The government is investing 221.4 million euros in the Duurzame MaterialenNL growth fund program to boost the development and upscaling of sustainable material innovations. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, chairman of the independent committee of the National Growth Fund, announced this on 14 April. Duurzame MaterialenNL is a broad national initiative that focuses on materials for the energy transition, constructive materials and circular plastics. We are proud that the theme of circular plastics, in which circular thinking, design and action are central, has been assigned. We will make every effort to ensure that we meet all the conditions so that we can invest the entire amount to ensure that the project contributes to the earning capacity. With the implementation of this 8-year program, the government, companies and knowledge institutions are committed to achieving the circularity goals of recycling 50% of all plastics by 2030. With this we fight climate change, reduce the use of fossil raw materials and reduce Environmental pollution. This will strengthen the sustainable earning capacity of the Netherlands.
Duurzame MaterialenNL was set up by the MaterialenNL Platform and submitted to the National Growth Fund by the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate. The overall proposal includes three major material sectors with high economic and sustainability potential: Energy Materials, Constructive Materials and Circular Plastics, the latter part of which has now been allocated. The circular plastics programme contributes to the crucial task for the circular economy. This programme focuses on plastic materials design, sorting and characterization, industrialization of plastics recycling and the systems integration necessary for closing value chains and adopting the technology in society.
David Pappie, Director of Top Sectors & Industrial Policy at the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate:
“With this proposal, the growth fund is investing in the necessary innovation and upscaling of circular plastics. This should ensure that we close the chain: less plastics in the environment and less plastics for waste incineration. A great opportunity for the Netherlands to link this social challenge to the strengths of Dutch knowledge institutions and the chemical industry. I look forward to bringing a circular plastics ecosystem in the Netherlands a big step closer together with MaterialenNL.”
Vivianne Heijnen, State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management:
“The National Growth Fund has been set up to tackle the most important problems of our time, in a way that is good for the environment and that contributes positively to the wallet. Duurzame MaterialenNL does exactly that: the affiliated companies and knowledge institutions want to work with the government to make a number of large raw material flows more sustainable. The project has received conditional funding to ensure that we can make more new plastic from plastic waste with better techniques. Since I want the Netherlands to be fully circular by 2050, I am proud that the partners will soon be able to start working on the concrete projects from the proposal. I am also curious whether they can refine the proposals for the construction and energy transition with the valuable suggestions of the Advisory Committee.”
Materials and durability
The economic growth of the past century has unfortunately been accompanied by an enormous growth in the use of materials, the emission of greenhouse gases and environmental pollution. In the coming decades we must realize the transition to economically profitable production and use of sustainable and fully circular materials with new functionalities. This is also known as the materials transition. Duurzame MaterialenNL makes the Netherlands the global frontrunner in the materials transition by removing bottlenecks in the scaling up from laboratory to production of sustainable material innovations.
Circular plastics
The Duurzame MaterialenNL proposal focuses on the largest polymer-based material flows. These are used in packaging, construction, transportation, electronics, agriculture and horticulture, consumer goods and textiles. The biggest challenge in moving from a linear value chain (from production to waste) to a circular value chain is involving all parties in the chain. In the proposal, more than 150 parties, from producer, packer, brand owner, waste collector to recycler, will work together to close the value chains.
We do this by focusing on various bottlenecks in plastic materials design, sorting and characterization, industrialization of plastics recycling and programs necessary for the integration of these technologies into society. In addition to the 186 million euros from the growth fund, an additional 346 million euros will be provided by mainly private parties. In addition, the committee is making 35 million euros available for parts of Dwarsverbanden 2 and 3: Brightlands Circular Space and the nursery programme.
Video Duurzame MaterialenNL
Watch the introductory video of the Duurzame MaterialenNL proposal here, in which the initiators introduce and explain the programme.
Consortium
Duurzame MaterialenNL is supported by a consortium of more than 300 collaborating parties consisting of universities, colleges, knowledge institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises, multinationals, start-ups and social organisations. The initiator of the circular plastics component is the National Platform Plastics Recycling core team, which includes parties that play a role in establishing PPP collaboration around Plastic Recycling. This core team is chaired by ChemistryNL chair Jacqueline Vaessen and consists of representatives from the top team chemistry, TKI Chemistry/mission CE, TNO, DPI, ISPT, ARC CBBC, TI COAST, NIOK/VIRAN, NRK and VNCI.
Questions about this message?
Please contact the secretariat of Platform MaterialenNL or National Platform Plastics Recycling (NPPR) via;
– E-mail: secretariaat@materialennl-platform.nl
– E-mail: info@nppr.nl
The spokesperson for this proposal is Esther Zondervan, Circular Plastics coordinator of the Duurzame MaterialenNL steering group. Interview requests also go through the Platform MaterialenNL secretariat.
Check out the MaterialenNL network of demonstrators and facilities
