After more than a year of technical and practical preparations, the Eerbeek Water Roundabout (The Netherlands) pilot was officially launched in September. On the premises of Industriewater Eerbeek (IWE), a test installation of a closed, circular water management system will run until the end of 2023. This pilot will investigate whether a ‘full scale’ installation is technically and financially feasible. The aim is to connect the first paper mill to the circular system by mid-2026. The Water roundabout Eerbeek is committed to making the paper industry more sustainable and almost 100% circular reuse of industrial wastewater. This will ensure paper and cardboard mills around Eerbeek and Loenen continue to have sufficient water for their production processes in the future, while drastically reducing their water footprint.

The project was initiated and developed by Folding Boxboard Eerbeek together with the two other paper mills from Eerbeek that also own IWE; a fourth paper mill from nearby Loenen has committed to the test as a party. Together, the four paper mills have a highly water-intensive production process and, in making water consumption within Waterrotonde Eerbeek circular, could together save 3.6 million m3 of groundwater annually. This is equivalent to the consumption of 22,000 households. Moreover, the technology could be the answer to the impending shortage of clean drinking water due to climate change and population and economic growth.