FAQs
What is Cradle to Cradle?
Isn’t Cradle to Cradle just like recycling?
What is the difference between eco-effectiveness and eco-efficiency?
What do you mean by ‘Waste no more’?
Isn’t Cradle to Cradle just hype?
If Cradle to Cradle starts with the design stage, what is the role of the Van Gansewinkel Group as the (end) processor?
What is Cradle to Cradle?
Cradle to Cradle assumes that products are manufactured in such a way, so that at the end of their life cycle they become reusable or biodegradable as raw materials to create new, similar or premium products. This leads to infinite product cycles without any useless waste residues being created. After all, waste forms the raw material for new processes: ‘waste is food’.
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Isn’t Cradle to Cradle just like recycling?
A bit, but there are fundamental differences. For example, in the recycling of plastic bottles reuse hasn’t been taken into account beforehand. Regular plastics are full of chemicals that can’t be extracted. As a result the plastic can only be reused for products that require a lower material quality. Eventually the raw material can’t be reused at all, the residual waste that’s left ends up in an incinerator and whilst the material is converted into renewable energy there, the raw materials are lost for ever.
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What is the difference between eco-effectiveness and eco-efficiency?
Eco-efficiency is about creating less harm, meaning less pollution. But less harm is not necessarily good! Cradle to Cradle is about eco-effectiveness and therefore doing good - as in not polluting at all and without sacrificing economic, ecological and social values.
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What do you mean by ‘Waste no more’?
Resources are becoming increasingly scarce and will come progressively from renewable sources. Van Gansewinkel Groep has access to those sources. To us waste isn’t a remnant, a fragment of the past, but a valuable beginning of a new cycle. Van Gansewinkel Groep has the required knowledge at their disposal. This is essential to customers’product designs. Knowledge of separation, recycling and precssing techniques is a key link in the conservation of raw materials. Raw materials can reamin in the cycle and be deployed time after time without any loss of quality, whilst continuing to preserve natural materials. As a result, Van Gansewinkel Groep acts as a ‘spider’ in the Cradle to Cradle web. Waste no more.
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Isn’t Cradle to Cradle just hype?
No. Providing reverse logistics, linking technical product knowledge to knowledge of materials, separation, recycling and processing techniques – these are all important components in the Cradle to Cradle cycle – and for more than 40 years a Van Gansewinkel Groep speciality. In this sense, Van Gansewinkel has been busy for a long, long time with closing product cycles.
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If Cradle to Cradle starts with the design stage, what is the role of the Van Gansewinkel Group as the (end) processor?
Cradle to Cradle touches the heart of our activities: preventing anything becoming waste. We offer our customers tailored solutions for the waste generated during their business processes. Today we take out everything in it, which is the most economical for both us and our customers. If we want to move on, we need to go back down the chain to our customers and their suppliers. In the design stage, particularly, much can be gained by considering the end-of-(first) life - phase. Then it’s all about how that product can be disassembled in an economic and responsible way. We’ve gained substantial knowledge in the field of residual stream management and recycling with specific intelligence of smart retraction systems. This, in combination with customers’ product design, is an essential link in maintaining raw materials and an essential component in the successful implementation of C2C.
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