Zero waste cities the dream of Anja comes true

[Applause]

hi

i was a very disconnected city girl

so sad to say that i

truly believed that milk was developed

in these milk packs

that vegetables were grown in the

freezers

of these large supermarkets i believed

that apples were being made on these

plastic plates so we could easily take

them home i was fascinated by these

plates

i didn’t care about the apples that

actually made me grow

so as a student i knew there was more to

be discovered and i started traveling

around the world

and it was only when i set foot at this

one particular farm

there was growing things in a biodynamic

organic way that i understood i knew

i entered and what i saw there

was a connected image i felt

insects buzzing around i felt

all kinds of trees growing

and making the food that i was so

curious about

i was actually walking around and i saw

that there was no waste whatsoever

because

everything was put back on that land

either to feed animals or to

use as fencing or

to put back on the soils to make them

better again to grow the food again

i was in disbelief i was speechless

because that was what i was looking for

i was connected and i was just part of

that whole ecosystem

when i was back home in this city town

i lost that connection

and it would take me ten years

to discover that connection again and it

would

take me ten years to realize

that these farms principle will be my

guiding lines

so when i was back i also thought okay

kids have to

realize this and they cannot go thinking

that milk is developed in a milk pack

so i started developing all kinds of

educational programs

to teach kids what to do with these

resources

through gamified experiences i created

programs so kids could reuse their

materials again in schools

they were super excited 50 schools

joined

but what happened was actually they got

frustrated

because their amazing ideas and their

hopes

and the resources they envisioned for

that wonderful furniture piece

was thrown in that garbage

so i thought i have to quit this and

start develop

garbage bins because if we could develop

very smart very usable made from

recycled material

garbage bins we could help people

store their materials at homes so

no waste has to be made

lots of these bins were sold we got

people excited all over the place

but also i realized that this is not

the way to go

i discovered that when i was contacted

by an

uh diaper cycler who said guys you have

wonderful bins

let’s start collecting diapers to be

recycled again

into all kinds of materials they want to

use

organics from there from the poop they

wanted to

get plastics out of them they wanted to

get you use the paper again

it sounded fantastic we wanted to join

we started collecting the materials

and we started bringing them

clean diapers again

it worked out very nicely as a lot of

people wanted to join

until i got a phone call from the

municipality

telling me that we have to stop this

experiment if we didn’t want to be sued

because actually we were taking their

property their waste materials

away from them

i was speechless

and we had to stop

i was happy that i didn’t have to smell

that poop again

but i was also very frustrated

it took me quite some time to realize

actually what happened the last years

and i learned a lot of things i learned

that we have to keep our hands off the

municipality waste

i learned that still 70 percent to this

date

of all municipality ways in cities is

being wasted

being incinerated burned

and i also learned that there are so

many

incredible initiatives who want to

have these organic materials that we are

just waste

to reuse it again and what i

also realized is that it’s not only

about this waste system

but it’s in round it’s a circle

materials come from somewhere

i realized that we are importing

oils from brazil compass from poland

we are importing plastics from oils made

from the

middle east 400

000 of tons of materials

are coming in in the city in the

netherlands

180 000 tons of those materials are

being wasted

it’s incredible and i knew we needed to

do something with this

so as i was home i started to realize

that everything is connected i started

seeing these amazing pictures

of materials being collected

peels oranges

coffee grinds beer waste everything

could be

collected in the city

put in a hubs stored in hubs

and then reused again by local

initiatives to bring

products back again it was possible

to make every spot in the city that’s

not being used

like rooftops like empty parking lots

and bring those back into our city

as city farms

i thought this could work but i knew i

couldn’t pull this off by myself

i needed a strong team that could help

me so

i contacted boss von abell who lived

around the corner

but who was busy changing another

wasteful system

an unfair system of electronics but

while he was setting up his company the

fair phone

he was doing something with resources

worldwide

so i knew that he would be

engaged in changing a wasteful system in

our backyard

he played hard to get it took me months

to get him on board but eventually

we did sign our incorporation of our

company the clique

and other team members wanted to join

who actually knew stuff about

creating a mushroom farm doing city

logistics

marketing law

and together we started our new

adventure

we started piloting with 10 restaurants

we needed to engage with a very cool

program

to separate their waste streams at the

source

