WAKE UP! UPCYCLE YOUR REGION

UPCYCLE YOUR REGION WITH RAW MATERIAL CYCLES

Alfride Groenewold Leonie Spronk INDEX

09 > WAKE UP! PROLOGUE

CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER 01 02 03 05 11 > THE URGENCY: IT’S ALREADY TWO 49 > THE VISION: A DIFFERENT 77 > THE STRATEGY: CIRCULAR ECONOMY 133 > THE PRACTICAL APPROACH: MINUTES PAST TWELVE PERSPECTIVE ON RAW MATERIALS AS THE BASIC SYSTEM CONNECTING IN YOUR REGION 15 > The world in the intensive care station 53 > In today’s economy, 8 kg of textiles per 81 > The switch to sustainability is originating 137 > We want to become a participation THOMAS RAU inhabitant disappears every year in the cities champion ANTON LUIKEN MEINY PRINS JOHN VERNOOIJ 25 > Time for us to take responsibility for this planet 61 > Use of plastic will increase even more 89 > Sustainability stands or falls with 143 > Municipalities need to take up their role in LOUISE VET GEERT HEIDEMAN / RUDY FOLKERSMA leadership sustainability now STEF KRANENDIJK JACQUELINE CRAMER 33 > All the plastic in our waters constitutes 69 > Waste separation generates more income, the biggest oil disaster ever that’s my point 95 > Keep thinking outside the box – that’s what 150 > Roadmap The circular city MARIA WESTERBOS GUNTER PAULI brings results INSPIRATION TON VAN KEKEN 41 > Once you feel the urgency yourself, then 74 > New entrepreneurial spirit is breaking 157 > Rethinking is the key to success for the you want to get started through 103 > The challenge is to bring recycled plastics circular economy MARJAN MINNESMA INSPIRATION back into the chain at the highest possible ALFRIDE GROENEWOLD point 46 > European Green Action Plan aims to GERRIT KLEIN NAGELVOORT 172 > Upcycling in the region increase green entrepreneurship INSPIRATION INSPIRATION 110 > Residents themselves make the difference in terms of sustainability 177 > GETTING DOWN TO WORK EPILOGUE INSPIRATION

CHAPTER 179 > SOURCE INFORMATION CHANGE ALMOST 04 ALWAYS LIES 113 > THE CULTURE: MAKING THE DIFFERENCE BY CONNECTING WITHIN A REGIONAL 117 > Ultimately it’s citizens who can make the difference COMMUNITY’S OWN WIM VAN LIESHOUT

125 > Innovation is something we really have to REACH AND SPHERE do together OF INFLUENCE. WIEGER DROOGH 130 > Competencies and core values for successful sustainable businesses INSPIRATION WAKE UP! UPCYCLE YOUR REGION CHAPTER 5 The practical approach: Connecting in your region

103 137 157 ‘MUNICIPALITIES NEED TO TAKE ON THEIR ROLE IN SUSTAINABILITY NOW’

At a time when the government is further withdrawing and concentrating on legislati- on, Professor Jacqueline Cramer questions this trend in terms of the transition to a circular economy. In May 2014 ‘her’ Utrecht Sustainability Institute presented a municip- al approach for creating a circular city. This concept, says Cramer, assigns an initiating and directing role to municipalities. “Circular Jacqueline Cramer, Professor of Sustainable Innovation and thinking requires us to look at the totality of director of the Utrecht Sustainability Institute a chain. This means letting go of the idea that you only have a task at the end, i.e. in the waste phase. Municipalities can provide new impulses for their region.”

