Julie Metta

KU Leuven | ku leuven · Department of Economics

POP-MACHINA aims to demonstrate the power and potential of the maker movement and collaborative production for the EU circular economy. We draw from a number of cutting edge technologies (factory-of-the-future, blockchain) and disciplines (urban planning, architecture) to provide the support necessary to overcome scaling issues; a typical drawback of collaborative production; to find the areas more in need of our intervention and to reconfigure unused spaces. We put forth an elaborate community engagement program to network, incentivize and stimulate through maker faires and events existing and new maker communities in all our municipalities. We build upon the current informal curriculum for maker skills development by nurturing the social side and we put educators and makers together to exchange ideas on the training modalities. A particular focus on the skill development of women and vulnerable groups will aim to empower these (underrepresented) segments to partake actively in collaborative production. In every pilot area we will demonstrate business oriented collaborative production of feasible and sustainable concepts from secondary raw material or other sustainable inputs, based on the needs and preferences of the local stakeholders. A thorough impact assessment framework with increased scope (e.g. social) will be co-designed with stakeholders after short basic assessment training and will be used in the assessment of our pilot work.

Regarding resources depletion and waste management issues, ones have to study the impact of waste recycling as an endogenous variable impacting economic growth. This project aims to build a theoretical economic model base on neoclassic theory linking waste recovery and economic output.

This project aims to disclose a possible scheme to regulate municipal solid waste in Hong Kong through a quantity-based control system. The strategy allows waste to be fully integrated with a carbon permit scheme. We propose the initial number of permit as well as an optimal amount of permit to fulfill Paris agreement’ target. Carbon permits for waste will diminish waste amount and thus pollution, without negatively impact on Hong Kong’s economy. We suggest different roles for stakeholders to be involved in waste management. While government will be the permit controller, civil society is suggested to be used as a middleman for permit allocations and regulations and businesses could exert market power to finance R&D and deployment of waste treatment technology.