Cradle to Cradle - Product innovation with partners: This is how we close the circle

In collaboration with customers and partners Van Gansewinkel Groep develops new concepts and ‘tools’, helping to give more waste a second life as raw material. Or, better still, avoid waste altogether.

By embracing reuse at the design and development stage of production, none or fewer new raw materials are needed. Products must be designed in such a way that the raw materials can be recycled after use; and that the cycles can be closed. Rather than creating waste, this gives products a second life and, for this, Cradle to Cradle is an excellent approach.

Cradle to Cradle is gradually being applied to a growing number of products. This is not something that happens overnight. It is a step-by-step process that improves the quality of products and encourages smarter raw material usage. We are in discussions with several organisations, large and small, which consider us to be the connecting link in the Cradle to Cradle network. As a result and over the past three years alone more than a hundred initiatives developed. Below is an overview of some of the concrete steps that have been taken with some of our partners over the last year.

Van Gansewinkel Office Paper

Last year we worked hard on Cradle to Cradle certification and the commercialisation of Van Gansewinkel Office Paper. Van Gansewinkel Office Paper is the result of collaboration between Van Gansewinkel, Océ and the German paper producer Steinbeis. Van Gansewinkel (Destra Data) collects office waste paper from its customers and then shreds it, after the separation process, into raw materials that are finally delivered in bales to Steinbeis. After a sustainable production process, Van Gansewinkel and partner Océ deliver 100% recycled paper back to their customers, where it is collected again after use. This is how Van Gansewinkel closes the ‘circle’.

During the production process 83% less water (79 litres per single pack of paper) and 72% less electricity is used than in standard Office Paper. The CO₂ savings reaches a maximum of 53%. Importantly, no trees are felled in Van Gansewinkel Office Paper production, whilst 7.5 kg wood is used in the production of a standard pack of office paper.

And, with this paper, organisations can easily embrace sustainability and improve their footprint. Chemicals are often also used during the production of office paper to remove inks, but in Van Gansewinkel’s process, only environmentally-friendly materials are used. Van Gansewinkel Office Paper is the world’s first office paper with a Cradle to Cradle certification.

From concrete to concrete

Until now, when sewer systems were being replaced the old concrete sewer systems were almost always processed into granules, the residual waste being used for road construction. A good example of reuse, but not the paragon of sustainable raw materials as new sewer systems are being produced from virgin raw materials. Kijlstra Riolering and Van Gansewinkel are working together on improved solutions with Cradle to Cradle as the guiding principle. In the new concept, the old sewer pipes and concrete waste are being collected by Van Gansewinkel from the production site and processed further into crushed miniscule granules. These concrete fractions are fully used as raw materials in the production of sewage pipes, pavement tiles, sinks and other concrete products. This way, the raw materials circle is closed.

FORZ

Subsidiary A&G has developed a method to create secondary building materials, cements and sand from selected waste materials. These products, called FORZ, are complete replacements for current primary building materials such as gravel, sand, soil and foundation materials. The cement is tested by the Cradle to Cradle scientific institute EPEA and qualifies under the Cradle to Cradle principle. In October last year, a 900 m² FORZ floor was laid in a pilot scheme at Tata Steel in IJmuiden. If the test is successful, more floors at Tata Steel will be made from this building material. In the first project, Van Gansewinkel waste is used; sand sorted and sieved along with bottom ash from AVR’s energy plants. If the pilot succeeds, the next project will use Tata Steel’s own waste. Potentially, the next step may be that Tata waste is used in FORZ alongside other organisations in the IJmuiden area.

Philips

Inspired by the Cradle to Cradle principle, Philips and Van Gansewinkel are working together to improve raw material reuse in electrical and electronic products. The knowledge of both companies will be interconnected, creating closed cycles. Van Gansewinkel’s knowledge and experience in area of raw materials, waste streams and recycling being essential to the cooperation. Last year, specific research was undertaken into what extent recycled plastics can be used again in the production of Philips products. This research is ongoing in 2011.

Philips and Van Gansewinkel are also cooperating in research studying how the current generation of flat screen TVs can be fully recycled. The research is examining how a business model can be optimally tuned for maximum recycling capability as well as closing the raw materials cycle, a central issue of the study. The research project, called PRIME (Perfecting Research on Intelligent Material Exploitation) has, via the MIP2 scheme, also been awarded a €0.5 million grant by the Flemish government. Along with Van Gansewinkel and Philips, Umicore, Nitto Denko, the Instituut voor Technologische Ontwikkeling (the Institute for Technology Research) and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven) are all involved in the project.

Brabantia

In 2010 and in cooperation with Brabantia and Cranendonck local council, we began a project that gave us the opportunity to put our Waste no more motto into practice for the public. The project’s objective was to demonstrate that through optimal waste separation, no waste need remain, or at least no more than a fraction of 5%. Thirty families participated in the pilot scheme which began on 1 June and Brabantia placed its collection resources at their disposal. Van Gansewinkel took care of the logistics and the analysis of the separated ‘raw materials’. What was unique about the project was that it stimulated raw material production rather than waste. The Cranendonck local council has actively participated by ramping up organic waste, paper and plastic collection and introducing lower pricing.

Furthermore, though additional cooperation, initiatives are being communicated widely to consumers. Brabantia launched a campaign where customers could buy a new bin in exchange of their old one. Van Gansewinkel collected the bins at participating retailers and recycled them. In total, the campaign raised nearly 13,000 kg of metal and 2,000 kg of plastic. Van Gansewinkel and Brabantia held a similar pilot previously in Belgium, where old letter boxes were collected. The target for the campaign is to ultimately create closed raw materials cycles. With Brabantia and to that aim, we are also investigating the full recycling capability for the waste bins themselves.

Office Furniture

Could it be possible, financially viable and socially justified to set up a return and recycling programme for office furniture? That is the central question of a two-year pilot programme. Steelcase, the office furniture producer is looking to use Cradle to Cradle principles in the reuse and recycling of office furniture as well as in its manufacturing process. Too often, office furniture is disposed of as worthless rubbish but often the furniture is still technically in working order and can be sold and reused in other markets, the consumer market for example. If the discarded office furniture contains old Steelcase products, these can be restored or partially dismantled for component reuse. In this project, Steelcase is working with three partners: Van Gansewinkel with the knowledge and resources to set up the logistics and recycling; Levanto with the knowledge and experience of social services and creating sustainable employment for disadvantaged groups (e.g. immigrants, unskilled, employment disability, etc.) in the social economy to flow through to the mainstream economy; and finally BECO Belgium (subcontractor) with the knowledge and experience of setting up and coordinating pilot projects around sustainable innovation, supply chain management and Cradle to Cradle.