Our founding philosophy, the circular economy
Our current economic system is based on a linear premise: it transforms raw materials into products to be destroyed at the end of their lifespan. The circular economy offers a radically different, circular approach: it is designed for optimum product and resource reusability and minimal value destruction.
Organic primary materials regenerate themselves without human intervention, but that's not the case with technical primary materials. Our challenge consists of also creating a cycle for these technical primary materials. Our GREEN LOOP model provides our colleagues with a framework within which they can put this philosophy into practice in a significant way.
A fully committed partner in the circular economy
An energy crisis, a war, skyrocketing inflation: these days, no-one can predict what future the economy has in store for us. And with the COVID-19 pandemic still fresh in our memories, we face yet another set of unexpected challenges. Ongoing political turmoil further underlines the urgent need to reduce our reliance on scarce natural resources and on fuels such as oil and gas. The time has come to take action through circular systems and the transition to more renewable sources of energy.
Now more than ever, our philosophy of ‘Towards a circular world, in a sustainable way’ is proving to be the right one. As a fully committed partner in the circular economy, we have for years focused on optimising the separation of diverse streams of materials so they can be recycled efficiently and reused as new resources. We have recently invested in projects focusing on separation at source and elsewhere, with the intention of redirecting even more streams away from incineration. We have also become net producers of green electricity, and we have even recently begun to contribute locally produced green gas to the natural gas network.
For us, everything revolves around our customers. To help them meet today’s challenges, we are committed to automating and digitalising as many tasks as possible, to improving efficiency and to embracing innovation.
Sustainability report
You can read our sustainability report and keep up to date with our efforts.
Circular economy
Vanheede Environment Group does all it can to render waste reusable as far as possible. Drawing on our founding philosophy, the circular economy, collected waste becomes a primary material or green energy once again. This is how we give a second life to recycled glass, plastic and rugs. Vanheede’s Quévy plant extracts biogas from waste by fermenting biomass; other parts of the waste are turned into pellets for wood-burning stoves and burners. At our company's plants, we use the sun, water and wind for our own energy production and surplus energy is fed into the electricity network.
“Vanheede constantly aims to achieve the highest possible recycling percentages. We play a key role in the development of the circular economy by transforming waste streams of every kind into secondary resources and energy."
Maxime Vanheede, Business Development Manager
The foundations of a circular economy
Product design
We can only break the linear model by taking a product's waste recycling possibilities into sufficient consideration during its design. We share the knowledge we have acquired in terms of waste upgrading with our clients so that together we can contribute to a circular economy.
Recovery systems
As well as the design of the product, organising a communal recovery system is a founding principle of a circular economy. To do this, manufacturers and users sit down round a table with collectors and recycling companies. The circle can only really be completed if all stake-holders share their expertise. Vanheede Environment Group helps examine and define such models to create an effective recovery system.
Reducing our global, environmental impact
We have been working long and hard on reducing the global, environmental impact of our professional activities. As well as the CO2 impact, the toxicity of waste and their re-use as primary materials are major parameters. As far as our global (scope 1 and scope 2) CO2 assessment is concerned, most figures are already available for both treatment and transport. Obviously, transport has a major impact on our CO2 emissions. That is why our basic aim is to use combined transport as much as possible.
Vanheede is a partner of
Sustainable waste management - for you too?
As a pioneer in sustainability, Vanheede Environment Group positions itself as the ideal partner for socially responsible firms. We get pleasure out of turning your waste into something beautiful and are more than happy to check whether your waste streams are suited to recycling or some other form of waste upgrading. Tell us your story and we will shape it!
