What is better for waste recycling: a plastic, paper or ceramic cup? A bio-based or fossil-based coating? Waste sorting at the source or at a recycling facility? Ask ten experts and you will get ten different opinions. We can all agree on one thing: doing nothing is not an option. Thus, Leiden University…

What happens to the different waste streams?

Rebecca Tompkins defended her thesis on 21 March 2019

Nederland Circulair! is organising the week of the circular economy, for the second time. This is a great setting for Leiden University to promote several of the university’s circular initiatives. We will kick off with an initiative by alumna Noortje Schrauwen: Raw material beachcombing.

A large amount of the EU's used or wasted textile is exported towards lower-income countries. Much of this exported textile is either burned or dumped and the amount that is truly reused or recycled is uncertain.

Effectiveness and Side-effects.

On 25 January 2024 H.J. Pak successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The majority (80%) of e-waste generated globally are recycled informally in developing countries.

On the 8th of September Yun-An Olivia Dung successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

What is the environmental impact of different waste collection systems across Europe? How can the collection be improved when considering collection, sorting, and treatment, as well as use options for secondary materials?

Cwiertka wants to investigate how waste is produced and disposed of in modern East Asian society. With her research group she will be carrying out a comparative analysis on two levels: the international level (between China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) and the inter-regional level (between East Asia…

Food relations (through production, distribution, circulation, exchange and waste) represent the embodiment of our relation to the environment.

The rise and fall of the cesspit in an urban context

Do e-waste workers display enhanced effects of adverse health effects due to informal e-waste processing in Nigeria? Is there a difference between the health outcomes of the exposed and the control groups? Are there difference in health effects within and between job groups (collectors, dismantlers,…

This study focused on how households' food consumption and waste were adapted to lifestyles during COVID-19.

How do different communities of residents in The Hague perceive and manage food waste in relation to citizenship (rights and responsibilities)?

What are the flows of C&DW (e.g. bricks, concrete, gypsum and wood) in the case study countries ? How to define the specification for each material to be quantified? What indicators should be used to identify the pattern of each C&DW management system? How to interpret the MFA results in relation…

During orange juice production only around a half of every orange is turned into juice. Lizah van der Aart and Blair Berger, both MSc-students at the IBL, and Ryan Bogaars from Delft University, received an NWO-scholarship to develop a novel method to extract natural products from orange residue.

Unplugging equipment that's secretly guzzling electricity, putting the curtains behind the radiator and only using a water-saving showerhead. The students participating in the Student Energy Race are given tips that everyone who cares about the environment and their wallets should learn from.

What would be the environmental performance of the Carbon4PUR technology at industrial scale in the future?

On Monday 4 December 2023, the GTGC Seed Grant project with Glenn Aguilar Hernandez, Elena Bondarouk, Arjan de Koning, Antonella Maiello, and Daniela Vicherat Mattar presented their reseach 'Flaws in the flow. Investigating gaps in the governance of European textile waste export'.

Face masks and gloves designed to protect us are, in fact, dangerous for the animals around us. Scientists from Leiden warn that throughout the world, on land and in the water, animals are ingesting corona waste, or getting entangled in it. The two biologists are asking for everybody’s help to better…

Erik Kwakkel, researcher at the Faculty of Humanities, has found an extraordinary manuscript in the University Library’s extensive collection of medieval books. The book in question dates back to the first half of the eleventh century and is made entirely out of waste left over from the production of…

International trade has played a major role in defining the modern global economy. Trade, however, entangles the environmental pressures of economic sectors, giving the illusion of environmental improvements, while the opposite may be occurring.

Leiden University will install over 30 tap water stations in the autumn of 2017 at the various University buildings. The first is already in use.

In this study the flows of PVC and its additives through the Swedish Society were followed from the cradle to the grave (from production to waste treatment).

On Thursday 30 May, Leiden University hosts a workshop to foster collaborations to improve the governance of European textile waste export. Different stakeholders, including municipalities, associations of textile collectors and sorters, industry and consumers associations, are warmly invited to join…

As part of the GTGC Lunch Seminars (Spring 2023), Elena Burgos Martinez, Jyothi Thrivikraman and Daniela Vicherat Mattar presented their work on Food Solidarity as part of a GTGC seed grant project.

The aim of this project was to estimate emissions from lead products-in-use for the past, the present and the future and assess the development of toxicological risks associated with these products.

Face masks and plastic gloves are supposed to protect us from corona, but they are becoming an increasing problem for the environment. In a special series of the New York Times, Leiden biologist Liselotte Rambonnet and alumnus Auke-Florian Hiemstra talk about their research and the special website they…

Ever wondered how big the food waste problem really is?

How do we approach education that facilitates creative confidence for students that leads to innovative solutions to society’s present day and future sustainability challenges? This education research project tackles a sustainability dilemma faced by households in everyday life viz.

The economic history of Soviet development practices in Central Asia remains controversial and dominated by the view that Soviet development policy was wasteful and inefficient in the periphery. Challenging the established view of Soviet largesse and largely undirected and untracked “subsidies” to…

Join the Pipe is a project committed to reduce plastic waste and to provide people both in the Global South and in the Global North with drinkable water.

Join the Pipe is a project committed to reduce plastic waste and to provide people both in the Global South and in the Global North with drinkable water.

Urbanization brings benefits like housing and jobs but also challenges like biodiversity loss. CML's Urban research program uses science to create sustainable cities, focusing on the built environment (circular economy, urban mining) and enhancing urban nature for biodiversity and human benefits.

The earth has more than 7 billion inhabitants, all of whom leave behind traces of pollution. However, not all forms of pollution have the same harmful effect. Leiden scientists help determine where we should put our priorities.

In-use stocks of products can be considered as intermediaries between human needs and the physical world.

A sustainable resource management is an essential aspect to satisfy the current human needs without compromising the needs of future generations.

Lecture

Do you wanna know how to recycle? Check out the guides LUGO made! The recycling guides can be both found in Dutch and English, and are specified for both Leiden and The Hague.

What are the possibilities of converting biowaste streams into value added products? What current and future technologies will enable this transition with minimal environmental and economic costs? The researchers in H2 steel project will enable the transition of sewage sludge into green hydrogen, steel…

Drug induced organ toxicity is the main problem of the drug development and drug usage in the clinic. The liver and kidneys are the most sensitive organs towards drug induced toxicity.

As part of LUGO’s focus on responsible recycling of e-waste (electronic waste) we participated in the Funky Phone Challenge.