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Moreover, according to Cramer, it is becoming ever more expensive in relative terms to extract, acqui- CITIZENS WISH re and produce raw materials and then to process IT’S NOT them as waste. “So the more raw materials we keep TO PARTICIPATE in the cycle, the better it is for our wallets.” Ano- ther point, says Cramer, is that municipalities with Cramer says that the paucity of system innovati- THAT MARKET a sustainability policy set a good example to their ons is due in part to a lack of ambitious goals. “And businesses and citizens. “Then you show that we something else, too: there has always been a fear as a society have the obligation to ensure sufficient – and still is – that citizens aren’t willing to partici- PARTIES AREN’T raw materials for future generations. Besides this, pate in an extensive separation of waste. But this is the prospect of a waste-free society is politically incorrect. During my time as a minister, when the It’s not that market parties aren’t interested in a interesting, too.” So the moment has arrived for separate collection of plastic packaging was introdu- INTERESTEDcircular economy, says Jacqueline Cramer, Profes- municipalities to begin the transition to the circular ced, people often told me: it’s good that we can do sor of Sustainable Innovation at economy in their own regions. something. People really are willing to participate, and director of the Utrecht Sustainability Institute. certainly if you get them involved from the start. “I see ever more market players investing in sus- That needs to be achieved at the local level, and tainable policy that’s aimed at long-term profit. But then my personal experience is that the involved RECIPROCAL government is also playing a role in this transition. It A GUIDE FOR people can even become enthusiastic. It’s a nice needs to mark out a path, show vision and develop goal to work together to achieve circular streams in PROCESS a strategy for encouraging and supporting innova- MUNICIPALITIES your own neighbourhood or district. If you approach tions and new forms of business. I don’t mean only citizens personally, then they’re willing to help you. According to Cramer, bottom-up involvement of through traditional legislative methods but also In order to support municipalities in this shift, USI has And businesses are often very happy to show their citizens in innovative municipal policy is far from through innovative spatial planning policy and with developed the municipal roadmap ‘The Circular City’, customers that they are working even more sustai- standard practice in the . Personally she new instruments, such as contracting and facilita- produced by the USI research network which inclu- nably. Then suddenly a lot is possible.” doesn’t believe that informing citizens about chan- ting new arrangements for collaboration in clusters des Utrecht University, TNO, Deltares, KNMI, Ecofys ges should be a one-way process. and chains. This can significantly strengthen the and HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. The Dutch economy.” notable thing about this guide is that it shifts the focus from waste collection and processing to the PEOPLE WANT TO INFLUENCE start of the chain. So in a circular city the municip- ality also has the task of stimulating and facilitating THE COLLECTION SYSTEM ECONOMIC the redesign of product and material chains. Cramer: THAT WILL BE INTRODUCED IN “The PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment ‘I’M ALL IN FAVOUR “ THEIR OWN NEIGHBOURHOOD. POTENTIALS Agency says that we are international leaders in separated collection and reuse of specific was- AFTER ALL, THESE CHANGES This certainly applies to municipalities. te streams such as paper, cardboard and glass. OF COLLABORATION Moreover, there is a steady growth in the number DIRECTLY INFLUENCE THEIR OWN of businesses manufacturing in line with the crad- WITH CITIZENS’ HOUSEHOLDS. HOW ARE YOU I STILL SEE THE ECONOMIC PO- le-to-cradle principles. But we are lagging behind in GOING TO MANAGE THIS IN YOUR TENTIAL OF THE CIRCULAR ECO- the separated collection of many other streams of household waste, including plastic, textiles and bulky OWN KITCHEN, FOR INSTANCE? NOMY AS THE MOST ATTRACTIVE household waste. We remain stuck in the logistical “ management of collection and processing, at the FEATURE. IF YOU CONVERT PRAC- lowest possible price.” USI is setting up experiments to investigate how TICALLY ALL YOUR WASTE INTO the positive attitude among citizens and businesses can be translated into a broadly supported policy. RAW MATERIALS THEN THIS WILL Cramer believes that feedback on collection results CREATE NEW BUSINESSES AND should certainly form part of this. “Citizens want to know what effect all those home-separated waste NEW JOBS. RECYCLING IS THE streams is having. The stories about organic was- INDUSTRY OF THE FUTURE. te being collected then burned are still in people’s minds. Administrators and professionals should be aware that collecting waste is a reciprocal process. That sometimes gets forgotten.”

