Resource efficiency
How sustainable are bioplastics?
 by Kees Roest PhD BSc

Bioplastics have currently a market share of around 1%, but as this number rises so does the amount of sugar- and starch-based feedstock that must be grown. If deforestation is needed for the bioplastic feedstock it could take more than 20 years to pay back the carbon lost through deforestation. This study quantifies global greenhouse gas emissions on a global…...

Resource efficiency
Implementation program Circular Economy
 by Kees Roest PhD BSc

Secretary of State Van Veldhoven (I&W) has send the Implementation program Circular Economy to the House of Representatives. The implementation program shapes the transition to a circular economy in the years 2019 through 2023. The WiCE-project 'Circular Water 2050' (https://www.kwrwater.nl/en/projecten/circular-water-2050/) fits very well with the govermental ambitions....

Resource efficiency
Global Green Economy Index 2018
Global Green Economy Index 2018
 by Kees Roest PhD BSc

The results from the new 2018 Global Green Economy Index™ (GGEI) are online. This 6th edition covers 130 countries (up from 80 in the 2016 edition). Like in past years, the GGEI is an integrated measurement of how each country performs around climate change, sector decarbonization, green market development and the environment. The GGEI was the first green economy index,...

Freshwater resources management
Drought 2018: maize crop benefits from treated wastewater
Drought 2018: maize crop benefits from treated wastewater
 by Ruud Bartholomeus PhD MSc

The 2018 drought affected agriculture heavily, especially in the sandy Eastern part of the Netherlands where freshwater supply by rivers is not possible. Treated wastewater is increasingly being considered as freshwater source for irrigation. Our experimental site in Haaksbergen clearly showed the benefits for crop yields of subsurface irrigation using treated wastewater. Additionally, the drought provides insight in the ‘worst...

Resource efficiency
Dutch parliament discussed the dry period of 2018
 by Kees Roest PhD BSc

Ministers Cora van Nieuwenhuizen and Carola Schouten evaluated with the Dutch parliament the dry period in the summer of 2018. Members of parliament asked what has been learned to make the processes better and more robust. The low ground water levels are probably not recovered before the new growing season. Effluent reuse might actually help....

Resource efficiency
A huge flaw in the plastic recycling system
 by Kees Roest PhD BSc

There is a big amount of plastic waste in the world and often this plastic is contaminated. "A report by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2017 recognised that it was common for mixed plastic waste to be concealed "as clean plastic scrap"." Illegal plastic recycling causes enormous environmental and human damage. A mayor part of the plastic waste comes…...

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