If you are ‘working on circularity’ every day, what’s your role in Circularity Week then?
We’ve been shouting it for years now. Loudly and from our toes: ‘Throwing away is a waste!’ Every day we are rethinking our habitual behaviour and using everything you normally throw away or leave aside. We do this to show what we can still make out of all this, what we call ‘trash’. And you may well know that this makes us proud. Especially because of all the admiration we get about the 17th century ships we make out of waste plastic.
Every day we are actively guided by our mission: to make everyone discover that throwing away is a waste. So when there is a ‘Circularity Week’ we think: why?! We would rather go on holiday for a week, we ‘do’ circular every single day.
Entrepreneurs in high gear
Of course we’re not going to do that, because we too (or maybe especially us) have a role in this week. We are hosting dozens of entrepreneurs from a local business association. We are doing so in our C2A Homes factory, where we build modular tiny houses from recycled plastic, reclaimed wood and fibred jeans as insulation material. Not to make them aware of the need to ‘become’ circular – which they undoubtedly have been for a long time – but to help them accelerate in applying circularity to their own businesses. The task is huge, so everyone needs to step up a gear.
As far as we’re concerned, it’s not just going to be a friendly chat. When you sit down with us, we want to know from you what you are going to do tomorrow to make your business more sustainable. No sweet talk, but action! Quite uncomfortable, but yes, there is a social urgency that gives us the courage to do it anyway.
‘You guys are so strict!‘
Making your business processes more sustainable is quite a complex process that cannot be overseen. We, too, suffer from this like no other. Because, how to obtain new insights when no-one has been there before? And nobody knows how to? We would say: start a little experiment to step out of your ordinary. But do take that step, even without knowing the outcome. Because if you keep doing what you always did, you will get what you always got. Start small, but start today.
Now if you’re thinking: ‘Gee, you guys are so strict!’. Maybe. But remember, such an experiment is also a lot of fun! Once you take on such a challenge, it can become quite addictive. It can take you into new areas and bring you unexpected but great outcomes! We also never imagined that a small piece of waste plastic – our famous mushroom tray – would eventually push us through Antarctica into building ships from waste plastic. And besides sustainability, that mushroom tray has brought us and many others an awful lot, and that cries out for more!
