When Blauwe Bagger won the BK-Launch Post-Launch Award in November 2025, the plan was clear: take their mobile dredging separation technology out of the lab and into the field. Eight months later, founder Sil van de Bovenkamp can say they have done exactly that, and learned a great deal along the way.
From Prototype to Pilot Installations
The €20,000 award has gone towards building pilot installations, technology that separates dredged sludge on-site into reusable raw materials such as sand, clay and silt. "We used the money mainly to build out pilot installation, or at least to pay for a part of it," Sil explains. Two pilots are now complete, one at a depot in Dordrecht and one near Alphen aan den Rijn, with four more planned before the end of the year.
The results have been promising on two fronts. The separation technology itself performs well, and so does the next step: finding a real use for the materials that come out of it. Blauwe Bagger is now testing partnerships with brick manufacturers and concrete producers, and the early results are strong. "The functional properties can be determined in advance," Sil says, though getting a consistent colour from a variable waste stream remains a genuine technical puzzle. It is a challenge that, as Sil notes, is forcing architects and manufacturers alike to reconsider what "consistent" needs to mean for circular materials.
The Search for the Right Application
One of the more interesting lessons of the past year has been about scale. The current installation can process material for a few hours a day, output that is, for now, well matched to demand. But to make a meaningful impact, Blauwe Bagger needs to process dredged material by the truckload, which means scaling up considerably. The bottleneck turns out to be dewatering, the slowest step in an otherwise highly scalable process. A faster alternative exists in the form of industrial centrifuges, but these are a significant investment. Especially for a company that has, in Sil's words, built almost everything so far "with no external investment, just some subsidies here and there, low-budget and pieced together."
Bootstrapping by Choice
That low-budget approach has been a conscious strategy. Sil describes two broad paths for an early-stage venture: raise significant capital early and grow fast, or bootstrap, build slowly, and use the time to properly understand the problem before scaling. For Blauwe Bagger, bootstrapping has meant the freedom to figure out exactly where their separated materials best fit, something Sil says is still, honestly, an ongoing search. "We started out thinking the problem was the sludge, and the solution was separating it. At some point we realised: say we have the perfect separation installation, then what do we actually do with all that raw material?"
That question is now being answered in the construction industry, partly because building materials are more forgiving of contamination, and partly because the high temperatures used in industrial firing processes break down many of the pollutants that make dredged material risky to use elsewhere, such as on farmland.
The Hardest Part: Deciding Without All the Answers
Asked about the biggest challenge of the past year, Sil points to something less technical and more personal: making strategic decisions without having all the information you would like. The company recently needed to find new premises, hire new people, and start raising investment, all while still working out the longer-term direction of the business. "You're constantly jumping between next week and a year and a half from now," he says. The real skill, he found, was learning to live with that uncertainty rather than resolving it before acting. "It almost always works out. That's probably the most important lesson: it always works out, eventually."
That mindset, Sil adds, is something he still actively reminds himself of, sometimes literally on his bike on the way to work. It is also, in his view, something a founder has to actively protect, by staying resilient, staying healthy, and recognising when to push harder and when to simply take a break.
The Road Ahead
Blauwe Bagger now finds itself at a turning point. After proving the model through low-budget pilots, the company is preparing to raise external investment to fund the next stage of growth. Along the way, the BK-Launch Mentor Programme has continued to play a role, with Sil regularly speaking to mentors Jip Leendertse and Daniel Hallman about strategy and next steps.
For other entrepreneurs just starting out, Sil's advice is direct: do not let uncertainty stop you from moving forward. It is advice he still gives himself, regularly, and it captures something essential about the past year at Blauwe Bagger: progress that came not from having all the answers, but from being willing to act without them.
Apply for the 2026 BK-Launch Entrepreneurship Awards
Stories like Blauwe Bagger's are exactly why the BK-Launch Entrepreneurship Awards exist: to give promising ventures in the built environment the support they need to take a real step forward. Applications for the 2026 edition are open until 13 September. Whether you are just getting started or ready to scale, find out more and apply at bk-launch.nl/awards.
Category: Entrepreneurship Awards