Circularpotential, calculated
What are the residual streams on your business parks worth, economically and ecologically? Circulair.biz makes it visible per site, based on national waste data. Live in eleven regions.
Circularity becomes concrete once the value of resources is visible. Circulair.biz maps the residual streams on business parks, values the reuse potential both economically and ecologically, and translates that into promising routes and concrete business cases. New Economy delivers this together with Stec Groep, commissioned by provinces, environmental services and municipalities.
The platform in numbers
11 regions
with a completed and published analysis.
100+ sites
business parks mapped in full.
~€50 m
circular potential per year, in Groningen alone.
Potential in view
Streams
Which resources and materials are released, in what volumes and on which site.
Value
What those streams are worth in high-grade reuse, and what the environmental impact is.
Opportunities
Which recovery routes are promising, via the R-ladder and proven best practices.
Two concepts that drive everything
The whole method rests on two quantities. One says what a residual stream can be worth economically, the other what the environment pays for it.
What is circular potential?
Circular potential is the economic and ecological benefit that arises when resources and materials are reused instead of discarded. In calculation terms it is the difference between two prices.
Potential value is the price of new material per tonne: what the material yields when deployed as a full-grade resource.
Current value is the price currently paid or received as waste. It can be negative: for some streams a company pays to have them removed.
The difference between these two is the maximum circular potential of a waste stream.
The word maximum matters. Potential value is an upper bound: the amount theoretically recoverable if a stream were fully reused at high grade. In practice collection, separation and processing cost money, and not every stream reaches that ceiling. The outcome is therefore a well-founded indication of the room available, not a guaranteed return.
What are eco-costs?
Every business activity and every use of material has environmental impact. Undoing negative impact requires prevention measures, for example investing in offshore wind to reduce the damage CO₂ emissions do to the ecosystem.
The cost of the prevention measures needed to reduce a given environmental impact is expressed as eco-costs.
Eco-costs therefore express environmental damage in euros, but not as the damage itself: as the cost of preventing that damage. That makes environmental impact additive and comparable with economic value, in the same unit.
How do you read €0.32 per euro of added value?
For timber, eco-costs are €0.32 per euro of added value. It means: for every euro that reusing timber yields, the environmental damage amounts to 32 cents in prevention costs. The lower that figure, the cleaner the gain.
That explains why the highest circular potential is not automatically the best choice. Rejected foodstuffs carry a far higher potential at €1,839 per tonne than timber at €851 per tonne, but their eco-costs are €0.68 per euro: more than twice as high. Per euro earned, timber leaves more environmental gain. Together the two figures determine which stream a region should tackle first, not the euro sign alone.
The calculation method
The approach in pictures
Three analyses together make up the opportunity map: which streams exist, what they are worth, and which route fits.
1. Material flows
Which resources enter a business park, and which residual streams come back out.
Schematic, not to scale. Source: LMA waste data, filtered to primary producers. Over 500 streams reduced to roughly 20 main Eural categories.
2. Value and eco-costs
What a residual stream yields now, and what it could yield. Example: timber.
The light bar is the current value; the dark section on top is the circular potential. Together they form the potential value.
3. Promising route
Which rung of the R-ladder fits the stream.
The tighter the loop, the higher up the ladder and the more value is retained. The scan indicates per stream which rung is realistically achievable.
How it works out
Three streams from the Groningen analysis, with the full calculation rule visible.
| Waste stream | Current value | Potential value | Circular potential | Eco-costs per euro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timber (wood processing) | €586 | €1,437 | €851 | €0.32 |
| Rejected foodstuffs | €161 | €2,000 | €1,839 | €0.68 |
| Bitumen emulsion (construction and demolition) | −€1,000 | €250 | €1,250 | €0.43 |
All amounts per tonne. For bitumen emulsion the current value is negative: a company currently pays to have the stream removed. That increases the circular potential, because both the disposal cost disappears and value is added.
Method and source. The analysis links the LMA waste data to the selected business parks, to eco-costs and circular potential, and to the preconditions for circularity. The valuation per stream follows the value hill model (Circle Economy, Nuovalente, Het Groene Brein, TU Delft Sustainable Finance Lab and CLICKNL).
