Janne de Hoop
The main challenge of Texel is being 100% self-sustaining in 2065. To meet this vision within this project the waste regeneration of inorganic waste will be tackled. Since the waste is shipped to the mainland at this moment the goal for the future is to have a closed loop system. The waste generated on the island will be brought back in a profitable way for the island. As written before this can be done by either re-using the waste, recycling the waste or recycling the energy of the waste. At this moment the Texelers have some great initiatives going on and proof to be working on a better waste regeneration. They separate the waste and the waste of the citizens is also collected separately. As written before though the tourist industry has a big influence on the total amount of waste in Texel. And the striking thing of this all is that the companies that profit from the tourists do not treat their waste properly. Everything is thrown on a big pile and collected all together. This is mainly because the companies collecting the waste don’t receive money for doing so. Since the tourist industry is such a big influence on the total waste stream of Texel, we decided to focus on them. The citizens of Texel work as an incentive to the tourists to separate the waste and reuse it in a way. To get the tourist cooperating the businesses taking benefits from the tourists are a great starting point.
This brings us to the following design vision:
To (facilitate a better/easier way to make the tourists tune to the Texelers’ way of waste treatment and) encourage the Texelers to participate in a closed loop system.
The initiatives going on at this moment already can be used to inspire the tourists. They might even take something home from Texel because they learned to deal with their waste differently while being on a holiday.
The biggest different from the current system compared to the new system is that there will be now waste taken to the mainland. A challenge will be to find ways to maintain the organised waste streams through the whole year, while the tourists will not be at the island during the whole year. You want a closed loop system functioning throughout the whole year.