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‘PROCESSES LIKE THESE REQUIRE YOU TO TRANSCEND INDIVIDUAL GOALS AND TO SEE WHAT YOU CAN ACHIEVE TOGETHER’

I understand that it’s not easy to develop new policy. INITIATIVES To implement changes. But municipalities that develop this sustainability vision and are open to Initiatives by citizens and (small) businesses form a initiatives by citizens, and really integrate these in valuable element on the path to a circular city, says the new policy, are the ones that are going to make Cramer. the difference.” According to Cramer, change begins with leaving your own comfort zone, and it requires collective leadership. “In a circular economy it’s no IN BIG CITIES YOU ALREADY longer about what the individual thinks is important, but about the joint search for and realization of new SEE INITIATIVES IN THE AREA solutions. And be clear: this doesn’t need to happen OF REPAIRS AND BORROWING. overnight. That’s impossible in view of the earlier “ choices and investments. Just consider the large I THINK THAT’S A GREAT DEVE- number of waste incineration plants still present in LOPMENT. WHY SHOULD I KEEP our country. In my vision we are gradually moving A WELL-STOCKED TOOLBOX AT towards a circular economy in the Netherlands.” HOME, FOR INSTANCE, IF I ONLY DRILL A FEW HOLES IN THE WALL EACH YEAR? THAT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL.

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DIALOGUE AND CO-CREATION ‘WE ARE HEADING

Cramer says it is just as important that munici­ pa­lities learn from each other here. “It would be FOR MANY NEW bizarre, wouldn’t it, if one municipality came up FIFTEEN YEARS with a solution for improving paper recycling while NICHES THAT 50 kilometres away two other municipalities have FROM NOW already done this, and moreover have a cluster of paper companies in the area? It’s not such a big dis- Nonetheless, Cramer is optimistic about the wil- SPECIALIZE IN ABOUT tance to bridge. I advocate dialogue and co-creation. lingness to change in the Netherlands. “Raw ma- In the field of innovation studies, the first articles on terials management, alongside energy, is going to RECYCLING’ JACQUELINE the circular economy state that collaboration, open be a major issue. For years now, lots of attention innovation and co-creation are the strategies of the has been given to climate change and programmes CRAMER future. I’m aware that this requires quite a lot from relating to energy-neutral work. And rightly so. But organizations. I understand the resistance, the fear I predict that in fifteen years from now we’ll have Professor Jacqueline Cramer (1951) has of losing one’s own identity with one’s own strategic made significant progress towards the circular been Professor of Sustainable Innovation at goals. But in a circular economy these are the most city. There will be broad support in the population Utrecht University since 2010 and director important keys to progress.” for changes to our systems. And we’ll find it quite normal to separate various waste streams.” In short, of the Utrecht Sustainability Institute Cramer sees the coming changes as an opportunity (USI) since 2011. Cramer became well- for municipalities. known in the Netherlands thanks to her political career. In 2007, as a member of the PvdA political party, she was appointed WE ARE HEADING FOR MANY Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment in the Balkenende IV NEW NICHES THAT SPECIALIZE government. As a minister she initiated the ‘I UNDERSTAND THE IN RECYCLING OF SPECIFIC government-wide Schoon en Zuinig (Clean “ and Economical) climate programme and WASTE STREAMS. THAT WILL FEAR OF LETTING the sustainable purchasing policy. She also CREATE NEW JOBS, ALSO FOR saw through a number of laws, including GO OF ONE’S OWN PEOPLE WITH A DISADVANTAGE the Air Quality Act (2007) and the Spatial ON THE LABOUR MARKET. SO I Planning Act (2008). Cramer has previously INTERESTS. BUT SEE A HUGE SOCIAL POTENTIAL, held professorships at the University of , Tilburg University and Erasmus TOO. AS A MUNICIPALITY YOU University Rotterdam. She has published THAT’S WHAT A CAN PROVIDE A MAJOR IMPULSE several books and academic articles and HERE. runs a consultancy firm for sustainable CIRCULAR ECONOMY entrepreneurship. Jacqueline Cramer studied at the University of Arkansas (USA) REQUIRES’ and at the , where she gained a cum laude doctorate in biology in 1976.

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