ROTTERDAM, 23 March 2026 – The National conference on circular economy, known in Dutch as the Nationale Conferentie Circulaire Economie, will take place in Rotterdam on 11 March 2027. With Rotterdam as host city, South Holland will serve as the guest region for the biennial national congress, which is organised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and forms part of the National Week of the Circular Economy.
Image: The Port of Rotterdam, central to South Holland’s role in circular industry, logistics and raw material chains. Photo: Guido Pijper
The event brings together a broad South Holland coalition. The Province of South Holland, the Municipality of Rotterdam, the Port of Rotterdam Authority, InnovationQuarter, Economic Board Zuid-Holland and Deltalinqs are joining forces with the ministry to stage the conference. The organisers are positioning the region as a national showcase for circular economy activity, pointing to its mix of port infrastructure, industry, knowledge institutions, manufacturing and start-up innovation.
Why Rotterdam and South Holland
The organisers say the 2027 edition lands at a time when raw material security, geopolitical dependency and industrial decarbonisation are high on the national agenda. In that context, South Holland is being presented as a logical host region because of its scale and economic weight.
The figures used in the announcement are telling. South Holland has 3.8 million residents, accounts for 30 per cent of national raw material use, and contains 25 per cent of Dutch manufacturing industry. With the Port of Rotterdam at the centre of major European value chains, the region is being framed as a place where circular shipbuilding, circular chemistry, battery recycling, medical material reuse, circular construction and biobased innovation all meet in a very practical way.
More than a one-day conference
The conference itself is scheduled for 11 March 2027, but the partners say they want it to be more than a one-day event with speeches and panels. Around the plenary programme, they plan to organise working visits to circular breakthrough projects in the region, as well as deeper sessions on critical materials and biobased construction.
There will also be meetings aimed at connecting policymakers, businesses and researchers. Later this year, the organisers plan to share more information for companies and organisations that want visibility at the event or want to contribute more actively to the programme.
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Rotterdam’s circular economy push
For Rotterdam, this fits neatly into a broader story the city has been telling for some time. Circular construction, material reuse and smarter handling of raw materials are already recurring themes in local policy and in the way the city talks about growth, housing and industry.
Alderman Chantal Zeegers says Rotterdam’s growth makes that shift unavoidable. “Rotterdam is growing and that means we have to use materials and raw materials more intelligently. In construction, we are increasingly working with reuse, biobased materials and circular designs. It is fitting that Rotterdam will soon host the discussion on how to accelerate that transition.”
Alderman Robert Simons puts the emphasis more on business and competitiveness. “The circular economy offers entrepreneurs enormous opportunities: by investing in innovation and working together intensively, we are not only strengthening our competitive position, but also building a resilient and sustainable business community that is ready for the future.”
A strong stage for the national debate
The conference is organised by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, but the local and regional framing matters here. Rotterdam is not being presented just as a venue. It is being presented as a working example of where circular economy ambitions, industrial reality and urban development all collide.
That makes this more than a calendar item. For Rotterdam, it is also a chance to show how the city and the wider South Holland region want to position themselves in the national transition to a circular economy, not only as hosts of the debate, but as one of the places where that debate is already being put into practice.
