The Netherlands and Europe have set themselves the goal of becoming fully circular by 2050. This is a huge challenge that will require the entire society's involvement. ITGWO is therefore committed to taking the necessary steps to make this a reality in practice. The festival has also set itself the goal of becoming fully circular (stage 1) in the coming years. This means that no residual waste will need to be produced that ends up in waste incineration.

All materials used by the festival will then be reusable, or at least recycled to a high standard or composted. In this way, materials can be kept in high-quality cycles, allowing raw materials and products to be created anew. By closing these loops and using renewable energy, the circular society is slowly becoming a reality.

Under the Waste is Resources (AiG) program, the goal is to work towards a fully circular festival or; 0 residual waste and 100% circular procurement. To achieve this, reusable tableware for all food and drinks was introduced earlier, waste bins for tableware and resource collection points were removed, and all material streams were separated into clean resource streams with a well-organized resource policy and street management.

In 2024, circular procurement was greatly improved, from 16% circular purchased materials in 2023 to 99% in 2024 - second-hand, biobased, or made from recycled materials. ITGWO also sharpened its own record from last year - 100 grams of residual waste per visitor per day, already one of the lowest in the sector - down to 50 grams of residual waste per visitor per day (the national average is 450 grams per person per day). This knowledge and expertise is currently being shared through various platforms such as the Green Deal Circular Festivals.

In 2025, Into The Great Wide Open will continue working on circular procurement. A circular procurement decision tree was previously developed, and departments are being informed about how they can procure circularly and how they should provide the necessary data for this.

In 2025, a number of specifically new tools were added to facilitate decision-making around the procurement of merchandise and site textiles:

• a merchandise decision tree, based on the wishes and choices regarding ITGWO merchandise, now also used within the GDCF;

• a site textile decision tree, developed from practical experiences with ITGWO and other parties, also included in the GDCF toolbox.

  
  

Additionally, the festival is strongly focusing on the use of biobased construction materials and the transition currently taking place under the Future Construction Site program.

For instance, The Shop, built by Triomf, is entirely made of reused biobased materials and serves as a showcase. The entrance gate, designed by Studio Akeka, is made of bamboo and demonstrates that biobased materials can be applied constructively and technically approved in public areas – an important step towards future certification. Moreover, biobased geotextile from the Joosten Group is being tested under the backstage flooring plates at the Open Spot, with practical feedback from users and material research as goals.