Plastic Waste Recyling

During Demoday #28, we focused on one of the key challenges in the circular transition: how can we make the Port of Amsterdam fully circular?

The Amsterdam port is one of the largest in Europe. It functions as a major energy hub, where fossil fuels still play a central role, and as an industrial hub, where massive flows of raw materials pass through. The City of Amsterdam has set the ambitious goal of becoming fully circular by 2050. This means the port must transform as well. This is a complex and far-reaching task that requires collaboration and innovation.

In this work session, we zoomed in on circular design: how can we make products and processes circular from start to finish?

A closer look at the port

James Hallworth, Commercial Manager at Port of Amsterdam, opened the session by taking the group on a tour through the world of the port. Located in the western harbour area, the port has two main responsibilities. First, it ensures the smooth and safe handling of all maritime traffic on behalf of the City of Amsterdam. Second, it manages and develops the land and industrial areas around the harbour.

To tackle circularity, Port of Amsterdam applies industrial ecosystem thinking. In nature, waste does not exist, and the same principle should apply here. The port aims to build collaborative networks between companies, where waste flows from one company becomes raw materials for another. There is already significant activity around recycling and recovery, but more can be done in higher-value strategies on the R-ladder, such as repurposing, remanufacturing, and refurbishment. Circular by design is a key concept in this shift.

The port is transitioning from measuring success in tons to measuring added value. This shift also means thinking differently about space: circular systems require space to receive, process, and recover valuable materials from waste streams.

Getting hands-on with circular design

Creating a fully circular production process is easier said than done. That’s why we worked through two real-world cases: construction materials and e-bikes. Participants split into groups and explored what a truly circular production process might look like. We also explored the potential role the port could play as an enabler of circular supply chains.

Some key takeaways from the session:

• Material passports: A digital document containing material properties and origin can greatly simplify recycling and reuse.
• Monomaterials: Products made from a single type of material are much easier to separate and recycle at the end of life.
• Smart synergies: Mapping which companies can use each other’s waste flows as input can unlock huge circular potential.
• Financial incentives: Right now, circular processes are often more expensive than linear ones. Smart financial mechanisms could help bridge that gap.
• E-bike challenges: In the case of e-bikes, batteries were flagged as a challenge. Recycling them is still very difficult, and since they are mostly produced outside of Europe, it’s hard to have control over the production process.

This session invited participants to take a step back and view products through a circular lens. The port has the potential to become a key player in the circular transition, but to get there, it will need ideas, insights, and input from across the network.

<strong>Do you have ideas on how the Port of Amsterdam can become more circular? Or would you like to contribute to future sessions? Get in touch with Noor at noor@amsterdaminchange.com. A big thank you to James Hallworth from Port of Amsterdam for bringing this challenge to the network, and Yanti Slaats (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) for moderating the session.</strong>

Amsterdam faces a major logistics challenge: from January 2025 onwards, polluting delivery vans will no longer be allowed in the city centre. How can entrepreneurs and suppliers in the food sector prepare for this and turn the transition into a success? Four fourth-year students from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) are working together in an interdisciplinary graduation circle to find solutions. They are addressing both the technical aspects of this issue and the communication side. Drawing on their different fields of study, they analyse the problem and develop a joint recommendation for the Amsterdam Transport Region (Vervoerregio Amsterdam). As part of their research, they used this working session as a focus group with stakeholders from the Amsterdam InChange network.   

Opening of the session

Stan van der Meer (Logistics Management), Chanel Pinas (Digital Marketing), Jay van den Boog (Digital Marketing), and Vanessa Man (Logistics Engineering) opened the session with a few questions to get a sense of the participants in the room. The attendees rated their own level of expertise on the topic and wrote down a word they associated with the issue. 

The room was filled with expertise: policymakers from the Municipality of Amsterdam directly involved in the issue, as well as researchers and advisors from Arcadis and Cenex who are actively working on zero-emission logistics. Representatives from the Port of Amsterdam and EIT Urban Mobility (a European network) were also present, each bringing their own perspective on the challenge.   

Statements and discussion

The students facilitated the discussion by presenting a number of statements, and moderating the group discussions that followed. Below are a few observations. 
 
Statements 1 and 2 (summarized): Amsterdam entrepreneurs are aware of the new zero-emission policy, and it is clearly presented to them.  
There was broad consensus within the group regarding the city’s policy. Communication from the Municipality of Amsterdam has been extensive over the past ten years — first targeting larger logistics partners in the city, and more recently also via letters to local entrepreneurs. In addition, physical signs throughout the city communicate the new regulations. However, what can cause confusion among entrepreneurs are the mixed signals coming from national politics and policies. This can create the impression that there is a lack of determination or vision behind the transition, making entrepreneurs hesitant to invest in new electric vehicles. 
 
