What are the flows of C&DW (e.g. bricks, concrete, gypsum and wood) in the case study countries ? How to define the specification for each material to be quantified? What indicators should be used to identify the pattern of each C&DW management system? How to interpret the MFA results in relation…

Do you wanna know how to recycle? Check out the guides LUGO made! The recycling guides can be both found in Dutch and English, and are specified for both Leiden and The Hague.

The majority (80%) of e-waste generated globally are recycled informally in developing countries.

On the 8th of September Yun-An Olivia Dung successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Integrating life cycle assessment (LCA) with life cycle costing (LCC) offers the opportunity to simultaneously analyze the environmental and economic aspects of product alternatives, for the integration of which a unified computational has been proposed by Heijungs et al. (2013) [1]. The project aims…

Streptomyces are multicellular, Gram-positive bacteria in the phylum of actinobacteria which produce a high amount of bioactive natural products of which the expression is tightly coordinated with the life cycle.

Most people think of waste as something dirty that needs to be disposed of as soon as possible, but Olivia Yun-An Dung's dissertation aims to show that this does not always have to be the case. For this purpose, she focuses on Tzu Chi recycling in Taiwan. There, an army of elderly volunteers has been…

Do e-waste workers display enhanced effects of adverse health effects due to informal e-waste processing in Nigeria? Is there a difference between the health outcomes of the exposed and the control groups? Are there difference in health effects within and between job groups (collectors, dismantlers,…

Playing with tiny building blocks might sound like child’s play, but Vera Meester knows better. On June 7 she will defend her thesis on colloids: micro particles with which you can form larger structures. Meester developed a method to make unusable structures usable.

Recycling of post consumer plastic waste is problematic in that the environmental benefits are questionable and the costs are significant. It would be better to separately collect the most useful parts through the expansion of the deposit system.

An Interdisciplinary project group of the Master Industrial Ecology was awarded a prize for its project “From waste to resource, One chain with shared responsibility”, commissioned by AEB Amsterdam and Waag Society.

Industrial Ecologist Rene Kleijn has been in the consumer watchdog TV show Radar which has been broadcasted Monday 27th of February at 20:30 (NPO 1). He has discussed the reuse and recycling of mobile phones.

Where and how are critical materials currently used and how can this information be used to develop scenarios about their future demand.

Manufacturers produce high-end technology mostly top-down with large machinery, but small particles are able to build structures by themselves from the bottom up. A major challenge is that these particles easily clump together. Leiden physicist Daniela Kraft has developed a method to use this phenomenon…

The circular economy is typically seen as the progressive alternative to our wasteful linear economy, where raw materials are used to make the products that feed today’s rampant consumerist hunger, which are then thrown away. In a fascinating article, archaeologist Maikel Kuijpers reflects on the recycling…

Willem te Beest, Vice-Chairman of the Executive Board, is retiring on 1 May. His farewell was celebrated in style in the Pieterskerk on 7 April. And, to his surprise, the celebrations included a royal decoration.

It’s Circular Economy Week, from 1 to 6 February. But what is it that makes an economy circular? And just how circular is our university? René Kleijn, lecturer on the honours class Circular Economy: from challenge to opportunity, explains.

Vinasse is a major by-product generated by the sugarcane biofuel industry. It is a source of microbes, nutrients and organic matter and often it is recycled as fertilizer.

Merijn Tinga hit the headlines in 2016 as the Plastic Soup Surfer. In force six winds, the Leiden biologist ventured across the English Channel on a hydrofoil kiteboard made from plastic bottles. Interview with this Leiden artist who is fighting the mountain of plastic waste and finding his feet as…

Besides being the author of such a classic work of literature as The Hobbit, Tolkien was also Professor of English Language and Literature in Oxford. How did he incorporate his research in his fiction? An international conference on the subject is being held in Leiden on 18 June.

Besides being the author of such a classic work of literature as The Hobbit, Tolkien was also Professor of English Language and Literature in Oxford. How did he incorporate his research in his fiction? An international conference on the subject is being held in Leiden on 18 June.

In the media

There is considerable need for improved skin models to develop safe and efficient drugs for skin delivery as well as for cosmetic and chemical product testing on the skin.

Conducting research for the municipality: this is a deliberate choice for the master’s students who are taking part in the Resilient Cities Hub, part of Learning with the City. Nina Ruig and Marron Loods are two such students. They are researching sustainability issues for the Municipality of Leiden…

What is better for waste recycling: a plastic, paper or ceramic cup? A bio-based or fossil-based coating? Waste sorting at the source or at a recycling facility? Ask ten experts and you will get ten different opinions. We can all agree on one thing: doing nothing is not an option. Thus, Leiden University…

PhD Defence

What are the life-cycle environmental impacts and risks to human health and ecosystems of a III-V/Si PV system? How can these be expected to change when the system is deployed at industrial scale? What are the most favourable recycling scenarios?

There have been recycling bins in all of the University buildings since 2018. Waste bins were removed from staff offices at the same time. Waste such as paper, batteries and printer cartridges is now collected in separate streams. But the big question is: what happens to the different waste streams?…

Autopaghy is an intracellular degradation system which targets cytosolic components to lytic compartments for degradation and recycling of the building blocks of the cell.

As part of LUGO’s focus on responsible recycling of e-waste (electronic waste) we participated in the Funky Phone Challenge.

Product packaging is essential. It prolongs shelf-live and highly influences purchasing decisions. However, it’s also a big source of waste, especially single-use plastic. Have you ever felt conflicted choosing a product due to the material it’s packaged in? Or opted for a different product due to its…

Nederland Circulair! is organising the week of the circular economy, for the second time. This is a great setting for Leiden University to promote several of the university’s circular initiatives. We will kick off with an initiative by alumna Noortje Schrauwen: Raw material beachcombing.

Promotor: G.J. Kramer Co-Promotor: E.G.M. Kleijn

A sustainable resource management is an essential aspect to satisfy the current human needs without compromising the needs of future generations.

Since August 2020, smoking has been prohibited on the whole University site. Nonetheless, there are still a lot of cigarette butts littering the ground around the university buildings. Our aim is to make everyone aware of the environmental damage caused by cigarette filters.

Director: Dr. Fred Leemhuis

Renovation work on the Arsenaal is set to begin at the start of January! Careful preparations by the Real Estate Directorate and the faculty have laid the foundations for construction company Du Prie to get to work on this second building to be renovated as part of the Humanities Campus project.

PhD Defence

In this book Adam Fairclough chronicles the odyssey of black teachers in the South from emancipation in 1865 to integration one hundred years later.

Over the past century, the world population has grown exponentially, as has our need for energy and raw materials. If we wish to continue to live prosperously in the future, we have to radically restructure our economy and consumption. Scientific research shows us how to do this.

Over the past century, the world population has grown exponentially, as has our need for energy and raw materials. If we wish to continue to live prosperously in the future, we have to radically restructure our economy and consumption. Scientific research shows us how to do this.

PhD Defence

What are the functions of autophagy in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger?

While colloidal aggregates are often undesirable due to their random shapes, we exploit them as a starting point to synthesize patchy particles.