Towards Zero Waste ― Circular Economy Boost, Waste to Resources

This book draws on insights that originated from the Circular Economy and Zero Waste initiatives. Together these approaches try to boost the shift from “waste” to “resources” management. The content of this book is partially organized from a stakeholder perspective, revealing the managerial implications for public and private actors. Next to public policies, also illustrations come from the private sector. Petstar, Texperium and Walmart generously shared some of their best practices at in this regard.

Cases from China, Indonesia, Mexico, the Netherlands and Romania are discussed in this book. In all of these different contexts they show ways to create collaborative schemes in order to “retain” the resources’ values as much as product quality and financial circumstances permit. 

The reader can thus take advantage of the pragmatic viewpoints that aim to inspire policy makers, researchers, students, organisations and communities to boost the needed changes towards a Zero Waste Economy.

 

Franco-Garcia lectured and researched at “National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)”, “Metropolitan Autonomous University” and “Tecnologico de Monterrey”. These represent some of the most recognised high educational institutions in Mexico. In 2003 she became director of the first Master’s programme on “Sustainable Development Sciences” and she was head of the “Sustainable Development” department” at Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Mexico State, till 2006. She currently teaches in the Masters of Energy and Environmental Management (MEEM) and the programme (at bachelor level): “Crossing borders, international grand challenges and strategies for technology, sustainability and development”.

Franco-Garcia is one of the European coordinators of the global network of “Greening of Industry Network (GIN)”,GIN organizes conferences in three regions so far: Asia, America and Europa. The latest one (May 2017) was dedicated to topics associated to the SDG and Sustainable Supply Chains in the post-global economy.

MSc. Jorge-Carlos Carpio Aguilar (1987), Professor of Climate Change & Energy Use at “Tecnologico de Monterrey” in Mexico and Sustainability Manager at Walmart Mexico & Central America. From his role in the private initiative, he has been leading sustainability projects along the supply chain, also considering the interaction with the public sector. He is currently responsible of the 2025 strategy for the zero landfill objective based on Circular Economy principles for Walmart Mexico. Jorge is also a technical expert and member of the Sustainability Committee of the Mexican Accreditation Entity (EMA).

He holds an Industrial and Systems Engineer degree and a Master’s of Science in Sustainable Development from “Tecnologico de Monterrey” in Mexico. Jorge also has experience in the mass consumer goods, recycling and packaging industries, where he was leading the development of a route map strategy to achieve sustainability goals for water, waste and emissions reduction for the same company in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Trinidad & Tobago.

Mr. Carpio-Aguilar applied Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool to develop environmental, economic and quality indicators for a cardboard recycling policy. This investigation was a result of a research stay programme at the CSTM department of the University of Twente in The Netherlands. The programme had a focus on sustainability, waste management and best available practises for the industry.

Mr. Carpio-Aguilar has experience on Environmental Management Systems, Environmental Regulatory Framework, Life Cycle Management, Carbon Footprint Lead Auditor, ISO9001 – ISO14001 and ISO 22000 Internal Auditor, GRI training program and Supply Chain Management. Co-organizer of the “4th International Symposium on Circular Economy: Inspiring Sustainable Innovation”, in collaboration with “Tecnologico de Monterrey”, EGADE, GIN and Unilever. Speaker in different international Symposiums and Congresses related to waste and water management, Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability strategies.

Prof.dr. Hans Th.A. Bressers (1953) is professor of Policy Studies and Envi-ronmental Policy at the University of Twente in the Netherlands and founder of the CSTM, the Department of Governance and Technology for Sustainability, one of the departments of the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social sciences. At the university level, he is the Chair of the Twente Water Centre, that bundles the over 150 water management researchers of all technical, natural science and policy oriented faculties of the University of Twente.

Previously he has been, inter alia, vice-chairman of the official permanent Evaluation Committee of the Environmental Management Act, which advised the Minister regularly on the efficacy of Dutch environmental policy. He was also the chairman of the Advisory Committee to the Dutch Minister for the Environment for the implementation of environmental policy by local government and has been chairman of the Dutch social science association for envi-ronmental and energy research, SWOME and until recently an independent scientific member of the Commission on Sustainable development of the Dutch Social-Economic Council (SER). Currently, he is at the Dutch national level member of the national Advisory Committee on Water, that was chaired by the Prince of Orange until April 2013 when he became king.

His dissertation on the effectiveness of Dutch water quality management (1983) won the annual award for best Dutch Public Administration book. In over three hundred articles, chapters, and books and a similar number of reports, conference papers and presentations (both in Dutch and in English) he published on policy -evaluation, - instruments, -networks, and -implementation, mostly applied on environmental and sustainability oriented policies. He has been researcher and project leader of numerous externally funded projects, including several projects funded by EU research frameworks, Dutch national science foundation, national priority research programmes, Dutch ministries, etcetera. As a PhD advisor, he has led 47 researchers to their graduation before 2017.