We have come to a point in time where we can no longer just vision, but must act. We are talking about the transition from waste to material. The normal course of business around raw materials is a heavily environmentally polluting business, which contributes to global warming. In 2015, 196 countries signed the Paris Agreement, agreeing to a plan to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The Netherlands also contributed to this and translated this into its own Climate Agreement. In this agreement, attention is paid to the transition to a circular economy in order to limit the dependence on new raw materials. Circular craft centers are part of this circular economy. Points that replace the recycling centers and where material reuse is central. The clients of this graduation project are the BUCH municipalities: Bergen, Uitgeest, Castricum and Heiloo. These municipalities are faced with an extremely high level of bulky residual waste per household, which must be reduced to 5 kg by 2030. This thesis focuses on connecting local socio-economic entrepreneurs to the material flows in order to reduce bulky residual waste. The transition to a circular economy is not so much a technical challenge but a social one: how do we connect the necessary parties? Local entrepreneurs are key partners in this. Together with them, we are looking at the possibilities of setting up circular initiatives around the material flows. In addition to establishing a link between the entrepreneur and the material flow, this thesis examines the possibility of a circular network: a group of entrepreneurs who support each other in setting up circular businesses. To set up this network, a participatory approach has been designed in which circular capacities and collaborations are central. This approach consists of three layers, inspired by the Open4Citizens project, creating 1) Immediate value for the participants, 2) Tools for supporting the participants and 3) An network of actors. Setting up the network has been a research through design process, in which design questions were answered with a design that was immediately tested. Over a period of 3 months, local entrepreneurs participated in this project and met, talked, formed first collaborations and exchanged circular ideas. Worksheets were designed for the sessions in which this took place, which were improved or supplemented on the basis of the output. In this way a twofold design was made as a result of a participatory process with local entrepreneurs. Firstly, a vision for a circular network in the BUCH municipalities has been designed, with a name, website, shape and vision for the future. Second, a Circular Community Startkit was designed based on the formats used in the project. The aim of this starter kit is that the process can be repeated in the BUCH municipalities, but can also be applied in other regions. The start kit consists of an overview of the process and six worksheets in which circular activity is stimulated. By using this starter kit, municipalities can inspire local entrepreneurs to start circular business during a participatory project. The start kit ends with an exit phase in which the facilitator hands over the baton to the participants.

Over the past decades, a culture that rapidly produces, consumes and discards earthly resources is established. The extraction and processing of these resources lead to an increasing amount of greenhouse gas emissions which are warming the planet day by day. In 2016 the European Union signed the Paris-agreement. This agreement aims to avoid this dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to 1.5°C (EU, 2016). To accomplish, the Dutch government (Rijksoverheid), introduced the Klimaatakkoord. Among other things, the Klimaatakkord acknowledges the transition to a circular economy as an essential strategy to accomplish the EU goals. By 2050, the Netherlands aims to be a circular economy where products and materials are reused in endless loops. This thesis focuses on the disposal of bulky waste, such as household goods or private construction materials. These type of products are usually discarded at the municipal recycling facility. The assignment explores on behalf of de BUCH (Bergen, Uitgeest, Castricum, Heiloo) municipalities alternatives for bulky waste disposal. The project takes off at the idea of a circular centre; a concept developed by Rijkswaterstaat. Circular centres are municipal recycling facilities, where not only waste is processed but also various recycling alternatives are offered. The role of the residents living in de BUCH area is identified as key-enabler in the transition towards a local circular economy. The plans for a circular centre in de BUCH also describes the active involvement and contributions of residents as an essential success factor. Currently, only a limited amount of people is actively engaged in circular activities. To make the circular centre a broadly supported success, it requires a different attitude and behaviour towards used materials for many residents. This project investigates how resident participation in circular initiatives can be encouraged in various ways. Literature on behavioural change has been consulted and models developed by Fogg (2009), Tromp (2013) and van Lieren (2018) were practised. The current attitude and the behaviour of residents regarding product disposal was obtained through interviews and a questionnaire. New roles for the residents has been established according to this data. The roles were held against Fischer’s model for richer ecologies of participation (2011). The obtained knowledge was translated into concepts and discussed with residents. A research-through-design approach was practised to identify barriers for participation and apply universal behavioural strategies in more tangible ways. These concepts were assessed by the residents using video prototypes. The following interviews provided insight into the barriers for participation and the possible strategies that could lower them. Based on these insights and insights from earlier phases, a toolkit has been developed which helps the municipality to design initiatives together with its residents. The toolkit aims to design interventions that overcome the barriers for participation and enhance resident participation at higher levels. A number of the barriers and behavioural strategies have been evaluated through an intervention at the municipal recycling facility. The toolkit consists of 3 design canvasses poster and a card set. During the use of the toolkit, interventions are created by means of a user journey. The user journey provides an easy way to identify the barriers for participation. The included cards present a set of common barriers. The barrier cards link to strategies that can be applied to overcome them. The strategy cards can be used as an inspiration during the enhancement of new participatory circular initiatives.

Many resources are becoming depleted, and waste is a global issue. For accomplishing sustainable growth, the European Commission set the objective for achieving a circular economy in 2050. Rijkswaterstaat pushed this ambition even further, wanting to be circular in 2030. In the province Noord-Holland, the municipalities Bergen, Uitgeest, Castricum and Heiloo work together in the organization called ‘de BUCH’. They have the ambition to be the leading municipalities in circular economy. For their transition, they questioned the ‘Delft Design Lab Participatory City Making Lab’ at the University of Technology Delft: how to change the norm behaviour of their citizens towards circular norm behaviour at a local level? To answer this question, first the context was explored on the topics of waste, circular economy and behaviour change. After that the ambitious question of the BUCH is researched by researching how the citizens in the BUCH can be facilitated to the transition towards a circular economy. This is researched by 1) an intervention, 2) a competitor analysis on circular practices, 3) a survey on the behaviour of citizens in the BUCH, and 4) multiple semi-structured in-depth interviews. The key insight of the research is that a large proportion of the citizens in the BUCH is motivated to practice circular behaviour. However, the opportunity to do that is experienced as low. Various designs for those opportunities were made and evaluated. While operationalizing these designs, there was the critical insight: a circular initiative network is missing that brings together the ambitious and motivated citizens in the BUCH. This resulted in the final design: De BUCH rond maken: Samen doen we het. Consisting out of: •A Circular Initiative Network administrator: This person functions and acts as the network administrator of circular initiatives in the BUCH. The person enables to establish novel relationships between people and groups of people, which catalyses value to emerge between those people. •Initiative makers package: The package is a tool that citizens can request. It contains the essential steps to explain a circular initiative idea from multiple facets. The tool than helps to have conversations with other people, helping to operationalize the idea. •Do together: This is in essence a collaborating process. In order to catalyse this process, it is key to follow certain principles and have a certain mindset. Also, the role that the Circular initiative network administrator takes in such collaborative effort is key. The final design also contains a plan with key actions to follow, in order to facilitate the citizens in their transition towards a circular economy. A key action point is the communication towards the BUCH citizens, as having communication from multiple various sources will help in changing the norm. The design showed promising results in a creative session with initiative leaders and citizens from the BUCH municipalities. It is recommended that the final design is put further into a pilot for testing and development. This to, while doing that together, operationalize the transition of the BUCH citizens towards a circular economy.