The data underneath
The basis is the database of the National Waste Reporting Point (LMA), made available by the environmental service. It records the larger commercial waste streams, broken down by waste stream number, Eural code (the European waste classification), origin and destination, processing method, and the number of kilos and loads per period.
Waste processors and transfer locations are filtered out by hand. The focus is on primary producers: the companies where the waste originates. The streams are then reduced to a workable number of main Eural categories. In Groningen this involved over 500 waste streams, reduced to 20 categories.
What the data does not show. Route collection of residual waste falls outside the reporting obligation and is therefore invisible. Companies complete the reports themselves, so errors occur. The outcomes are a well-founded indication of order of magnitude and direction, not an accounting tally.
Which regions already have data?
In eleven regions an in-depth study has been carried out and the results made available interactively. Each region has facts and figures, a resource finder, the circular opportunities and factsheets per site.
| Region | Type | Sites | Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groningen | Province | 15 | 2022, 2019 data |
| Noord-Brabant — Grote Oogst | Region | — | 2022, 2019 data |
| Noord-Brabant — Tilburg | Municipality | 8 | 2023, 2019 data |
| Noord-Brabant — other sites | Remainder | — | 2022, 2019 data |
| Zuid-Holland — MRDH | Metropolitan region | 25 | not stated |
| Zuid-Holland — ZH Zuid and Islands | Environmental service | 20 | not stated |
| Zuid-Holland — Midden-Holland | Environmental service | — | not stated |
| Zuid-Holland — West-Holland | Environmental service | — | not stated |
| Limburg — Zuid-Limburg | Province and environmental service | 8 | not stated |
| Amsterdam Metropolitan Area | Metropolitan region | 3 | 2023, 2022 data |
| Lelystad | Municipality | 2 | 2023, 2022 data |
A dash means the platform states no number in the text for that region. Data years genuinely differ per region; there is no single reference date.
Alongside the provinces and municipalities, five environmental services commission their own regional analysis: Groningen, Zuid-Limburg, Midden-Holland, Zuid-Holland Zuid and West-Holland. Through MRDH, DCMR Milieudienst Rijnmond, Omgevingsdienst Haaglanden and the City of Rotterdam are also involved.
Is your region not listed yet? That only means no in-depth study has been carried out for your area. The method is region-independent: LMA data is available nationally, so any province, environmental service or municipality can commission the same analysis.
What the platform gives a region
The analysis does not stay in a drawer. The results are made available interactively on circulair.biz, where companies and policymakers can work with them directly.
Facts and figures
Sankey diagrams of released materials and the circular potential per site.
Resource finder
An interactive map, searchable by site, postcode, municipality or Eural code.
Circular opportunities
Over sixty opportunities, filterable by material, position in the chain, horizon and region.
Factsheets
Per business park the size, the circularity breakdown and the most promising streams.
Residual stream tables
Sessions where entrepreneurs on a site connect their residual streams to one another.
Realising opportunities
Matchmaking between supply and demand, plus referral to trading platforms and CIRCO.
Case Groningen
Fifteen business parks were analysed for the province of Groningen. For the residual streams released on business parks alone, the annual circular potential for the province is almost €50 million. Over 500 waste streams were reduced to 20 main Eural categories and linked to eco-costs and circular potential.
Seven promising material streams emerge from that analysis, together worth €42.6 million. A concrete processing route has been worked out for each.
| Material | Circular potential (million € per year) |
|---|---|
| Industrial sludge | 20.1 |
| Timber | 10.3 |
| Plastic | 5.4 |
| Textiles | 4.2 |
| Plant material and food waste | 1.3 |
| Paper and board | 0.7 |
| Rubber | 0.6 |
These seven streams add up to €42.6 million. The province-wide potential of almost €50 million covers all residual streams on all Groningen business parks; the seven named materials are the most promising subset of that total.
The analysis was carried out within Circulair.Biz Groningen, a commissioning consortium of the province of Groningen, Omgevingsdienst Groningen and the Groningen municipalities.
