The Clean North
the region as the circular plastics cluster of Europe
The Clean North is an initiative to develop our region into the top circular plastics cluster of Europe. The three northern provinces are especially suited to making this objective a success due to the presence of the required businesses and knowledge institutions.
“The area has a good infrastructure and there are plenty of companies in the plastics sector that can close the circle together and set it in motion.”
Recycling of plastics leaves much to be desired. At present, it is still not possible to reuse many plastics. This puts tremendous pressure on scarce raw materials and burdens our planet with a large mountain of waste. Change is absolutely possible, as long as all parties in the chain of production, use, reuse, and work together. The Northern ecosystem with plastics clusters in Emmen, Delfzijl/Eemshaven, and Heerenveen in particular, is brimming with opportunity: there is a good infrastructure and there are plenty of companies in the plastics sector that can close the circle together and set it in motion. There is also the desire to work together.
Clean technology for a clean environment
The objective of the Clean North is clean technology for a clean environment. The basis is an intensive, structural collaboration in which provincial and municipal governments, knowledge institutions, and businesses jointly invest and grow. The basis is formed by a portfolio that currently holds sixty projects, on which dozens of companies and all knowledge institutions will get to work on straight away. This will increase the competitive economic position of the Northern Netherlands as a whole.
Potential
The potential in the region is huge, as is also shown from the ambitions for the coming ten years: an annual growth of 5 percent for the businesses, attracting 150 small and 5 large businesses in circular projects, a billion euros in corporate investments, and a total of 6 thousand new jobs.