An interview in Change Inc. with Nicole Hunfeld (Board member of the ESCH-R project) and Barbara Huizink (director of innovation at PreZero Netherlands).
What is the role of a waste processor in a world without waste?
Turning waste into new raw materials: that is PreZero’s mission. But how do you turn a traditional waste generator into a company that makes its money in the circular economy? Healthcare shows how such a circular model gets off the ground.
“The waste sector is at the heart of the circular economy,” says Barbara Huizink, director of innovation at PreZero Netherlands. “Europe wants to be fully circular by 2050. So the raw material challenges are very big. How can we conserve materials and reuse more? How we handle our waste is crucial here: that is the link to close the raw materials cycle.”
PreZero turns waste into raw materials for new products and materials. A complex task: no two waste streams are the same. For each type of waste, we have to figure out how to give it a new purpose. Together with customers, PreZero figures out exactly how waste streams are put together. How is it collected? What materials does it consist of? What can be reused? What can be recycled? What applications are there for the processed materials? And who is interested in these new raw materials?
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Circularity in healthcare
ErasmusMC in Rotterdam is one of the frontrunners in waste reduction in healthcare. Nicole Hunfeld is project leader of the Green Team Intensive Care and pharmacist of that department. “In the hospital, you cannot avoid the waste problem,” she says. “During COVID, this was magnified because the waste bins were all outside in the corridor, instead of in the rooms. You saw a massive amount of waste, and at the same time many of the same materials were not available. That felt very strange.” For Hunfeld, that was a wake-up call that made her start making ambitious plans to reduce waste in healthcare.
Read the full interview with Barbara Huizink (director of innovation at PreZero Netherlands) and Nicole Hunfeld (Board member of the ESCH-R project) here (in Dutch).
