Have you ever wondered what happens to the fake handbags, sunglasses, and shoes that are confiscated at the border? While these goods can still be used, they are usually incinerated, causing unnecessary pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

The non-profit organization React has over 30 years of experience in combatting counterfeit goods, aiming to make anti-counterfeiting actions affordable. The React Sustains program aims to recycle counterfeit goods instead of burning them, resulting in significant CO2 reductions. However, these confiscated goods may contain harmful substances that could have a negative impact on both the environment and human health. To prevent these compounds from ending up in the environment or in recycled goods, a process should be designed to be able to detect and dispose of them within the European framework.

This is where you and your team come in! React needs your help in finding a suitable method to detect toxic chemicals that do not adhere to the European REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals) guidelines. Considering the counterfeit goods that come in can be anything, from Pókemon cards to plush toys to clothing items, the method should be versatile, and able to detect compounds including heavy metals, asbestos, and toxic organic materials. Furthermore, the developed process should be cost-effective, implementable in the current system of React, and adhere to the EU regulations. Last, but certainly not least, a plan should be developed in case harmful compounds are detected in the goods React received. How should these compounds be handled, stored, and disposed of properly? All in all, there are many complex questions to work on in which React could use expertise from a scientific, engineering, legal, economic, and sociological point of view!

Does heating your house and charging your phone with banana peels, apple cores, or egg shells sound like magic to your ears? This can actually happen in a nearby future, but to achieve this, we will need your help!

Biodigesters, containers in which microorganisms convert organic waste into biogas, are already used on a large scale in the agricultural sector to provide energy. However, small biodigesters to heat, for example your own house, are not used yet as this comes with many new challenges. Recently, the company Circ installed a small biodigester at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht to answer the technological, sociological, and legal questions associated with implementing this innovation in the real world.

In this challenge, you and your team will perform a feasibility study and develop a roadmap toward implementing a biodigester in a residential area. Your team can shape this challenge around your own expertise and interests. You could, for example, dive into the laws and regulations associated with placing the digester in a neighborhood, collecting food waste, and the maintenance. This challenge can also be tackled from a technological approach where you can think of ways to optimize the process and the safety aspects that are involved when placing such a machine in a neighborhood. Overall, to turn trash into treasure with a biodigester in the real world, we will need your help!

What if food leftovers, including meat, from restaurants, catering services, and unsold supermarket products could be transformed into a sustainable ingredient for animal feed through innovative processes such as grinding, mixing, and drying?

While this practice is currently prohibited in the EU, other continents allow carefully treated food waste – following stringent heat treatment steps approved by agencies like EFSA to eliminate pathogens – to be used in livestock feed, particularly for pigs. Your challenge is to investigate whether it makes sense to apply a heat treatment step and convert these food residues into a viable feed ingredient for Dutch farm animals. The core question: Is this process economically and environmentally feasible, especially knowing that energy is expensive in the Netherlands and conventional animal feed is comparatively cheap? Will these treatment steps make the recovered feed ingredient competitive, or will the costs outweigh the benefits?

Working with Nijsen, you will conduct a practical assessment: evaluating competitiveness, environmental impact, and suitability for the Dutch market. Your findings will provide vital insight into whether launching such a circular initiative is worthwhile.