Starting as a region
The approach is built from four phases that build on one another. A region can enter at phase 1 and decide per phase whether to continue.
What a region needs
- Access to the LMA data via the environmental service.
- A selection of business parks, in dialogue with municipalities and entrepreneurs.
- A commissioning consortium, usually province plus environmental service plus municipalities.
- Involvement of the entrepreneurs on the sites themselves, because that is where the business cases land.
Site selection is an expert assessment based on data, in dialogue with the municipality and the entrepreneurs. The criteria are the earning potential and the scale of the circular potential, a first scan of streams and opportunities for high-grade reuse, the degree of innovation, the degree of organisation, the presence of circular activities, and the places where there is energy from municipalities and entrepreneurs.
Who delivers it and for whom
Circulair.biz is delivered on behalf of commissioning consortia of provinces, environmental services and municipalities. New Economy carries out the analyses and support together with Stec Groep. New Economy provides the circular material flow and impact analysis: the residual stream data, the valuation in circular potential and eco-costs, and the translation into recovery routes.
Deeper in the knowledge base
The concepts behind circularity and material value.
Related services
Projects and insights
Frequently asked questions
Circular potential is the economic and ecological benefit that arises when resources and materials are reused instead of discarded. In calculation terms it is the difference between the potential value (the price of new material per tonne) and the current value (the price paid or received as waste). That difference is the maximum circular potential of a waste stream.
Every activity and every use of material has environmental impact. Undoing negative impact requires prevention measures, for example investing in offshore wind to reduce the damage from CO₂ emissions. The cost of those prevention measures is expressed as eco-costs. Eco-costs therefore express environmental damage as the cost of preventing it, in euros, which makes environmental impact comparable with economic value.
Two values are determined per waste stream: the potential value (the price of new material per tonne) and the current value (the waste price). The difference is the maximum circular potential. For timber that is €1,437 minus €586, or €851 per tonne, with eco-costs of €0.32 per euro of added value. The valuation follows the value hill model.
It means that for every euro the reuse of that stream yields, the environmental damage amounts to 32 cents in prevention costs. The lower the figure, the cleaner the return. This is why the highest circular potential is not automatically the best choice: rejected foodstuffs carry a higher potential per tonne than timber, but also more than twice the eco-costs per euro.
An in-depth analysis has been carried out in eleven regions: the province of Groningen, Noord-Brabant (Grote Oogst, Tilburg and other sites), four regions in Zuid-Holland (MRDH, Zuid-Holland Zuid and Islands, Midden-Holland and West-Holland), Zuid-Limburg, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and the municipality of Lelystad. Together, more than a hundred business parks have been mapped. If your region is not listed, it simply means no study has been carried out yet.
The database of the National Waste Reporting Point (LMA), made available by the environmental service. It contains the waste stream number, the Eural code, origin and destination, the processing method and the number of kilos and loads per period. Waste processors and transfer locations are filtered out so that only primary producers remain: the companies where the waste originates.
The figures are a well-founded indication of order of magnitude and direction, not an accounting tally. Companies complete the LMA reports themselves, so errors occur. Route collection of residual waste falls outside the reporting obligation and is therefore invisible. In addition, the potential value is an upper bound: it assumes fully high-grade reuse, while collection, separation and processing cost money in practice.
The method is region-independent, because LMA data is available nationally. A programme starts with a residual stream scan for a selection of business parks, followed by a company-specific scan among front-runners, the development of business cases and finally scaling to the remaining sites. What is needed is access to the LMA data via the environmental service, a commissioning consortium and the involvement of entrepreneurs on the sites.
New Economy carries out the activities and support together with Stec Groep, commissioned by consortia of provinces, environmental services and municipalities. New Economy provides the circular material flow and impact analysis: the residual stream data, the valuation in circular potential and eco-costs, and the translation into recovery routes and best practices.
Circular opportunities for your region or business park?
From waste data to concrete circular business cases. New Economy maps residual streams, circular potential and environmental impact, and translates them into recovery routes and collaboration on business parks.
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