Transitiepaden naar een circulaire glastuinbouw

Samenvatting

Greenhouse horticulture is an innovative sector that efficiently uses resources to produce high-quality vegetables, fruits and plants. Still, the total supply chains are often linear, not circular. For resources, greenhouse horticulture, like many other sectors, depends on raw materials that come from natural reserves located all over the world. Think for instance of natural gas for energy, CO2 and the production of nitrate fertilizers. Or phosphate rock (P) and potash (K) extracted from mines to produce fertilizers. Basalt and peat for substrate. Crude oil for plastic. This report contains an overview of the various challenges and possible transition pathways towards closed resource cycles of six typical material flows in greenhouse horticulture; water, fertilizers, CO2, substrate, plastics and biomass. The knowledge developed for and available through this report is part of the Knowledge Base Research Programme: Circular and Climate Neutral that is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. The Business unit Greenhouse Horticulture of Wageningen University & Research has conducted the research project (KB-34-007-007) that focuses on the transition towards a circular greenhouse horticulture sector, of which this report is a deliverable.