioplastics “nature-like” polymers which can be rolled to make films, extruded to make bottles and profiles or moulded to make components just like typical fossil fuel sourced thermo-plastics.

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Hydrogen Producers Gas to PHA via Microbial Fermentation, the leather of the future?

Hydrogen is a dynamic building block but if we are to have enough of it to make a difference we are challenged to find alternative ways of getting hold of it, feeding hydrogen producer’s gas to microbes through microbial fermentation nurtures and grows microbes which once processed have the appearance, feel, durability and quality of leather and that’s because the end product is made from or grown out of microbes which replicate collagen. Producing the same biological material leather is made from, in scaled-up bio-manufacturing using hydrogen producer’s gas isn’t just the silver bullet the shoe and car industry was looking for, it also produces waterless green hydrogen as a byproduct  

Alternative Collagen can be produced after recycling waste carbon

Currently, Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are fermented to produce organic materials such as polymers, once produced these organic polymers are further processed to manufacture bio-compatible, bio-degradable plastics. The same bio-manufacturing process can also produce collagen at scale a replacement for animal skin, leather manufactured by the fermentation and processing of microbes

Though this bio-manufacturing process has been slow to catch on because traditionally it is relatively expensive, compared to low-cost oil-based plastics costs are being cut as producer’s gas demonstrates an ideal carbon-rich, abundant source of feedstock for microbial fermentation.

TITAN converts abundant low-value forest waste whilst ASMARA converts abundant and problematic, sorted municipal solid waste to produce a carbon-rich hydrogen producer’s gas enabling the ramping up of PHA fermentation and with much lower cost than in the previous production facilities. 

PHA products can replace many of the materials we use every day and not only those used to produce the items we only use once. PHA is recyclable, biodegradable, and biocompatible the opportunity to recycle PHA is unlimited and if for any reason PHA materials are landfilled or accidentally become sea fill PHA will happily break down in nature without harming the environment because PHA like natural other material is biocompatible it poses no chemical threat to our health or our environments well being. 

In the very near future, low-cost Hydrogen Producer Gas sourced PHA materials will go mainstream and replace oil-based plastics. As a result, much of the new PHA materials which will enter our supply chain in the next decade could be represented by a product which has been recycled from recovered oil-based thermoplastics as we clean up our environment.    

PHA Collagen the next step forward

Collagen roughly describes the main constructive protein of our bodies, it makes up approximately 30% of our body mass, as it does all mammals. Collagen is the fundament of our connective tissue, our bones, our skin, our tendons and our ligaments they are all made from collagen. 

PHA leather collagen can replace animal products like leather shoes and sneakers, jackets, belts and many other types of apparel that can be produced without the unnecessary environmental impact of fast fashion, most importantly they can be manufactured without the need to raise and slaughter animals for their skins.

Think of the benefits for the car industry to receive readily matching leather collagen hides all of regular size and shape. Mass-produced, PHA leather collagen is highly competitive in cost and ramping up PHA production means more affordability for items such as good quality apparel and footwear with far less production waste. The PHA value proposition for the fashion industry is top-quality materials, at competitive costs and with a zero landfill potential.       

PHA alt leather collagen is produced through Microbial Fermentation an industry enjoying dynamic growth and the potential for becoming a commonplace industrial practice that renders oil redundant in the production of fuels, chemicals and materials. 

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