RETRACE partners visit the Netherlands, the cradle of the Circular Economy
The fourth field visit of Retrace project was held in the Netherlands on 16 and 17 February. The aim of the trip was to visit several good practices of Circular Economy and Systemic Design in a country that is at the forefront of these topics.
For the organization of this field visit, RETRACE partners relied on the collaboration of two Dutch entities that are considered as a reference in the Circular Economy. These are: Bluecity010, a business center situated in Rotterdam where the Dutch start-ups that have Circular Economy projects can interact, and Circular Expo, a business center that develops ideas, technologies, financial structures and business models that significantly accelerate the transition to a Circular Economy. The visited Good Practices interested different fields, from agriculture and food to bio fuel production. The initiatives carried out in the Netherlands have involved Bluecity010, Rotterzwam, Fruit Leather, Better Future Factory, Circular Valley, Black Bear Carbon, Coop Arc, Amsterdam Smart City, Schiphol Airport and Sky NRG.
The trip has been very rewarding considering that, although Holland is not a member country of the RETRACE consortium, it is one of the hot spots of the Circular Economy worldwide, a reference in this field. Furthermore, each RETRACE partner had the opportunity to invite their stakeholders and give them the opportunity to know in situ the success stories that are being developed in Holland, the cradle of the Circular Economy.
Among the ones visited, 6 Good Practices were selected; these will be added to the 18 already selected in Italy, Spain and France and to the ones that still need to be identified in Slovenia, Romania and Scotland through three field visits. The final objective of these trips is to collect good practices in order to elaborate a guide of political recommendations to influence the regional policies and to define a method to generate activities based on the principles of the Circular Economy through Systemic Design.
