DUTCH CHAMPIONS IN RECYCLING

Last week the environmental commission of the European parliament stated that from all the household waste at least half should be recycled. At the moment the Europeans recycle only one third of the 1.8 billion tons of waste. Some states even throw 90% of their waste on the rubbish dump. 'The reuse of waste products is become more important, especially because the raw materials become scarce and more expensive', says the Dutch social democrat European MP Mrs. Corby.

The European commission also wants to stabalise the growing flow of waste in 1212. At the moment the waste flow grows faster than the economy. Mainly stimulated by lack of free grounds and significant government funding, the Dutch have a lot of experience in recycling. This expertise is sensibly exported, for example to the United Kingdom, where practically all waste ends up on a dump.

With recycling 75% of the glass and paper, the Dutch are the champions of reuse collecting. The Dutch landfills are used for less than 10% of all waste. Dutch household waste recycling averages to 60% (2006). The separately gathered organic fraction is 50% of household waste, or 1500 kiloton’s. This is processed to 600 kiloton’s of compost, and the end-product partially exported while over annual national consumption. In the Netherlands itself, the recycled amount in 2005 was up to 2.5 million tons, which is 75% of annual consumption. By contrast, in the EU, over 50% of paper is recycled. National law concerning recycling is heavily influenced by EU regulations. Also, the environmental impact of industry is closely guarded by EU standards.

Deposit systems are in use for beer bottles and some drink containers. Gas bottles and household appliances are also covered by this the used term is "removal fee". Extra earnings from this system are spent on investments in the recycling industry). The different types of recyclable materials collected include: all types of paper/cardboard, glass jars and bottles (by common collection points), compostable materials, some plastics, Motor oil, tires (some re-treaded, some mixed with asphalt for road resurfacing), metal cans (although usually extracted from trash by separation techniques), beer bottles Plastic soda containers through deposit systems, ink cartridges, all types of batteries, clothing and toys for second-hand use, construction timber, concrete and bricks used as road fill, or grinded down and mixed as new and some household appliances may be returned through shop when buying new products.

The modern Dutch incineration plants also recycle a lot of the heat and left over’s of the incineration. Residual heat from power stations is used to heat the water of a shrimp farm in the harbour of Rotterdam. Today the reuse of plastics and metals from scrap cars is affordable, since the raw materials have become so expensive. Zinc from old batteries is reused in roof-gutters and the steel from paint pots is reused to make nails and steel wire.

A Dutch managing director of a very successful Dutch company that sells used paper to China: 'Besides paper we also transport used plastics and metals from the West to China. We want to become a globally operating recycling house, because recycling is the future in China, regarding the enormous damage to the environment. We in the west have the second hand raw materials and the knowledge how to recycle environmentally friendly. We really love to bring that knowledge across.'

To some recycling is not environmental at all. Most of the recycled goods need to be transported and recycling itself costs energy as well. The new formula is 'cradle to cradle'. The term was first used in a book from William McDonough en Michael Braungart: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002). In the actual methods of durable product development, the system aims at limiting the damage of a product. In this process the product is produced, used and dumped. To make this more durable cleaner raw materials are used, the use of the product is made efficient and the recycling is optimised. Although the process is called recycling this still can be seen as designing from the cradle to the grave.

The central thought behind the cradle to cradle philosophy is that all used materials after their function in one product, can be useful for another product. The first difference between the conventional reuse is that there is no quality loss and that no rest products end up at a dump. For this cycle often the motto 'waste equals food' is used. Some Dutch cities adopted the 'cradle to cradle' philosophy and want to reorganise and implement it in their system.

'Architects 1012' is a group of Dutch architects that designs buildings with reused materials. 2012 Architects views re-use as an integrated design strategy. Working under the name ‘Superuse’, Architects 2012 is busy creating a knowledge database for the simpler and more efficient use of re-use in the construction industry. However, ecological considerations are not the prime motivation. Equally important, in their view, is the creative inspiration they draw from the potentialities of recovered objects.

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April 14, 2008