The concept of the circular economy promotes a more efficient use of resources and the reduction of waste.

The construction sector is one of the most resource and waste intensive economic activities, generating 30% of all waste in the EU.

Dutch policymakers have long been active in energy policy with the long-term ambition of becoming a circular economy. In 2016, for example, the Dutch National Agreement on the Circular Economy was signed.

The government set the ambitious target of reducing the use of raw materials by 50% by 2030 and becoming a completely circular and waste-free economy by 2050.

 

To achieve these goals, three main objectives were established:

1. More efficient use of raw materials in production processes to reduce the amount of raw materials needed;
2. Promoting the use of sustainably produced renewable and widely available raw materials, (e.g. biomass) to reduce the country’s dependency on fossil fuel resources;
3. Developing new production methods and designing new products based on a circular economy approach.

Five transition agendas were developed to help achieve these goals. They relate to five key Dutch sectors and value chains that have a high environmental footprint.

One of these sectors is construction. The sector accounts for 50% of total raw material consumption in the Netherlands.

The Raw Materials Agreement (Grondstoffenakkoord) is the guiding principle of the Circular Construction Economy Transition Agenda.

To translate the transition agendas into specifications and projects, the government launched the Circular Economy Implementation Programme 2019-2023.

 

Three Dutch ministries (the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management) joined forces with other key stakeholders (e.g. industry associations, research organisations and universities) to set up the Construction and Technology Innovation Centre (Bouw en Techniek Innovatiecentrum –BTIC) in May 2019.