{"id":11937,"date":"2026-06-29T09:23:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T07:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rotterdammakeithappen.nl\/?post_type=verhaal&p=11937"},"modified":"2026-06-29T09:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T07:24:07","slug":"at-de-her-your-waste-starts-a-new-chapter","status":"publish","type":"verhaal","link":"https:\/\/rotterdammakeithappen.nl\/en\/stories\/at-de-her-your-waste-starts-a-new-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"At De HER, your waste starts a new chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”747080″]Buy a piece of design or join a creative workshop at an waste collection facility, the place where everyone brings their discarded belongings and materials. With Milieupark + De HER, Rotterdam brings circularity closer to its residents. Manager Marc ten Oever prefers to call it passing on, passing on objects, and the stories behind them. Because in the end, it all comes down to awareness. \u2018Look, the transition starts with yourself, and here, as a municipality, we\u2019re showing how that works.\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Drive up to the waste collection facility on the Bovendijk in Rotterdam-Noord and you\u2019ll spot the striking building of De HER, standing there since 2025. Around sixteen creative entrepreneurs work here, turning discarded materials into new products, running workshops, and organising educational projects. Milieupark + De HER is a place where you can see, learn, and experience what circularity really means. And that\u2019s badly needed: Rotterdam aims to be waste-free by 2050.[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image media=”11878″ caption=”yes” media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”100″ uncode_shortcode_id=”118875″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”881092″]<\/p>\n

The hand-down hub<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After 400 guided tours, Marc ten Oever is still just as enthusiastic about everything that makes De HER special. Rotterdammers bring their belongings and materials to the environmental park\u2019s hand-down hub, where everything gets checked for a possible second life. That\u2019s how your old scrap wood might end up reborn as a piece of furniture at De HER, or your old artificial flowers might find their way into a repurposed vase from Power Flower Stories<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text]

Sit here for a while and you start to notice the sheer abundance of things and materials, everything that gets thrown away.<\/blockquote>[vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”126744″]Nearly all twenty workspaces for entrepreneurs at De HER are occupied. Each one uses materials from the Milieupark to a different degree, anywhere from five to a hundred percent. There\u2019s a sewing course using leftover fabric scraps, circular lamps being made, and one entrepreneur refurbishing bicycle batteries. Marc sees the possibilities waste offers every single day. \u2018Sit here for a while and you start to notice the sheer abundance of things and materials, everything that gets thrown away. Because it\u2019s considered worthless. And yet we think nothing of passing baby clothes on from one family to the next.\u2019[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image media=”11879″ caption=”yes” media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”100″ uncode_shortcode_id=”125160″][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image media=”11880″ caption=”yes” media_lightbox=”yes” media_width_percent=”100″ uncode_shortcode_id=”343818″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”112656″]<\/p>\n

Artificial flowers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In its first six months, 4,800 visitors came to De HER to see the circular economy at work. At Power Flower Stories, repurposed vases are crafted by people with physical disabilities. Olga Teule then rents out these vases with their own story, paired with artificial flower arrangements. Along the way, she made quite the discovery. \u2018When we got here, it turned out there weren\u2019t just loads of vases lying around, but loads of artificial flowers too. Honestly, kind of bizarre. But still beautiful, in good enough shape that you think: I can do something with that.\u2019[\/vc_column_text]

The idea of reusing something and seeing if you can make it even better than it was before \u2014 I think that\u2019s truly wonderful.<\/blockquote>[vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”744185″]Olga set up shop at De HER because the concept appealed to her, and she discovered it to be a genuinely inspiring place. \u2018It\u2019s a really lovely spot that draws a lot of visitors, and the entrepreneurs here help each other out too.\u2019 Working circularly matters deeply to her. After a vase has been rented out to a number of businesses, it returns to its maker after three years. \u2018I think the idea of reusing something and seeing if you can make it even better than it was before, I think that\u2019s truly wonderful.\u2019<\/p>\n

A former laboratory<\/strong><\/h3>\n

De HER is built to be 85% circular. A former laboratory building in Delft was completely dismantled and rebuilt next to the waste collection facility on the Bovenweg in Schiebroek. Only the lift, the foundation, and the electrical wiring are new. What stands out about the building are its ten units, used as studio and office spaces, made in part from bottles and washing machine parts. In 2025, Milieupark + De HER won the public choice award at the Rotterdam Architecture Prize<\/a> for it.<\/p>\n

Marc is proud that the City of Rotterdam built a circular structure like this for the first time. \u2018The suspended ceilings, the wall cladding, it\u2019s all recycled material. Cabinets, chairs, tables: everything has been reused. That\u2019s how we show it can genuinely be done.\u2019
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We let children work as the designers of the future.<\/blockquote>[vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”214659″]<\/p>\n

Sustainability<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Lieke van den Berge was one of the first entrepreneurs at De HER. With her company Kite Educatie<\/a>, she develops educational programmes around art, technology, and sustainability. \u2018We let children work as the designers of the future. So they think through social issues, and sustainability is always one of the standard themes. It\u2019s a fixed part of every lesson. That way, children themselves get to shape the world they want to live in.\u2019[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”164390″]<\/p>\n

Hout<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For Lieke, De HER is the perfect home for her business. \u2018We collaborate a lot with makers and designers, and they\u2019re all gathered right here. On top of that, the Milieupark supplies us with cardboard and packaging materials. Children use all kinds of waste material during lessons and workshops where they design something new themselves. And for our programmes for museums and cultural institutions, we need a lot of wood. We source that from the waste too.\u2019<\/p>\n

Lieke is enthusiastic about the concept behind De HER. \u2018Mainly because it genuinely involves the public. It changes how you look at the material you throw away. That it\u2019s actually a raw material for someone else. I find that really powerful. But also the building itself, of course, completely recycled. It shows that as a municipality, you take it seriously \u2014 how the world, or society, needs to change.\u2019[\/vc_column_text]

We want to show that circular isn\u2019t some utopian idea, but something within everyone\u2019s reach.<\/blockquote>[vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”164390″]<\/p>\n

Awareness<\/strong><\/h3>\n

With a maker\u2019s lab and talks, De HER draws a broad audience. A caf\u00e9 is still on the wish list. For Marc ten Oever, awareness is the key driving force behind making it all a success. \u2018We want to show that circular isn\u2019t some utopian idea, but something within everyone\u2019s reach. With the workshops, you get hands-on with materials yourself and experience that it\u2019s possible. That it\u2019s not just something you read about, but something you actually go and do.\u2019<\/p>\n

Marc likes to see De HER as part of something bigger, a movement to pass on far more belongings across the city. \u2018I always say, if Amazon can do it, why can\u2019t we? We\u2019re at the forefront of logistics. So that red sofa handed in on the south side ends up with a happy new owner on the north side. That would be the ideal: things flowing through the city. That\u2019s my dream, that\u2019s the picture I have in mind.\u2019<\/p>\n

Click here for more information about De HER or to book a guided tour.<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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