Flanders Perfectly Hitchted

Streamlining waste stream recovery and drawing a red thread throughout Flanders

Throughout Flanders, there are a huge number of small, local initiatives that give residual streams a new circular life. Yet the circular application of residual material is too late, initiatives prove too expensive and the supply is unstructured. With 'Vlaanderen Volmaakt geHitched', Hitch and Volmaakt are investigating how to streamline the recovery of residual streams and create a common thread throughout Flanders.

The applications of residual materials are procrastinating and are also often too expensive, while the supply of organisations and companies using them is insufficient and unstructured. Even within the social economy, the possibilities are still too limited because the projects remain too small-scale. As a result, the impact of the recovery of residual materials fails to materialise and the materials footprint decreases too little.

With the project 'Flanders PerfectlyHitchted', Hitch and Volmaakt are investigating how a qualitative application of the modular HITCH system can ensure large-scale and long-term reuse of residual flows. They do this by finding out how a locally organised learning network of social economy companies together with companies that supply sources of residual flows can boost the recovery of residual materials throughout Flanders. This while the recovery is large-scale, long-term and qualitative and at the same time can provide sustainable work for the tailoring companies. Via a roadmap, the local models will then be shared with other Flemish regions to provide a clear offer to companies, architects and hobbyists.

Vlaanderen Volmaakt geHitchted' is a project initiated by HITCH and Volmaakt, supported by The Ecological Entrepreneur and Voxdale and with a whole host of partners in the Flemish landscape. These range from various knowledge institutions, universities, local authorities and a series of cross-sector organisations that are committed to more sustainable solutions.

More information via the website www.hitchconcept.be

Photo by Alfonso Navarro on Unsplash.com