Open About Waste removes the taboo about waste
On the second day of the Glasgow Climate Summit, waste group Ortessa launches openoverafval.nu. Ortessa, an innovative player in the waste industry, sees openness as the key to realizing large-scale solutions to the ever-growing waste mountain. The waste landscape is complex and has many challenges that can only be solved by multiple parties in the waste chain. Companies and organizations from all sectors are invited to sign the 'Open About Waste pledge' and thereby join PSV, CSU and Volvo Trucks, among others, in Open About Waste to jointly curb the negative impact of waste on our climate.
Openness is key to a sustainable future
"Waste used to be manageable. You had glass milk bottles that were collected and refilled and green waste went to the animals. What was left over was often incinerated or went to a local landfill. Now everything is more complex. At Rondo we see that waste management is perceived as complicated for many companies, there really is still a lot of profit to be made there," said Raphael van Noord, Rondo's managing director. Together with its parent company Ortessa, the company today launched openoverafval.nu, an initiative that aims to create more openness and insight into the complex and opaque world of waste. With the cooperation of everyone in the chain and based on the proper use of data and innovations in consumption, Open About Waste wants to work towards sustainable solutions.
Zero waste as a showpiece
At the front end, it seems as if every company is circular or at least has the ambition to become so. Concepts such as zero waste and circularity are all around us. Unfortunately, reality is stubborn and for a large part of our waste there is still no good solution. Every year in the Netherlands and Belgium approximately 9.7 million tons of waste is incinerated. Rob Meulendijks, CEO of Ortessa, explains: "The key to a more sustainable waste world is openness about waste. By gaining insight into the facts and figures about the entire chain, we can focus on areas for improvement and reduce the complexity of the system. So that terms like circularity and zero waste become more concrete." PSV already signed the Open About Waste pledge. The soccer club has the ambition to transform the Philips Stadium into the stadium of the future in the coming years. "This includes giving sustainable dilemmas a place in our organization. It is nice to tackle these issues together with other parties, so we can learn from each other, share best practices and not have the feeling that we have to reinvent the wheel on our own," says Toon Gerbrands, general manager of PSV. Cleaning company CSU, Volvo Trucks and Cyclups have also already joined Open About Waste.
Less waste, higher recycling rate
On openoverafval.nu you can find experiences of organizations that have learned by doing. The platform also provides insight into the ugly truth with regard to all kinds of waste dilemmas. For example, plastic packaging (PMD) is properly separated, but only 27% of the time it is reused.* The aim is to organize round tables and workshops with at least 150 large and small organizations over the next few years to expose waste dilemmas, collect data and work together towards new, sustainable solutions. "That is not to say that Open About Waste is only for the best boys in the class," Meulendijks explains. "It's precisely when you're faced with issues you can't figure out or when you're wondering how to do things better that it's important to get involved." Thus, Open About Waste makes fingerless waste, emissions and recycling a shared problem with a shared solution.
Starting today, waste companies, manufacturers, retailers, municipalities, industry associations and other interested parties can join by signing the pledge at openoverafval.nu!