06/10/2026
🇳🇱♻️ From school lunches to mushrooms grown from coffee waste…
This afternoon Jill and I visited Tuincentrum Steck Utrecht as part of our time in Utrecht with the Place-based Circular Society Innovations project.
Steck describes itself as much more than a garden centre, and it really is. It’s developing into a place where nature, community, social projects and sustainable businesses exist alongside one another, with everything from food growing and community projects to local circular enterprises. (Steck Utrecht)
One of my favourite conversations was with LunchMaatjes (Lunch Buddies), who provide healthy lunches in primary schools. Their approach really resonated with us: where they work, every child gets the same healthy lunch, free to parents, so children who might otherwise arrive at school without food aren’t singled out or stigmatised. (Steck Utrecht)
We also met Zwamcafé, who showed us possibly the best example of circular thinking today, growing oyster mushrooms using used coffee grounds. Something most of us would simply throw away becomes the raw material for growing food. 🍄☕♻️ (zwamcafe.nl)
And I think that’s been my biggest takeaway today.
The circular economy isn’t simply about recycling more.
It’s about asking “what do we already have, and how could we use it differently?”
That’s essentially the question at the heart of Reloved too. A school jumper that one family has finished with isn’t waste, it’s a perfectly good school jumper another child can wear.
What I particularly loved about Steck was seeing environmental sustainability and social sustainability sitting together: reducing waste, growing food, creating opportunities, tackling inequality and building community aren’t treated as completely separate problems.
Lots of ideas coming home to Stockport with us already. 💚
And tomorrow we get to explore even more… 👀♻️
