Towards a 50% reduction of non-organic material use on campus

Material streams on our campus, ranging from tissues to laptops and from food residues to building materials, are meticulously recorded. Data from the acquisition system (inflow) and waste (outflow) are analysed to provide accurate insight into all the materials that enter and leave the campus. This process is known as Material Flow Management.

WUR has set ambitious circularity goals for 2030: we aim to reduce the use of primary materials by half as well as cutting the amount of low-value recycled or incinerated waste by fifty per cent, compared to 2019.

Field labs

The data gathered on campus reveal the optionsavailable to make business operations on campus more sustainable. ‘Through field labs, we explore opportunities for increased circularity’, says partnership manager Anne van Casteren, who manages Material Flow Management at WUR. Multiple field labs have been implemented on campus in recent years. For example, restaurant kitchens used smart scales to register the amount of fruit and vegetable waste; the IT department assessed how sustainable hardware such as monitors and keyboards are so that more sustainable options can be acquired in the future.

WUR partners with waste processing company PreZero and engineering firm Witteveen + Bos to analyse resource use. Witteveen + Bos specialises in advice on circular improvements. Like WUR, these partners use the R-ladder to determine the degree of circularity. The rungs in this ladder indicate the degree of circularity. Van Casteren: ‘The higher the rung, the more sustainable.’

Hand dryers instead of tissues?

‘To date, the field labs focused on sowing’, Van Casteren states. ‘We aim to enter the harvesting period now.’ There are currently concrete plans to stop the use of tissues in public lavatories. ‘No less than 18 per cent of all residual waste on campus consists of tissues, a PreZero investigation showed. That is quite a pile of waste. Moreover, the washrooms are a mess because of all the tissues that end up on the floor.’

Witteveen + Bos analysed the environmental impact of three alternatives: recycled tissues, cabinet roller towel dispensers and electric hand dryers. The agency compared eleven Life Cycle Assessments, in which a product’s environmental impact is measured. This comparison showed that in a five-year period, WUR’s tissues generate 250,000 kilos of waste. Hand dryers and cabinet roller towel dispensers generate hardly any waste but have different environmental impacts.

Witteveen + Bos’s analysis revealed that the environmental impact of hand dryers is the lowest. Therefore, WUR will soon start a pilot for electric hand dryers in different toilet areas in two buildings. If this pilot proves successful, the hand dryers will be installed in phases in all WUR buildings on campus.

Separating waste

Van Casteren says that separating waste can also lead to environmental improvements. ‘Improved separation at the source will result in less waste that has to be incinerated. Separating waste in offices, labs, restaurants and elsewhere and removing the separated waste ensures it ends up in the right processing system.’

However, some field labs show that a circular solution is all but easy. ‘We investigated with Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR) whether the blue barrels that are used to store hazardous waste can be replaced by more sustainable alternatives. But the alternative is too costly. We concluded that not all of the waste that ends up in the barrels is hazardous. That offers optimisation opportunities.’

In addition to the previous initiatives, new field labs are initiated all the time. The Zero Waste field lab is to start in one location on the campus in 2025. Caterers, cleaners and other parties operating in that building will be involved. They will work on separating waste at the source. The results of this field lab can be applied elsewhere on the campus, enabling WUR to become more circular towards 2030.