Are you working on making your lifestyle ‘greener’?

Are you working on greening your lifestyle? Then from Sunday 22 April you can reinforce that intention with a gesture in the Valkhof Chapel in Nijmegen. From 14:00 you can write an intention for a green lifestyle on a vegetable garden label and then ‘plant’ it in a bowl with soil. Like planting vegetables in a vegetable garden.

During the entire opening season of the Valkhof Chapel (also known as the Nicholas Chapel), you can visit the 10th century chapel for this personal moment of reflection (link). The chapel is located on the Walk of Wisdom route, 700 meters from the starting point of the Stevenskerk.

Photo: chain of office made of recycled precious metal by Hugo van der Kallen. He made it especially for the mayor of Nijmegen in honour of Nijmegen Green Capital of Europe 2018. The chain will be worn on Sunday 22 April by Bert Lagerweij on behalf of the organisation. He will be the first to plant a green intention in the soil. The idea of the new ritual comes from singer and poet Dineke de Velde Harsenhorst.

From the website of Hugo van der Kallen (link):

Mayors come and go, but the chain of office – a chain without beginning and without end – remains. On 19 January 2018, Mayor Bruls of Nijmegen, the European Green Capital 2018, received an alternative chain of office made from recovered precious metals. Hugo designed this symbolic piece of jewellery, for all residents of Nijmegen, to show that we can and must deal with waste differently.

Circular challenges

In Nijmegen, elected European Green Capital 2018, this year a green theme with associated challenges is central every month. January’s theme revolves around the transition from our ‘linear’ economy to a circular economy. Here, all raw materials are reused after production and consumption, without creating waste. This principle has been the common thread in the products of circular designer and product philosopher Hugo for years. He eagerly took up the challenges around the theme of circular economy: 1) setting up a ‘model home circular economy’, 2) making street furniture from old electronic devices and 3) designing a chain of office made of electro-waste for the mayor.

Hidden treasure

Few people know about the enormous treasure trove of gold, silver and other precious metals that is hidden in Nijmegen. In sheds and attics, there must be about 200,000 kilos of discarded electronic devices. Roughly 75 percent of this electronic waste consists of valuable materials, including gold and silver. From this, and from old copper gas pipes, goldsmith Els van Heijst made the chain of office designed by Hugo: links in the shape of infinity signs carry a dozen discs. Hugo engraved a twitter message on these discs with a laser for each of the twelve themes. By deliberately not mixing the raw materials of the chain, they are easy to reuse. According to Hugo, the starting point for the design of any product – no matter how valuable it may be – should be simple and efficient reuse of raw materials.

The remaining 25 percent of ‘real’ waste, mostly plastic housings, also deserves a place in the circular economy. At the Belgian recycling company ECO-oh! Hugo had beams made from the waste. He then used these profiles to design various modular urban furniture, which the same factory can eventually use as raw material for new profiles. An example of how producer and consumer share responsibility for the life cycle of a product within a circular economy. The producer guarantees the quality of the product and the user has an interest in having the product reused. This principle is also central to the ‘model home circular economy’ co-designed by Hugo.

Do not mix!

Hugo’s designs convey the message that not mixing raw materials makes reuse much more efficient. And they point out the hidden treasure that lies under our noses and that can not only be recycled, but also upgraded to new, high-quality products, easily reused per raw material. On the way to a circular economy, we come across a wealth of insights that may be worth much more than all the gold and silver combined.