Your residual waste is full of raw materials: four material streams that can be circular right now

Paper towels become new paper, used buckets get a second life, laminate becomes raw material. The circular economy is already working. As a company, all you have to do is know what material streams you have.

Organizations face a substantial challenge: reducing resource use and closing resource chains. We must move toward a circular economy. By choosing to recycle and reuse materials, for example, valuable raw materials are saved and the amount of residual waste decreases significantly.

Source separation of paper, cardboard or plastic is now 'normal'. Yet there really is more to be gained from business waste. For example, there are other valuable material streams at every company that don't have to be waste. Think of used plastic buckets or paper towels that we give a second life through recycling.

While many organizations are looking for ways to reduce residual waste and comply with CSRD regulations, these recycling opportunities often remain invisible. Not because it can't be done, but because companies don't know what is possible.

Opportunities

For every company, there are opportunities in separating so-called monostreams: waste streams consisting of one type of material: paper towels or plastic buckets. Or by keeping specific products composed of multiple materials separate, such as laminate or sandwich panels. Unlike mixed waste, material streams can be perfectly reused or highly recycled into new raw materials. They not only provide environmental benefits -less carbon emissions, less raw material consumption - but also represent an economic value.

How do you know which monostreams and products your company has?

But as a company, how do you discover which other valuable material streams are still in residual waste? A waste analysis reveals just that: 'Mono streams or specific products are not the first thing a company thinks of when they start source separation. And they may want to, once they know what the options are. When a waste analysis is done, you have a fairly quick understanding of where the biggest gains can be made,' says Nout van Kempen, Chief Material Officer at PreZero. 'Then you can start working on that. Or if there is no solution for it yet, start looking for it together.' The good thing is: companies don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are already working solutions for more and more material streams.