Every year, an average Dutch household produces 1165 kilogram of waste. For high-quality recycling of this waste, we need to separate the waste properly, as placing something in the wrong container may jeopardize the whole recycling process. Municipalities are keen to increase the amount of waste that is separated as well as to reduce the contamination of the separated fractions. This requires a change in the habitual behavior of residents which is especially challenging in high-rise buildings where residents have to go downstairs for communal containers.
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Waste separation at companies is considered a priority to achieve a circular and sustainable society. This research explores behaviour change poli-cies for separating the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) at Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), particularly in cities. At SMEs, co-work-ers are responsible for waste disposal. Therefore, their behavioural intention to-wards pro-environmental action plays a major role. In this study, we have used agent-based modelling and simulation to explore the waste behaviour of the ac-tors in the system. The models were co-created in participatory workshops, sur-veys and interviews with stakeholders, domain experts and relevant actors. Ad-ditionally, we co-created and tested practical social and technical interventions with the model. We used the collaborative modelling method Lange reported to conceptualise, implement, test and validate the models. Five policies that affect waste separation behaviour were included in the model. The model and simula-tion results were cross-validated with the help of a literature study. The results were validated through experts and historical data to sketch a generalisable idea of networks with similar characteristics. These results indicate that combinations of behaviour profiles and certain policy interventions correlate with waste sepa-ration rates. In addition, individual waste separation policies are often limitedly capable of changing the behaviour in the system. The study also shows that the intention of co-workers concerning environmental behaviour can significantly impact waste separation rates. Future work will include the role of households, policies supporting separating multiple waste types, and the effect of waste sep-aration on various R-strategies.
The ‘dirt diary’ is a do-book that was used to interact with residents to gain a clear view on the true waste journey in households. The do-book is contains several assignments for residents around different types of waste, for example plastics, organic waste, paper and textile. Assignments include drawing a map of waste solutions in the kitchen, photographing waste generated when preparing a meal and describing how they dispose of the waste in the kitchen and at communal containers. The do-books completed by the residents were analysed by the researchers for each waste type, studying behaviour exhibited and underlying motives for that behaviour. The do-books proved to be a valuable tool to gain understanding of people's behaviour around disposing waste, the opportunities for waste separation they have in and around their homes and their motivations for separating waste or not. This should lead to touch points to create interventions on automatic behaviour so that a sustainable change in this behaviour can take place.This do-book was exhibited as boundary object at the Collaboration for Impact exhibition, eccompanying the publication Collaboartion for Impact,
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In June 2016, two Dutch SME companies which are active in the area of urban solid waste management approached the International Environmental Sciences department of Avans about the current R&D activities on urban solid waste management in cooperation with the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) Brazil. The companies had interest in developing activities in Brazil, since they are aware of the great potential for exporting both knowledge and technology. Solid waste poses a major problem in Brazil which affects 200 million residents. The Brazilian municipalities collect around 71 million tons solid municipal waste on a yearly basis and only a tiny percentage of this collected waste gets recycled. As such. the overwhelming majority of the collected urban solid waste goes to landfills. Within the State of Minas Gerais there are 850 towns of which 600 have less than 20.000 residents and are agriculturally oriented. Current organic waste composting practices take place under very poor conditions (pathogens and weeds still remain in the compost) and most often the resulting compost product is not well received by its residential and agricultural consumers. As such there is huge room for improvement. The SME companies work with Avans and UFMG to address these challenges. The joint research team consisting of the two Dutch SME companies and the two Research and educational institutes have defined the following research question: What is the current status of organic solid waste management in Minas Gerais and how can cooperation between Brazil and the Netherlands result in a win-win for both countries? Two individual KIEM VANG proposals have been defined in order to address these challenges. The planned activities are a joint effort with professor R. T. de Vasconcelos Barros of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) and are executed within the Living Lab Biobased Brazil program (www.biobasedbrazil.org).
The climate change and depletion of the world’s raw materials are commonly acknowledged as the biggest societal challenges. Decreasing the energy use and the related use of fossil fuels and fossil based materials is imperative for the future. Currently 40% of the total European energy consumption and about 45% of the CO2 emissions are related to building construction and utilization (EC, 2015). Almost half of this energy is embodied in materials. Developing sustainable materials to find replacement for traditional building materials is therefore an increasingly important issue. Mycelium biocomposites have a high potential to replace the traditional fossil based building materials. Mycelium is the ‘root network’ of mushrooms, which acts as a natural glue to bind biomass. Mycelium grows through the biomass, which functions simultaneously as a growth substrate and a biocomposite matrix. Different organic residual streams such as straw, sawdust or other agricultural waste can be used as substrate, therefore mycelium biocomposites are totally natural, non-toxic, biological materials which can be grown locally and can be composted after usage (Jones et al., 2018). In the “Building On Mycelium” project Avans University of Applied Sciences, HZ University of Applied Sciences, University of Utrecht and the industrial partners will investigate how the locally available organic waste streams can be used to produce mycelium biocomposites with properties, which make them suitable for the building industry. In this project the focus will be on studying the use of the biocomposite as raw materials for the manufacturing of furniture or interior panels (insulation or acoustic).
This project entails a feasibility study to assess the possibility of creating an open-access, community-based makerspace in the Vietnamese city of Can Tho. The aim of the project is to kickstart the community based circular economy by utilizing residual flows from the plastic catching process. Plastic catchers trap both plastic and biomass that will be converted into new products to strengthen both the local economy and providing Dutch SME-company Orange Star Solutions with the necessary raw materials to convert into produce. The project will make use of a plot of land bordering the Song Can Tho river. The owner proposed that the plot of land could be used in a way to generate income, preferable in a way that would show environmental awareness. This could be done by using the vast amounts of (in)organic waste that is littering the environment. The collection of the waste is mainly done by local waste pickers. The waste pickers, part of the informal economy, could unleash their full potential if there is a physical location where waste is upcycled and sold, circumventing the bury, burn or bale-and-export economy. The extracted plastic will be converted into pans, cups, pots and crockery. The biomass, predominantly water hyacinth, will serve as one of the ingredients for compost hence, reducing the reliance on chemical fertilizers.
