Sharon Dijksma, State Secretary of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, and Henk Kamp, Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, call NPM portfolio company Royal Auping an ‘outstanding example of circular thinking’ in the government-wide circular economy programme entitled Making the Netherlands circular by 2050. The members of the Dutch government outline in the programme how the Netherlands can make the transformation into a circular economy. The Dutch government’s ambition is to join forces with social partners to reduce substantially the use of primary raw materials (minerals, fossil fuels and metals).
Dijksma and Kamp refer to Auping in the programme as a frontrunner in the development of circular operations. They explain Auping’s unique ‘Take Back System’ in their letter to the Lower House of Dutch Parliament:
“Auping Take Back System. An outstanding example of circular thinking.
More than 1.2 million mattresses are collected as bulky rubbish every year in the Netherlands. The largest proportion of these mattresses, equal to a stack that is 1,000 times as tall as the Eiffel Tower, end up in the incinerator. Koninklijke Auping bv takes a different approach through their Take Back System. In this way Auping guarantees maximum recycling of old mattresses. And the owners of the beds are assured that their old mattresses will not end up in the dump or incinerator. (Letter to parliament on the government-wide circular economy programme, September 2016).
Auping CEO Aart Roos recently told the story of the bed manufacturer’s journey to a circular business model in an article published in Capital Magazine. You can read the complete government-wide circular economy programme Making the Netherlands circular by 2050 here.
