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Construction, Consumer Goods, Plastics, Manufacturing, Food and Agri,
Industry associations, SMEs, policymakers, regional development agencies
As the end point of many international production chains, the Netherlands sits on a huge mountain of hidden value: millions of products that are discarded here still contain plenty of usable materials and components. In this paper, you can read more about the CIRCO Reuse System Program: a structured approach in which chains jointly design, test, and scale up product-specific reuse systems.
The Dutch product system is full of untapped opportunities. Every year, we produce and import enormous volumes of products, which means we possess large quantities of valuable materials and components. The Netherlands excels at designing, producing, marketing, and using products. But once products have completed their first life cycle, we are remarkably poor at retaining their underlying (residual) value. This means we are much more efficient at producing and consuming goods than at recovering them. And that comes at a cost.
This imbalance affects our economy and strategic position. Based on insights from sources such as Circle Economy's Circularity Gap Report (2025), we can conclude that only a fraction of materials actually return to the economy. We are allowing the vast majority of the value—estimated at around 93%—to slip away. In light of geopolitical developments, raw material scarcity, and the environmental impact of our consumption patterns, this poses a concrete risk to the strategic autonomy and earning capacity of the Netherlands.
The same reality can also be interpreted differently. What is currently regarded as waste or residual flow consists largely of products, materials, and components that are technically still perfectly reusable. This presents a significant strategic opportunity for the Netherlands and Europe.
Our country is the end point in a large number of global production chains. Products such as solar panels, batteries, and wind turbines are manufactured elsewhere but used, replaced, and discarded here. This means that the physical concentration of value takes place right here. Instead of removing that value—through the export of waste streams or low-value processing—we can choose to reuse these materials and components. Not incidentally, but systematically. As a structural part of our economy.
Anyone who looks at product and waste streams through this lens will see that reuse is more than just an environmental measure. It is a tool for managing risks and creating new business opportunities in a rapidly changing market.
The European market is being flooded with increasingly cheap products containing critical materials. These materials are now largely disappearing from view, even though they are of strategic importance. As Bas Hillerström (CIRCO) puts it: "In several sectors—especially clean tech—there has been a sharp increase in cheap imports of products containing critical materials in the EU. We can all benefit from this. Dedicated reuse systems ensure that this value is retained for the Netherlands and Europe."
By keeping products and materials in the chain for longer, we reduce our dependence on imports of primary raw materials and volatile international markets. In this way, we create our own raw material supply for the Netherlands and Europe. Reuse therefore offers direct economic benefits; what is now often seen as worthless waste material can, with a well-designed reuse system, generate value a second time for companies in the chain.
In recent years, we have seen a clear trend within CIRCO Tracks: real change starts in the chain. Two-thirds of CIRCO Tracks participants take follow-up steps after participating, according to research by TNO (2019) into the impact of the program, although multiple follow-up steps are often needed before actual circular products and services are achieved.
Circularity requires patience and cooperation. Companies can and must tackle part of this transition independently, but the chain soon comes into play. Companies need each other in order to take back products, give them a second life, and work efficiently with the various material flows. TNO's impact study is clear on this point: cooperation in the chain is not a side issue, but a prerequisite. According to participants, success lies precisely in "bringing the chain together." Without this joint approach, reuse ambitions remain fragmented and vulnerable.
CIRCO is a validated design methodology developed by Circonnect for circular design and circular business models. Since its inception, CIRCO has guided more than 3,500 companies in discovering new circular opportunities and translating design principles into concrete plans for circular products, services, and business models. The CIRCO Tracks, Design Classes, and Chain Track are built around a structured process in which companies analyze and optimize their circular value proposition.
Circonnect coordinates the international network of CIRCO Hubs and partners in more than 15 countries that organize CIRCO Tracks regionally and internationally. This enables individual companies and entire chains worldwide to take steps towards a circular economy. The CIRCO Methodology not only offers a practical route for circular design, but also encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing. Together, we are accelerating the circular transition.
At present, there are legal frameworks for processing or collection systems for many low-value, high-volume products. And commercial solutions are increasingly available for very high-value products. The problem, and at the same time the greatest opportunity, lies in the broad middle category: products with a reasonable (residual) value and a substantial volume. This 'middle 80 percent' currently falls between two stools.
It is precisely for these product groups that a systemic approach is lacking. Without joint agreements on return logistics, ownership, quality assurance, and the exploration of relevant business models, reuse remains vulnerable. The organization of reuse in the broadest sense should not be organized per product or company, but per chain, and in some cases even per product category. In this way, a reuse system delivers value back to all parties involved.
From this perspective, Circonnect has developed an approach focused on designing product-specific reuse systems: the CIRCO Reuse System program. Not as a theoretical concept, but as a practical and phased process in which key players in the chain, under the guidance of experienced facilitators, create a blueprint for a collective reuse system, test it, and ultimately implement it at the national or even international level.
Reuse systems have now been designed or are under development for street furniture, circulation pumps, PV installations (solar panels, frames, inverters), offshore wind farms, maritime ship components, bicycle batteries, and climate control systems such as air ducts and air handling units. The diversity of this list underscores that reuse is not a sector-specific exception, but a generic economic principle that can be applied much more broadly, for example in mechanical engineering.
The process of turning an opportunity into an operational reuse system requires courage, the necessary lead time, and central coordination. That is why the CIRCO Reuse System program consists of three phases:
In the first phase, the CIRCO Chain Track, all relevant chain partners involved in a product are brought together. Here, joint opportunities are explored and an initial blueprint is drawn up for a possible reuse system, including roles, flows, and value creation.
