Water recycling is still a novel topic for many local authorities & water companies around the Baltic Sea. From 1 Jan 2023 until 31 Dec 2026, the Partners of WaterMan worked jointly on bringing it into wider practice. They also explored how the alternation of too much and too little water, which has become typical for the area, can be used to strengthen the resilience of local water supply in the BSR.

The jointly elaborated “BSR Water Recycling Toolbox” (www.eurobalt.org/waterrecyclingtoolbox) is specifically designed for this: It provides practitioners with concrete inspiration & hands-on advice for getting started with water recycling based on a BSR-specific approach that builds on three key pillars: the reuse of treated municipal wastewater, the creation of small recycling loops in households & industry, and the harvesting & recirculating rainwater. Special attention is paid to showing how to tap into alternative water sources with available, field-tested technologies & solutions.

Interested parties from the BSR may explore its contents by:
> Strolling around the “BSR Water Recycling Toolbox” website:
> Signing up to “IN THE LOOP – the three-step guide to get started with water recycling”:
> Getting tailored advice from the hands-on experts of the “WaterMan Helpdesk”:

The recommendations of the toolbox are based on validated technical-organisational solutions & field-tested strategic pathways for bringing water recycling into practice under the specific conditions of the BSR. These derive from 10 pilot measures & 7 model strategies in the WaterMan partner regions (Kalmar / SE, Västervik / SE, Bornholm / DK, Berlin-Brandenburg / DE, Braniewo / PL, Klaipėda Region / LT, Kurzeme / LV).

As water recycling is an already tried-&-tested practice in other parts of Europe, their elaboration started with the joint exploration of real-world examples outside the BSR that may be adapted. Two study trips led project team & key stakeholders from the partner regions to selected European forerunners. The first destination was the semi-arid Murcia Region / Spain, an internationally recognized leading example that stabilised water supply by increasing the reuse of wastewater from zero to 98%. The second destination was Flanders / BE & Zeeland / NL, which are among the most advanced humid regions. On-site-visits & exchange sessions with related initiatives in the BSR, such as AQUARES, ReNutriWater, ANCHOR complemented these activities. On this basis, the partners shaped the pilots & model strategies further in an intensive & fruitful transnational co-creation process. Seminars & coaching activities by the involved research institutes supplied the hands-on partners with up-to-date knowledge on tools & methods for designing them. A series of “peer & expert review sessions” was used to jointly refine the pilots & strategies based on inputs & experiences from all countries.

The results: Six “real world” pilots with different foci started operating between July 2024 & Sept 2025 (Bornholm / DK: Low-tech filter for recycling municipal wastewater for agricultural irrigation; Kalmar / SE: Mobile disinfection system for recycling wastewater for watering green areas, Västervik / SE: Advanced multi-dams to retain stormwater for different purposes, Braniewo / PL: Recycling of water from a public swimming pool / raingarden, Gargzdai / LT: Stormwater retention pond for water recycling). Five feasibility studies explored further use cases of water recycling with high replication potential (e.g. Bornholm / DK: Purification of municipal wastewater for hydrogen electrolysis). Furthermore, the pilots were used as crystallisation points for elaborating & adopting water recycling strategies for the WaterMan partner regions that define further measures to promote water recycling in the long term.

These exemplary actions created the basis for the “BSR Water Recycling Toolbox”. In parallel, WaterMan initiated a BSR-wide stakeholder dialogue. Two international “Dialogue Forums on Water Recycling in the BSR” in Nov 2023 & Nov 2025, organised in collaboration with the Water Core Group of Euroregion Baltic, acquainted stakeholders with the potential of water recycling. This was complemented by “WaterMan on tour” events in each of the six participating country as well as numerous sessions & presentations at external events, such as the EUSBSR Annual Forums in 2024 & 2025. In addition, two “Roundtable Discussions” in Brussels in Jan 2025 & Nov 2025 addressed issues related to regulatory frameworks for water recycling at national & EU level. In total, these activities reached more than 400 representatives of municipalities & water companies as well as regional & national authorities from all around the Baltic Sea.

WaterMan, therefore, delivered both: First real-world examples of a BSR-specific approach to water recycling, and a sound basis for promoting its wider roll-out in the medium & long term.