Reuse in Flanders (Belgium)Case : De Kringwinkel Zuiderkempen

Social Economic reuse center Flanders/ BelgiumRik Oplichtenbergh - Delegated Director

17/09/2010

www.dekringwinkelzuiderkempen.beExport Kringloopgoederen De Kringwinkel Zuiderkempen supported by :

• Since 1998, Flanders – the Flemish speaking part of Belgium – has been divided into 31 regions in which 1 reuse center is recognized and active.

• 1 of the 31 reuse centers that are recognized and subsidized by the Flemish government

• fusion between 3 rather small reuse centers that were active in a region called ‘Zuiderkempen’ (rural area, 18 municipalities, 300,000 inhabitants).

• All 31 reuse centers “Kringloopcentra” : non-profit social economic enterprises

• subsidized by the Flemish & Belgian government in order to achieve :

1/ reduction of waste by getting reusable items into reuse

2/ jobs for lower skilled people who have been unemployed for a longer period

•  Most of the reuse centers have developed additional non-reuse activities

31 Kringwinkels = 108 shops+/- 4.000 jobsmostly lower skilled long time unemployed

people.

De Kringwinkel Zuiderkempen :

• 18 municipalities with 7 actual shops• Rural area with 300,000 inhabitants• 2009 : almost 2,3million kg of reusable items

collected : 7,5kg/person2010 : +16% ?

• turnover of + €1.7million generated with the selling of items from 1 of our own shops.

2010 = + 15% ?• 31/12/2009 : 278 people active in different statutes

31/12/2010 : + 300 M/V

All items that we collect have to be obtained for free : household items that are reusable :(1) are collected from home(2) they can be delivered to 1 of the 19 waste disposal areas that are installed in our region and where we have placed a so called ‘reuse-container’, or (3) can be brought to one of our 7 shops.

In Flanders, people have to pay for all waste they want to get rid of, except for items that enter the reuse-system. We collect those items for free, the municipalities pay us for the service we deliver : reducing the amount of waste that has to be treated.

(1) Collection at home :

7 Small lorries travel daily across our region to pick up reusable items on demand : people living in 1 of the 18 municipalities of our region can call 1 global phone number to make an appointment.

Teams follow routes that are calculated by our dispatchers; all reusable items are brought to the nearest reuse center that’s on the route.

(2) Reuse containers :

Municipal waste collection areas are installed in every municipality to collect all kinds of household waste, in separated fractions. Some of these fractions can be delivered for free; for the majority of them people have to pay based on the type of waste and on the weight of the load that is delivered.

• 2nd hand 20FT containers have been installed on 19 municipal waste collection/recycling sites.

• Reusable items can be placed in our containers, for free. Our collection teams pass by these containers and bring the collected items to our reuse centers.

(3) Each of our 7 shops is equipped to receive reusable items that are brought by people who visit the shops.

Collection at home (1) and delivery at one of our shops (3) represent each almost 40% of our total collection20% (but a growing percentage) is brought to us using our reuse containers.

40%

40%

20%

collection at home

delivery at shops

reuse containers

Started in 2009 :

• collection door-to-door of textiles/clothing, shoes, ..• 4 municipalities, 4 collection days a year, bags distributed by bPost in every house

Started in 2010 :

• Installation of containers to collect reusable textiles/clothing on ‘our’ 19 municipal waste collection areas.

Collected items are brought to our different sites in which workshops are installed where items are sorted, cleaned and if needed, repaired.

Since our fusion (1/1/2006) actions are undertaken to diversify the activities of our organization in order to generate more jobs and to be less dependent from the reuse activity (that still is and will always be our core business).

Activities that were launched :

•Inboedelservice : emptying & clearing of complete houses•Energiesnoeiers ‘Energy Cutters’ •Klus & Verhuis : small Household services to members of the public•Arbeidszorg ‘Mobius’ : creating jobs for lower skilled people and achieving added value by reducing the amount of internal waste (Textiles, wood, LEGO, …)

Waste management in Flanders : (2008 : 500kg/inhabitant/year)

Lansink’s Ladder :

Prevention & reduction

Reuse of product Reuse of material (recycling)

CompostingEnergetic valorization

Landfill

1,5% - 7,5kg

25% - 125kg

1% - 5kg

34% - 170kg

38,5% - 192,5kg

Best option

Worst option

Export ?

Started in 2006 as an attempt to reduce the amount of waste we are generating out of our own production, by items that cannot be sold in 1 of our own shops.

2,000,000kg reusable items collected, 70%reuse = 30% waste

=> 600,000kg potentially reusable items NOT brought into reuse

Export

Example 1 : several days every week collection + 100 3-piece suites, perfectly reusable, impossible to get them into reuse, even with the 7 shops.

Example 2 : March 2010 : 275.331,61 kg of reusable items collected. Min. 90.000 kg was perfectly reusable but could not be sold on our own market

=> Transport of these items to a market where the demand for these items is bigger than what is available on that market.

EFRO- Export

• 15/10/2008 – 15/10/2010• Development of our own export-activities• Mobilizing the existing expertise and experiences of the

Flemish/Belgian colleagues.• Opening recognized export-markets for those social economic

colleagues• Dissemination in the European social economic reuse scene

Export Kringloopgoederen De Kringwinkel Zuiderkempen supported by :

Achieved Export Efforts (15/9/2010)

• SVDP Oregon USA : 47 containers, mostly furniture• Georgia-Belgium Ltd, Tbilisi Georgia : 4 containers, furniture• Canam Int Kandla India, 22 containers, textiles• Neo Act Oÿ, Piëksämäki Finland, 3 containers, furniture &

clothing• Eco Afrique Lomé Togo : 1 container

• 2009 : 15% input = exported.• 2010: + 20% ?

• Average load of a 40ftHC : 10.000kg of furniture, 25.000kg textiles.

Contacts in development :• Beautiful Store / ENVICO South Korea• NYSS The Gambia• Morocco• FDAAM Romania• Municipality of Jurbarkas (Lithuania)

• 4 Flemish colleagues have started to export to SVDP USA, in total at present 22 40ftHC containers

Future :

• 2011 : focus on set up shops in Lithuania, Romania & The Gambia

• Repair activity ? Bicycles, furniture, …• Non profit setting, creation of jobs, support to set up collection

of reusable items

• Why not import, interchange, … ?

Self-imposed criteria to develop a contact

• Only items that have spent some time in 1 of our 7 shops and that could not be sold can be exported.

• No export of waste : only items that are 100% reusable are put into a container.

• Focus on end-of-life of exported items : only shop-quality, no WEEE, …

Lessons Learned

Finding a client to sell reuse-items to is not so difficult Setting up a profitable business with items that fit our self-

imposed criteria makes no sense (except for textiles). Added value has to be limited to avoid getting reusable

items into waste and getting those items into reuse on an external market.

There’s no need for ‘clients’ : we need ‘partners’ who can get the shipped items into reuse; items that we could not get into reuse on our local market.

Reuse in Flanders (Belgium)Case : De Kringwinkel Zuiderkempen

Social Economic reuse center Flanders/ BelgiumRik Oplichtenbergh - Delegated Director

17/09/2010

www.dekringwinkelzuiderkempen.beExport Kringloopgoederen De Kringwinkel Zuiderkempen supported by :