Finalists Circular Awards 2020 announced
The finalists who will compete in the battle for the Circular Awards 2020 have been announced. From 121 entries, three notable circular companies and three projects by public institutions have been selected. Contenders are MUD Jeans, Schijvens and Kaumera (companies), Province of North Holland, Amsterdam Economic Board and Province of Fryslan (public organizations). On February 3, they will pitch against each other in The Hague to win the Circular Award Business 2020 and Circular Award Public 2020. The award goes to the most iconic circular product or project that shows what circular economy can do for the Netherlands.
About the Circular Awards Business finalists
This year’s Circular Awards Business finalists range from circular jeans to a new raw material made from wastewater. The jeans by Dutch circular denim brand MUD Jeans are made from just four different fabrics, one type of material for the buttons and rivets, and one type of stitching thread. You can buy or lease the jeans and returned jeans are recycled into new denim products. The textile industry must undergo a metamorphosis to clothe nearly 10 billion people by 2050.
Corporate clothing manufacturer Schijvens designs collections consisting of fifty percent recycled worn or broken workwear and fifty percent recycled PET. As a result, the company does not have to use new raw materials. The result: one hundred percent circular yarn.
Kaumera is a new raw material from sludge generated during the purification of wastewater. Purified wastewater is a valuable source of energy and raw materials. In October 2019, the world’s first feedstock plant to produce Kaumera opened in Zutphen. This new feedstock has many possible applications and reduces sludge waste, 20-35% less CO2 emissions and 30-80% lower energy consumption.
About the Circular Awards Public finalists
The Province of North Holland has mapped the opportunities for high-quality reuse of wood in North Holland and developed a public calculation model for various business cases. In the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area alone, there is a value of at least 200 million euros of used wood available each year. The province has started a pilot for two circular wood chains. For example, wooden detailing for construction has been made from trees from Amsterdam and residual beams from demolished buildings are getting a second life in other buildings.
In January 2015, the Amsterdam Economic Board launched the program ‘The Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam as a Circular Raw Materials Hub’, in cooperation with municipalities and governments of the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam, the business community and knowledge institutions. The program’s ultimate goal is to make the circular economy the new normal on a national level. The approach focuses on different scales simultaneously: district, city, region, national and EU / international. The AMEC Board functions as a trigger (‘transition broker’) between the parties involved and directs and builds coalitions.
The N381 is the first provincial road in Friesland where all the 5,600 tons of two-layer ZOAB (very open asphalt concrete) that is released will be reused in a 100% circular manner for the same new road. Thus, 7.2 kilometers of the old roadway between Donkerbroek and Oosterwolde will be returned as new asphalt to the new roadway by mid-2020. A promising start for the Province of Fryslân, which is firmly committed to circular economy to ensure that the province remains beautiful and livable.
Circular Awards 2020
On February 3, the six finalists will pitch in The Hague during the National Conference Circular Economy. On this day, the professional jury together with the public will choose one winner of the Circular Award Business and one winner for the Circular Award Public. The jury also awards an honorable mention to an iconic circular citizen initiative.
Professional jury
Led by Prof. Jacqueline Cramer (Utrecht University), an expert jury consisting of renowned experts in the field of circularity will select the most outstanding circular company for the Circular Award Business. A professional jury led by Prof. Dr. Louise Vet (NIOO-KNAW) will decide on the winner for the Circular Award Public and the Honorable Mention Citizen Initiatives. Jury members include Mark Groot Wassink (Auping, winner of the Circular Award Business 2019), Cathelijn Peters (director of the Union of Water Boards) and Antoine Heideveld (Acceleration House Netherlands Circular).
The Circular Awards is an initiative of the Acceleration House Netherlands Circular! commissioned by the Ministry of IenW. The awards will be presented during the National Conference Circular Economy, which is also the start of the fifth Week of the Circular Economy.
