The Netherlands has the ambition to transition to a fully circular economy before 2050. Between this future and where we stand now, there is still a large gap. The Netherlands produces 60 million tonnes of waste per year. This fact contains two problems that this project aims to deal with: 1) the heigh of this number in the first place, and 2) that approximately 20% of the waste does not find its way back into the system. In 2020, 7.6 million tonnes of waste was incinerated and 32.7 million tonnes of waste was exported to non-EU countries, where waste often ends up in landfill or is send for incineration with adverse health effects.

This project takes the radical stance to stop incineration and export, which means the Netherlands must take responsibility for the waste it produces. For much of the waste that currently follows one of these trajectories, there are no adequate solutions for reuse or recycling. Hence, we designed a system of waste collection, sorting, and storage where materials can be stored in waste houses until they find their way back into the system (problem 1). The piling up of the waste will create awareness of the consequences of unresponsible consumption, affecting the behaviour of people through confrontation (problem 2).

The system we design aims to create a disruption of the existing linear system at different levels. The large-scale societal perception of production-consumption-waste generation will slowly change, while the waste houses will create a sense of urgency at the small scale. This will stimulate niche innovations to find innovative solutions to deal with waste that is stored. Our project is thus both an instigator of change and part of the change itself in the transition to the circular economy.

If the project is successful, the waste houses will gradually become obsolete as consumption and waste production go down. In the far future, the former waste houses can house different functions, or they can be demolished in a circular way, returning the materials into the resource loop.