Data Dilemma’s: Collecting Data for the Circular Economy

Amsterdam has the intention to become a fully circular city by 2050. A city where we reuse materials, avoid waste, and close resource cycles.

To assess the progress towards this goal, Amsterdam needs data about the extent to which materials are used, reused, or wasted. This is where the Circular Monitor of Amsterdam comes in: it charts the extent to which Amsterdam’s economy is becoming more circular and identifies areas where more needs to be done.

Collecting all this data for different sectors in Amsterdam is a huge task. Especially when looking at industries where this data is not publicly available. One of Amsterdam’s most important value chains is that of food and organic waste. In the food supply chain, there are many parties involved that have information about food waste or food surplus, but this data is not readily available and is spread out over many (often commercial) parties, such as supermarkets, that don’t share their data publicly. How to access, collect, and aggregate all of this data is still a difficult problem without a direct solution.

Mersiha Tepic, Senior Researcher at the Research & Statistics department of the municipality of Amsterdam, will give a demo of the Circular Monitor and elaborate on her data dilemma in this project: the lack of data from significant (commercial) parties in the city.

The online supermarket Picnic, is very on top of its own data. The second speaker Maarten Sukel is Data Scientist working at Picnic Technologies. He will present how Picnic uses cutting-edge methods that combine traditional data sources with pictures, written descriptions, and geographical information to predict what products their customers will want next, and how to minimize waste.

The last speaker of the day will be Joris Bouwens. Joris is a project manager and senior consultant in the Metabolic’s Circular Industries team. He will present what Digital Product Passports are and the huge opportunity they give for a more circular economy.

Programme

Walk-in
Welcome and introduction by Amsterdam Smart City
Demo and introduction of Dilemma by Mersiha Tepic (Municipality of Amsterdam)
Maarten Sukel (Picnic) on using data science to minimize waste
Joris Bouwens (Metabolic) on digital product passports
Q&A and panel discussion
Wrap-up and drinks

Admission to this event is free. Registration is required.

More information

Data Dilemmas is a collaboration between our Amsterdam Smart City programme and the City of Amsterdam’s Data Lab. Three times a year they explore the possibilities for using data and new technologies to address urban and societal challenges, with a focus on responsible digitalisation. The goal is to use data to make cities more safe, clean and accessible. But what happens to all the data that is collected? Which dilemmas do you encounter when you collect (personal) data to improve the city? These questions are important for everyone: governments, knowledge institutions, companies, and civil society.

Source Image: Gemeente Amsterdam, Onderzoek en Statistiek.