they were eager to join one didn’t have

any space for recycling materials

so they converted their piano

into an organic collector

so after we are running these

experiments more and more companies

wanted to join from big corporates

to shopping malls who believed that they

could

spend their money on a better

circular model than the one that just

wastes their resources

and after a few months we saw an

increase in the quality and the quantity

we were collecting

we saw that we actually collected

amazing value out of these organics

and we needed to start a physical hub

right here in the city

we started taking these materials into

our city hub

and we needed initiatives who could use

them to make

products again we got in touch with a

lot a lot of initiatives

some needed the peels to squeeze the

oils out of them

so they can be transformed into ethereal

oils to be used for soaps again

others wanted the coffee grinds to

create mushrooms from

or to make bioplastics others again

wanted to spend beer grain like bakers

to make delicious breads and others

again like beer brewers wanted the

leftover

bread

to make delicious beers

the compost could be made from the

organic

leftovers that were

in abundance so we could grow

our local teas that we consume

so that we can grow vegetables that we

eat

right now bus was supposed to be here

with me

as you heard but could make it today

he is here with us almost live to give

you a glimpse of what’s going on on our

local farm

this is going on on our local farm

boss are you there hey guys i’m boss

and while anya is doing all the hard

work i’m having all the fun here

because i’m standing here next to our

composting machine

to be honest it smells a bit like

here which is

kind of logical because it’s we’re

digesting stuff here

and the great thing is we put all our

organics here which we can’t use for

other purposes but we also mix it

with the cardboards we get from our

customers so

this is where what you could say the

magic happens

um so let me give you a bit of a tour as

well on

where we are so this is the hub

this is our playground this is where we

make cool stuff it’s still

you know at the start but we believe

that we can really build something

super beautiful out of this and

we’re already started so i’ll give you a

bit of insight here

what we got from our customers because

here it smells actually quite nice

because we have all these oranges and

orange juice that we get from our

customers

which we cool in this container

and that’s you know that’s the key you

have to keep things cool when you don’t

want it to

uh start growing by itself uh

besides that we have our vehicles of

course

which we use to collect all this stuff

so this is one of the one of the

vehicles we use especially designed to

be able to

separate all the waste and make sure

that nothing gets

wasted and we can use it as resources

um yeah i think i think one thing i’d

really like to show you

is that with the compost we make

behind me you see all this green nice

stuff

and that is actually stuff that grows on

the compost that we’ve

created ourselves with the machine and

we’re growing tea here so so you see

here

here this beautiful

flowers and everything we’re going to

harvest that and make sure that

that tea gets made from it with our

partner and this

um this tea we will you know we will be

able to sell back

to the restaurants as well so they have

to grown on their own

uh on their own uh composting material

which is pretty cool i think

so last thing i want to show you this

stuff here

it’s anya actually who put that here

it’s

you know it’s vegetables and vegetables

we’re growing for ourselves

and i got really excited about it as

well i hope our kids actually like it as

well because they’re probably eating for

weeks already all kinds of vegetables

from our own

yard but i think it’s a good start and

of course we will grow this bigger and

bigger we have a lot space here

as you see a lot of space where you can

still expand

and make beautiful stuff as well so good

luck on stage dania and

see you later

so thanks boss

um so while our

well we just started developing this

first

local farm our ambitions are high

we want to collect 100 000

kilos of materials each month

we want to expand to five cities in the

netherlands in the coming year

and our goal is to inspire and to

co-found

these local hubs these farms everywhere

around the world

and it might sound like a stretch for

just one company to accomplish

but actually i have to say that

this all comes together and i’m so proud

of that

because so many companies join in

so many individuals join in and say we

want a different future we want

different lives

for both our cities and for our families

and kids

we don’t want to be dependent on these

ego driven

systems and we want to create

eco-interdependent ones

who trust each other and who feel this

connection

and i also want to say that i want

a better future for my twin girls

i want them to grow up in a city

where they know that apples are not

grown on these plates

where they know that the apples come

right from their backyard and i want to

invite you to keep enjoying keep eating

keep drinking

and keep celebrating city life

but to also be aware that when you are

consuming you’re also producing valuable

resources

so when you’re a supermarket when you

are at work

when you’re at schools engage them and

tell them

that their organics can be reused over

and over

again thank you