Reststoffenunie, Waternet and partners win IWA-KWR Award

In 2015, chainpartners Reststoffenunie, Waternet, Ardagh Glass and Desso won the prestigious biennial IWA-KWR Award for Best Practice on Resource Recovery from Water for the valorisation and high-value application of calcite pellets. The pellets are released during the drinking water softening process. The chairman of the jury Willy Verstraete presented the award on 31 August during the 1st IWA Resource Recovery in Ghent.

Best worldwide

The recovery of resources from water and wastewater is expected to constitute an important alternative to extraction from primary, and thus finite, sources. The resources recovered from the watercycle are water itself, but also energy, nutrients and metals. The winners merited the Best Practices Award because they represent the best example worldwide of the large-scale and economically feasible valorisation and use of resources from the watercycle.

Concerted collaboration in the entire watercycle

Olaf van der Kolk, Commercial Operations Manager at Reststoffenunie, says: ‘This award is a strong sign of recognition for the collaborative work that the Dutch water companies have put into the development of a variety of innovative product/market combinations. By giving the award to four chainpartners together, the IWA and KWR underline that resource recovery is only possible through concerted collaboration in the entire watercycle; with winners in each stage of the cycle.’

Jury composition

The IWA-KWR Award jury consisted of:

1. W. Verstraete, chairman (IWA Resource Recovery Cluster)
2. J. Cramwinckel (World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Switzerland)
3. E. Namkung (Myungji University, Republic of Korea)
4. B. Lesjean (KWB Berlin, Germany)
5. J. Boere (KWR, the Netherlands)
6. D. Daigger (IWA past president, USA)

The proud winners of the IWA-KWR Award (fltr): Sven-Roger Kahl (Ardagh Glass), Olaf van der Kolk (Reststoffenunie), Jan Peter van de Hoek (Waternet) en Ludwig Cammaert (Desso).