On April 1, 2024, the institute for a Circular Society (i4CS) launched its Seed Fund Call, inviting researchers from EWUU alliance partners to submit proposals aimed at advancing circular solutions for Urban Rural Circularity. To kickstart the collaborative process, a dynamic one-day pressure cooker session was organised on May 29 in partnership with the province and city of Utrecht. We are pleased to present four projects containing 17 researchers who have been awarded seed grants.

Urwood

Towards value-added repair in Utrecht Region with upcycled WOOD composite materials

In the context of the new upcycling centers being constructed in Utrecht in 2024 and 2025, there is a transformative opportunity to convert local wood waste into innovative processed (composite) materials with a broad range of utility. This initiative aligns with the ambitious goals of the Utrecht municipality, which seeks to close resource loops and enhance circularity, particularly in the use of fresh and reclaimed wood. By contributing to the municipality’s target that at least 25% of locally produced products are sourced from local wood, this effort aims to make discarded wood more accessible and usable for multiple stakeholders (both existing and projected), thus strengthening the local economy and fostering sustainable practices.

The approach centers on collaborative engagement with Foundation Up/Utopia (future foundation to be created by the collection of stakeholders) and their network, to identify and source wood waste that would otherwise be incinerated or composted. The focus is particularly on the high-volume but lower value wood categories such as top branches and trims from local and lumbered trees. These represent an untapped resource for upcycling, while satisfying the requirements for developing high-volume percentage wood-based composite materials suitable for additive manufacturing.

Team

• Bahareh Barati – TU/e Department of Industrial Design
• Lu Zhang – WUR Laboratory of Food Process Engineering
• Emma Luitjens – UU Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development
• Tommaso Magrini – TU/e Department of Mechanical Engineering

Piecing together the puzzle of circularity for Utrecht

A matter of space and time

Essential expertise is brought together to develop a roadmap for the adaptive spatial strategy of Utrecht to transition to a circular society, ensuring that the evolving demand of the construction sector for space is met over time. The current response of Utrecht to transitioning to a circular society represents an incomplete picture. The ‘what’ and ‘how’ of an adaptive strategy for furthering the space-use over time remained unaddressed. This initiative aims to provide Utrecht Province with the required insight into the spatiotemporal aspects of a transition towards a circular society, focusing on the construction sector. This is delivered via a conceptual framework that sets forth the spatial parameters for transitioning from a linear to a circular society, and a roadmap for understanding the how of reaching it.

This projects lays out the groundwork for such a framework, identifying the spatial parameters of a transition to a circular society for Utrecht’s construction sector, exploring the evolving spatial claims throughout this transition over time, and reflecting on the potential alignment with the current policy objectives of the province.

Team

• Maryam Ghodsvali – WUR Environmental Sciences
• Yanliu Lin – UU Human Geography and Spatial Planning
• Hongmei Lu – UU Human Geography and Spatial Planning
• Shahryar Ershad Sarabi – TU/e Built Environment

Societal change in constraints and motivations for future upcycling

The Gemeente Utrecht has the ambitious goal of becoming fully circular by 2050. To achieve this goal they have taken a broad and asset-based approach building on what residents and enterprises are already doing to reduce their consumption by reusing, sharing, and upcycling materials before they become waste. The city has identified the secondhand economy as an important pillar for preventing waste and reducing overall resource consumption. Ubiquitous secondhand shops and online secondhand markets are making the secondhand economy an increasingly accessible way to become donors or circular consumers. However, for many Utrecht residents the secondhand economy goes beyond consumption and includes many non-market practices of giving, sharing, and finding—in social networks, free stores, mini-biebs, dumpsters, and space. This makes understanding motivations and constraints more complex.

The overall aim is to develop a deeper understanding of barriers and opportunities for closing the loop on materials in Utrecht’s secondhand economy. From existing survey data we catch a glimpse of the complex and multi-faceted socio-cultural, psychological, economic, and logistical barriers people face in reducing their consumption of raw materials by participating in the secondhand economy. Collecting, mapping, enhancing and telling the everyday stories of stuff in the secondhand economy, and how it gets from A to B or the bin, is a starting point for reducing barriers and inspiring others in the transition.

Team

• Nina Rosa – WUR Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing
• Dan Lockton – TU/e Industrial Design
• Robert Weijers – UU Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Arturo Castillo Castillo – UU Geosciences
• Oona Morrow – WUR Rural Sociology Group

Accelerating public-private partnership for circular public spaces through inclusive digital technologies

The National Environmental Vision (NOVI) established the goal for the Netherlands to achieve a circular economy by 2050. So far, significant emphasis has been placed on buildings, while the potential of public spaces as a major carbon source is underappreciated in existing plans. Public spaces require millions of euros annually to design, plan, manage and maintain, which entails the significant use of materials. Predominately, these materials are new and derived from primary raw materials. The opportunity exists to save material usage through the exchange of materials, reuse, and high-quality recycling of materials, leading to significant costs and CO2 reduction. Due to the extent of the carbon content of public space materials and the extent of material usage in the Utrecht region, this is a pertinent area to make steps forward in circular economy.

Building on knowledge gained from the PADST project, this initiative examines how digital tools and technologies can facilitate public-private partnerships around the reuse of materials in public spaces and explores the government capacities required to do so. It assesses the socio-technical challenges and barriers of existing digital tools for different stakeholders (e.g., government, businesses, citizens) and identifies gaps and ways forward on how digital tools and technologies can enable public-private partnerships for the reuse of building materials in public spaces.

Team

• Vikrant Sihag – TU/e Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences
• Dujuan Yang – TU/e Built Environment
• Kirsty Holstead – UU Public Administration and Policy
• Erna Ruijer – UU Utrecht University School of Governance

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