1.1 General

This report is focussed on the subsystem: ‘Waste and materials’. Over the years, the size and composition of waste streams have changed. With increasing consumer demands, because of economic prosperity production of waste has enlarged. The growing global population and middle class in combination with the ‘take-make-waste’ linear economy has led to a larger waste production than ever and keeps on growing.

In the ideal world, as described in initiatives as circular economy, cradle to cradle and the blue economy, waste does not exist. Instead, waste maintains its value by creating closed loop systems. Waste becomes a resource for another product. Although this, sounds good on paper, it is often hard to implement in the real world. Legislation and interests of stakeholders often conflict, making such initiatives hard to implement.

 In this project, our group tried to get as close as possible to a self-supportive sustainable Texel in 2065. Although the technocycle is a big part of the material flow, this report mainly focuses on the biocycle. Since Texel is an island, the biocycle gives opportunities to become self-supportive by using locally sourced products. This is not only more sustainable, but decreases dependency on the mainland as well. Based on proven blue economy concepts, our group designed a system that integrates different blue economy initiatives into one system. A context, actor and technology analysis made it possible to create a roadmap of change that leads to an action plan to implement this system in 2065. This roadmap of change will be discussed with stakeholders on Texel to review feasibility.

 We hope you enjoy reading our discoveries.

 

Antonio D'Aquillo

Cheyenne Schuit

Lizet Krabbenborg

Thijs Schaap