We organise our actions in six thematic & strategic agendas:
Strategic Agendas:
Bio-economy
Circular Construction
Chemicals/Plastics
Manufacturing Industry
Food Chain
Water Cycles
Seven leverages provide additional support:
Leverage effects:
Lever Policy Instruments
Lever Circular Procurement
Lever Communication
Lever Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Lever Financing
Lever Jobs & Skills
Lever Research
What, why and how?
Why are we pursuing a circular economy?
Future visions 2050
How do we see our circular future?
About our management
Who steers what at Flanders Circular?
ECO-oh! recycles household residual plastics collected by more than 2 million Flemings. As a result, we currently process about 10% of the household residual plastics in Belgium.
Recycling is done as eco-efficiently as possible: we purify and reuse waste water from production on site, we use electricity from renewable sources as much as possible and we avoid adding toxic substances to our production process. We sell the raw materials obtained or use them on site to make sustainable products such as street furniture. In this way, we upcycle low-grade waste materials into high-grade design products.
Our street benches are particularly durable: the plastic is water- and frost-resistant and requires little maintenance. They have a minimum lifespan of 10 years, but we can reprocess the discarded products into raw material for new products.
Until now, we sold the benches to cities and towns, which themselves were responsible for their use and maintenance. With this project we would like to change our approach and develop a fully circular business model in which the user does not pay for the possession, but only for the seating comfort. To do this, we first want to investigate whether this rental model is financially, practically and commercially workable.
Ecoo Distribution BVBA
Partners Belfius Bank
Sectors
Themes
Organisations
This project gave us all the space and opportunity to test a new model of service delivery within the existing public street furniture market. Although practically interesting opportunities were discovered for collaborations with custom companies, we encountered obstacles both commercially and financially.
It seems that sustainability is becoming an increasingly important aspect, yet we find that the actual purchasing criteria often remain price-driven. Also internally we feel that this fully circular model cannot yet compete with our classic sales model. We expect a fundamental shift in post consumer recycling in the coming 3 to 5 years in terms of technology, productivity and regulation. Perhaps it will then make sense to take up this exercise again. Nevertheless, we are pleased to have had the opportunity to conduct this highly informative study.