Circular Transition
The EU needs to accelerate the transition towards a regenerative growth model that gives back to the planet more than it takes, advance towards keeping its resource consumption within planetary boundaries, and therefore strives to reduce its consumption footprint and double its circular material use rate in the coming decade. The European Green Deal aims to boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy.
In order to continue to meet our needs, we must drastically change our way of consuming and producing and deal differently with our scarce resources. A transition is needed from our current linear way of thinking to a circular economy, in which waste is seen as a raw material and materials are endlessly reused. The transition to a circular economy requires step-by-step technological solutions at various scales and system levels, as well as innovations that take into account a diverse set of stakeholders. We focus on three levels:
- Circular urban value systems: How can you develop urban value systems in which materials and (semi)products remain in the cycle for as long as possible and maintain high-quality? We focus on the three sectors in Amsterdam’s Circular Strategy: construction, biomass and food, consumer products.
- Revaluing waste: How can residual flows (discarded products, components and materials from the construction and consumer products/industry sectors) be reused in new products and buildings at a high quality level in order to prevent (low quality) recycling? The focus is on the reallocation of (urban) waste flows (mostly technical materials) from construction and consumer products.
- Design without waste: How can we design products and buildings circularly, taking into account multiple life cycles of the materials used in them, including (multiple) use of renewable materials? Current focus is on circular construction, circular product design and circular packaging. Special attention is given to interdisciplinary cooperation within Urban Technology, primarily on the use of renewable materials and the use of digital production technology for local and circular production in construction.