The second phase consists of pilot projects, in which the blueprint is tested in practice. Pilot projects turn assumptions into concrete plans and provide insight into logistics, quality, costs, and returns.
The third phase focuses on scaling up: implementation and rollout to a nationwide reuse system for a specific product group. The entire process is facilitated by experienced trainers and process supervisors, ensuring broad support for the chain throughout the process.
A prime example is the Solar Re-use System (SRS) for solar PV. Originating from the CIRCO Chain Tracks focused on solar panels (2020) and mounting structures (2024), this program is now in phase three. Participants in the recent Supply Chain Track focused on public transit inverters (2025), facilitated by Impact Hub Amsterdam and Maaklos, have also joined. With a coalition of approximately thirty parties, supported by Route Circulair, work is underway on the nationwide rollout of a scalable reuse system for complete PV installations.
The reason is obvious. The energy transition is in full swing and by 2024 alone, an estimated 30 million solar panels will have been installed in the Netherlands. With a lifespan of approximately 15 to 20 years, this means that PV installations will become one of the largest e-waste streams in the near future. Good solutions for reusing PV components are largely lacking at present, while recycling has yet to prove itself. This is remarkable, given that PV installations contain many valuable, and in some cases rare, materials.
This program therefore has great potential. It offers the prospect of transforming a future problem stream into an economic opportunity: from the largest e-waste stream to a strategic source of raw materials.
This potential is also becoming apparent in the HVAC sector. The supply chain initiative for this product group was launched in 2025 in collaboration with Oost NL and Maaklos, with a focus on air ducts. These products are relatively standardized and are largely manufactured locally. Nevertheless, a significant portion ends up as scrap metal.
Phase one, the CIRCO Supply Chain Track, has been completed, and in phase two, several parties—including Heijmans, GMM Luchttechniek, Kerssens Luchtbehandeling, and Hollander Techniek—are working on various pilots to test the blueprint of the reuse system. The initial results within OostNL’s Community for Circular HVAC Systems are promising, and parties in the supply chain are currently jointly exploring various business cases.
In March 2026, OostNL, Binnenklimaat Nederland, and CIRCO will launch a new Supply Chain Track that will incorporate the next component of the HVAC system: air handling units.
The maritime CIRCO Chain Track demonstrates how collaboration in a complex sector can reveal opportunities for reuse. Partners Maritime Sisters and BlueCity brought together various shipyards, suppliers, and knowledge institutions to explore the specific challenges facing the sector, such as the long life cycles of ships, the complexity of components, and the diversity of suppliers and materials.
Several pilots have also been developed in this Chain Track; for example, they are looking at which parts and materials from Heerema Marine Contractors' Thialf are being released and how they can be reused. The pilots are a first step in which the participating parties are investigating concrete possibilities for reusing ship components within the chain, with the ultimate goal of creating a joint reuse system. Maritime Sisters will integrate this follow-up into the broader Maritime Master Plan for the sector in the Netherlands.
Production chains know no national borders. In fact, the Netherlands itself has relatively few raw materials and is largely dependent on imports. This makes it even more important to organize reuse on the right scale, so that valuable materials and components are efficiently returned to the economy. In the Netherlands and Europe.
This applies to bicycle batteries, for example. Global demand for batteries for e-bikes, electric vehicles, and energy storage is growing rapidly. This makes the conservation of critical materials such as cobalt, lithium, nickel, and manganese increasingly important. Currently, batteries—and with them valuable raw materials—disappear from view as soon as the bicycle reaches the consumer.
To develop a joint reuse system, a coalition is being formed with some of the world’s largest bicycle brands as part of the very first International CIRCO Supply Chain Track focused on batteries. In the supply chain initiative organized by Shift Cycling Culture, Oost NL, the Battery Competence Cluster, and Effizienz-Agentur NRW (CIRCO Hub in North Rhine-Westphalia), participants from the Netherlands and Germany are exploring opportunities within the supply chain, investigating the appropriate scale for an e-bike reuse system, and working toward pilot projects to put these insights into practice.
After decades of "fast everything"—always new, always more—it is time to make structural room for reuse. Each product should have its own reuse system, designed with the same efficiency and professionalism as the supply chain.
Because if there is one moment when systematic reuse can contribute to security of supply, strategic autonomy, and earning capacity, it is now.
Would you like to collaborate with us on a reuse system for a product group or sector: as a participant or co-initiator?
Please contact Bas Hillerström at bas@circonl.nl.
The CIRCO Tracks, Chain Tracks, and follow-up programs are methodologies developed by Circonnect and organized in collaboration with our partners: Impact Hub, OostNL, Bluecity, Maaklos, Stichting Zonnext, Shift Cycling, Binnenklimaat NL, Maritime Sisters, Holland Solar, Battery Competence Cluster, and Effizienz-Agentur NRW.
Our activities are made possible in part by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the Province of North Holland, the Province of South Holland, the Province of Overijssel, and the Province of Gelderland.
The Oost NL Community Circular Climate Systems initiative is made possible in part by the Overijssel and Gelderland Boost Circular program.
Photo: Ari Gardinier via Unsplash
The circular economy does not arise by itself. CIRCO (a program of TKI-CLICKNL) focuses on getting a new market moving. CIRCO therefore activates - with the support of the government - entrepreneurs and creative professionals to (re)design products, services and business models in order to then do circular business.
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We help entrepreneurs and creative professionals in Gelderland and Overijssel to further develop or (re)design their products, services and business models in a circular way to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
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