Statement 3: There is sufficient support for entrepreneurs to switch to zero-emission transport. 
The group also agreed that the municipality is doing a good job offering financial support where needed. Advisors, for example, are available to guide entrepreneurs through the rules and support options. However, it was noted that the target audience still does not always have a clear overview of all the possibilities. While the municipality communicates well and “presents” the available opportunities, confusion and uncertainty remain among entrepreneurs on the streets. This represents an important communication challenge that the students will further explore. 

Also, regarding this statement and the ones before, it was noted that the (micro)entrepreneurs and stakeholders we were talking about weren't present in the room. It would have been good to have more of the target group in the room, but for this session specifically the policymakers and specialists from our network were the ones the students focussed on. In the following months of their research, their focus will be on the specialists and (micro)entrepreneurs in the food sector.
 
Statement 4: Logistics hubs play an important role in reducing transport movements in the city. 
This part of the discussion became more technical. The group agreed that a new logistics system with greater use of hubs throughout the city is, in theory, a logical and effective step in this transition. In practice, however, it is not as simple as it sounds. For example, consider the Port of Amsterdam — an existing large hub at the edge of the city for water-based transport. While goods can be transferred there to smaller vehicles for distribution within the city, docking on the busy canals poses a significant challenge. Additionally, water transport was the first sector required to become fully electric, and this system is currently somewhat reduced in scale 

Road transport is also complex. Hubs are locations where goods from different suppliers can be combined and delivered with fewer transport movements. But who holds responsibility for these goods if something goes wrong? And how can this be managed without adding too much delivery time?   

One of the participants summarized it well: we are shifting from logistics as a chain, where each party is responsible for a small part, to an ecosystem where all actors and the physical infrastructure depend on one another, share collective responsibility, and need to exchange information and services to keep the system running.    

In-depth interviews

The second part of the session consisted of two breakout groups in which the students could ask targeted questions for the research they are conducting. Jay and Chanel spoke with several participants about the research side of the project, delving deeper into successful research methods that involve entrepreneurs. Stan and Vanessa spoke with another group of participants about potential solutions for this issue, gathering knowledge about existing innovations and solutions or what might still be needed for this logistical transition.   

Follow-up

Through this focus group, the students in this interdisciplinary graduation circle have engaged in dialogue with experts on this topic from various organizations. They also made many new contacts and actively shared their project with the network. During our upcoming Knowledge and Demo Day on June 5, they will once again be part of the program and present their results and potential conclusions. 
 
Would you like to know more about the graduation circle, the research topic, or do you have tips or questions for the students? Feel free to reach out via pelle@amsterdaminchange.com 

Namla and Univerzita Pardubice Anthropology Department are hosting a one time mini conference next week on the results of our project in Erasmus Plus called AnthroAction: increasing employability and societal impact of action researchers. (https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/search/details/2023-2-NL01-KA210-ADU-000180400)

We have been running the project since March 2024 and just wrapped up our pilot course for graduates of anthropology in Czech Republic and Netherlands; where the graduates learned to combine rapid ethnography and design thinking to tackle a real-world problem, suggested by real NGOs.

The NGOs that contributed to the project were:
-Czech Blind United (https://www.sons.cz/) with the question: how can we attract more younger members to our organisation?
-Junak - Czech Scouts (https://www.skaut.cz/) with the question: what do today’s teenagers want in leadership training?
-De Meevaart Community Centre (https://meevaart.nl/) with the question: how can we start a blue zone in Indische Buurt in Amsterdam?
-The Really Healthy School (https://www.skutecnezdravaskola.cz/) with the question: how can we reach more primary schools with our programme?

The participants in the course were coming from all over Czech Republic, and Amsterdam.

In the conference, we will discuss what happened in the course, how it went, what we can learn from the pilot. Also a number of professors in Anthropology from different parts of Europe (such as Laurens Bakker, Ana-Isabel Afonso), applied anthropologists from Czech Republic (such as Karolina Kania, PhD, Socionaut, z.s.), as well as organisations in our network will share reflections on how what we did here fits into a wider context.

Please register here before January 22nd: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfGfI-vtCTk3XdaGpZvlK37y2VKqZqIV1LUfUiJhsD0OqFlxg/viewform

and join the conference at this Zoom link:
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89954251812?pwd=78KpFxVY3rXY682mEbErjDl7woYVnR.1#success
Meeting ID: 899 5425 1812
Password: 514987