The role of subjectivity on sustainability and risks of novel material solutions for anthropogenic municipal solid waste incineration bottom ash in the Netherlands: An investigation using Q-methodology

Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) bottom ash is a by-product of Waste-to-Energy recycling and has until today been used for construction purpose or been landfilled. Especially in the Netherlands the regulatory regime constantly changes and increases the applicability of novel materials from MSWI in construction. Due to the Green Deal a step was taken to ban the former IBC-quality and prescribes the immobilisation or treatment into freely applicable bottom ash that is said to have the highest value. Connected to these regime changes, values about sustainability and risk of the bottom ash materials are regularly changing. In order to provide insights for informed decision making on novel solutions for bottom ash, this study was subject to examine expert’s subjective opinions about sustainability and risk of freely applicable bottom ash. Q-methodology has been chosen as qualitative and quantitative method as it can derive interesting insights in the debate on MSWI bottom ash, without making conjecture of any industrial perspectives. The established framework consists of 44 statements about sustainability aspects such as the circular economy, the role of Waste to Energy, Climate resilience and certification as well as risk aspects like leaching, chain risks, the application for the circular economy and project complexity. The participant sample consists of 15 experts from the construction and built environment, waste management and consultancy. The results present 4 perspectives that distinguish each other by the attitude towards the Green Deal and the role of Waste-to-Energy in the Circular Economy. While the freely applicable quality is widely approved for reductions of the leaching potential, the regulation does not yet sufficiently cover new risks arising from the free application potential for precautious experts. Furthermore, it should be taken into account in decision making that the communication about freely applicable bottom ash is subject to multiple inherent biases.Industrial Ecolog

Measuring the Dutch clothing mountain: data for sustainability-oriented studies and actions in the apparel sector

This report aims at sharing knowledge relevant for sustainabili- ty-oriented studies and actions in the Dutch apparel sector, with a focus on clothing volumes. The apparel industry is said to be one of the most polluting at a global level; however, we nd that dis- cussions of its environmental challenges or the actions needed to tackle them are often based on super cial or unreliable information. This information is frequently disseminated by word of mouth and non-scienti c texts and nally accepted as valid. Moreover, some actors working on practice-based solutions for the environmen- tal challenges of the apparel industry build solutions and projects based on these ‘facts’. As a result, these actors risk focussing on topics that are not as critical or relevant as was originally thought. Clear, reliable data is needed to pinpoint the true challenges and bottlenecks within the fashion system