For 50 entrepreneurs from the manufacturing sector participating in the BOOST Circulair programme, circularity is all about economic resilience, security of supply and future-proofing. How do you ensure that, in ten years’ time, your business will still have access to materials, be able to produce affordably, maintain healthy profit margins and remain competitive?
Over the past year, entrepreneurs have been tackling this challenge within BOOST Circulair. In four communities – Impact One, Remanufacturing Collective, Circular Steel Chain and Circular Air Ducts – companies worked together on practical solutions for reuse, extending product lifespans and using raw materials more efficiently. On 21 May 2026, more than forty entrepreneurs, community leaders and policymakers from Gelderland and Overijssel gathered at the BOOST Circulair closing event to share the lessons learnt from the first year.
Four communities, one joint challenge
"We want to contribute to the raw material transition by getting companies to really work on ideas to increase raw material productivity" Alex van Geldrop, project leader of the BOOST Circular programme, told the closing meeting. "With the programme, we are strengthening the resilience of our regional economy and reducing dependence on others."
Each community focuses on its own issue. Within Impact One, under the guidance of KplusV, companies from various sectors explore how they can deal smarter with material flows and translate circularity into their business operations. The Remanufacturing Collective, under the guidance of MaakLos, focuses on reuse and life extension of machines and parts. In the Circular Steel Chain, under the guidance of DuSpot, parties from the construction, demolition and steel world work together on the reuse of donor steel. And within Circular Air Ducts, also under the guidance of MaakLos, entrepreneurs are jointly finding out how used air ducts from buildings can be reused.
From ambition to business case
It is precisely this collaboration in the chain that proves essential. Many circular issues you cannot solve alone as an entrepreneur. It takes suppliers, customers, designers, demolishers, buyers and governments to make new ways of working possible.
"Traditional companies learned from innovative frontrunners and vice versa."
According to Klaas Feenstra of Kennispoort Regio Zwolle, involved in the community Impact One, the greatest value was in bringing together companies from different sectors. "Traditional companies learned from innovative frontrunners and vice versa. Especially the 'looking into each other's kitchens' was seen as immensely valuable by participants."
Practical discussions arose during company visits and sessions: how do you bring employees on board? How do you work together in the chain? And how do you gain better insight into material flows? "That became insightful through talking to each other, but also through the smart use of digitisation and AI tools. As a result, companies can now also better see which follow-up steps are needed," Feenstra says. "We want to further connect this community to the regional ecosystem as well as to education, so that knowledge and practical experience are shared more widely."
The partners of the BOOST Circular programme
The BOOST Circular programme is made possible by the provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel. Oost NL carries out the programme management, in cooperation with partners Novel-T, RCT Gelderland, Kennispoort Regio Zwolle, BOOST Smart Industry, FME, Koninklijke Metaalunie, Living Lab Rivierenland & Regio Foodvalley Circulair, VNO-NCW and Ondernemershuis Deventer. Together, they provide the knowledge, guidance and connection that companies need to make real strides in circular entrepreneurship.
Bringing together separate initiatives
Maarten Hummelen, co-owner of GSE Dispensing, a manufacturer of machinery for packaging printers, participated in the Remanufacturing Collective. For him, the programme helped bring loose initiatives together into a clear strategy.
"We actually already had a lot of ingredients in house, but no umbrella yet," says Hummelen. "Within BOOST Circular, we started looking at how we could help customers extend the life of machines. We also looked at our carbon footprint and how to tell that story towards the market."
This resulted in the 'GSE Extended Life Programme', which allows customers to keep using machines for longer. "The great thing about BOOST Circular is that it is practical. You learn from other entrepreneurs and translate theory directly into something feasible within your own company."
Circularity is also about continuity
According to University of Twente geologist and knowledge safety advisor Arjan Dijkstra, this development is badly needed. "We are becoming increasingly dependent on raw materials that come from a limited number of countries. Production and refining of critical materials is geographically extremely concentrated. That makes Europe vulnerable."
"Forget critical raw materials. All raw materials are becoming or are already strategic."
Therefore, he said, circularity is not only about sustainability, but also about security of supply, resilience and continuity. "Forget critical raw materials," Dijkstra said. "All raw materials are becoming or are already strategic." Entrepreneurs, he said, do not need to wait until every business case is perfectly rounded. Experimenting precisely now and making sure plans are ready is important to be prepared for the future.
Erwin Hoogland, deputy of Overijssel Province, also sees that circularity is increasingly becoming part of entrepreneurship. "Circularity should not be a sticker you put on something because it sounds hip. It should become part of the normal process and the normal way of thinking." According to Hoogland, governments can make nice policy agreements, but entrepreneurs are the ones who actually do it. "For us as a government, that also means a different way of thinking. We have to look at which rules need to be adjusted and what space is needed to make this transition possible."
Don't wait until you have to
The most important lesson from the first year of BOOST Circular? Start on time. Do not wait until raw materials become scarce, trade tariffs rise again, legislation changes or customers make other demands. But discover now where opportunities lie, experiment and cooperate in the chain. Because in practice, circularity turns out to be much more than a sustainability issue. It is an economic and strategic choice for entrepreneurs who want to be prepared for the future.
This article was originally published via an external source:OOST.nl
