Yet another new experiment! Together with Enduro Softslings we are creating ropes from old lifting slings: circular rigging for our waste plastic fleet.
Letting everyone discover that throwing away is a waste: that is something you cannot do by yourself. That is why we work together with partners. Companies that, like us, want to accelerate towards a circular living environment in which materials that are currently planned for the incinerator, are given a new destination. We do this by starting sustainable experiments together.
And we found a new one! We’ve started our latest experiment together with Enduro Softslings, a company that makes heavy duty lifting slings for the onshore and offshore industry. In collaboration with Enduro, we create new ropes from residual material from these slings.
Wy do we do this?
We find each other in a common mission. Enduro processes tons of synthetic yarn for the production of the heavy lifting slings. But the production process also gives a lot of residual yarn. In addition, material is returned from customers that has been rejected for heavy lifting. Often due to minor damage. But throwing it away… is a waste! This material still carries high-standard qualities, and in a ‘standard’ recycling process especially these qualities are lost.
Enduro now has a warehouse full of this kind of ‘waste’. “This material can easily be reused. We want to do something with it, but what?” Gerard Baan of Enduro Softslings came to Edwin with this question.
When you offer so much residual yarn to a club that builds ships, it’s very easy to find a new destination for it. The number of small boats is steadily growing, the larger Dutch speeljacht is starting to take shape and the Dutch fluitschip that has to sail the world’s seas is planned. In short: we need lots and lots of ropes. How amazing would it be to give these lifting slings a new purpose as rigging for the fleet?
The experiment: developing ropes from waste
And that’s how we started a joint journey of discovery. Together with Sisto Hendriks, Enduro’s innovation manager, we are conducting experiments to develop ropes from the waste yarn. Ropes that can withstand a big storm at sea on the fluitschip, that are flexible, and at the same time rough enough to tie.
For Enduro, this experiment is a step towards a circular business model. Not only by reusing residual material, but also by organizing the business- and production processes in such a way that less waste remains. So much to discover.
Making ropes as a binder
The great thing is that the rope experiment doesn’t just stay within our own organizations. It has a connecting effect in our network. The first production of the ropes is done by our volunteers from De Makerij and the Leekerweide Groep. They’re already running the first test ropes at the C2A rope yard.
In addition, the ropes must of course also be tested outside of the Enduro laboratory, in real life. For this we have found a befriended tall ship, the Morgenster, willing to test the ropes at sea in all weathers. So the first Official C2A Rope Testing Center (video) is a fact!
And once the ropes are useful for our fleet, they may well be useful for other ships as well. Some charter ships have already shown interest. In this way we initiate a movement that is not only of value for our own businesses, but for society as a whole.
