A Special Episode: Highlights of the CRE Annual Conference 2022

On the 13-14th of October, for the first time the entire PCF Team attended the Annual Conference of Chemical Recycling Europe (CRE), which was focusing on the Circular Economy and how to achieve circularity with plastics.

The two days were filled with insightful discussions between all players of the plastic value chain. Next to the spotlight on the role of chemical recycling, the agenda also included policy debates, new technologies and innovation, as well as the importance of life cycle assessment and mass balance analysis for and with the entire industry. The event was attended by more than 200 participants with different backgrounds, ranging from industry stakeholders, regulators, academia and NGOs.

We took the chance to pick some of the attendees and ask them live about insights, reflections and of course our plastic climate future topics. The result is this special podcast episode, which for the first time includes not only one but many people exchanging views related to our PCF mission. Here are some of the amazing guests that were so kind to lend us some of their time and answer some of our questions (some of them you might already have heard on previous episodes): Maëlys Makotta from EuPC; Jasper Munier from Clariter;  Jan Hommen and Laszlo Szekely from TOMRA; Phil Brown from Circularise; Fabian Loske from Sphera, and Adela Putinelu from Plastic Energy.

Looking at this diversity of backgrounds and topics covered in this one hour of discussions, we can all agree on the importance of having such dialogues and collaboration between all the actors in the plastic value chain.

How can we transform the plastic value chain? With Virginia Janssens from Plastics Europe

Despite known for having a “bad” reputation in society, plastic is and will continue being part of our daily lives and economy. We all know that plastic waste comes with severe negative environmental consequences, the same as we rely on its benefits such as durability and ease-of-use. Hence, it is important to find sustainable strategies for avoiding the negative consequences and still being able to profit from the benefits of plastics.

In this podcast episode, we had the amazing opportunity to speak to Virginia Janssens who is the managing director of Plastics Europe. Plastics Europe is Europe’s largest polymer industry association, with more than 90% of the polymer producers being its members. As an association, they focus on advocacy, regulation, technical expertise, and also help to set scenarios to make the plastic industry sustainable and circular. Plastics Europe supports its members and also all kind of external stakeholders (e.g. regulators) of the value chain in the transition to a circular economy.

Together with Virginia, we discussed the importance of fostering the dialogue between all the stakeholders and gathering science-based facts. We also talked about her journey, and how she became the managing director of the association. 

You can find out more about Plastics Europe at https://plasticseurope.org/ or reach out to Virginia via LinkedIn.

Rethink - Recycling: Chemical recycling made simple and sustainable with Sam from DePoly

Meet Samantha, an aspiring organic chemist who fell in love with materials. Her journey started by following her childhood dream to become an organic chemist soon after her PhD she discovered her passion for bringing things on the road.

Driven by her love to make develop and make new chemicals, she co-founded founded DePoly, a start-up that depolymerizes plastics - or in modern language - the chemically recycles them. Together with two other PhD students, they combined their different expertise to develop sustainable and simple solutions for PET recycling.

The company aims to sustainably recycle PET waste with different initial feed conditions back into monomers. They strive for straightforward chemical reactions with low-energy requirements, that can be even run in the kitchen!

During our discussion, we also talked about chemical recycling, the current bottlenecks, and how their chemical recycling method differs from other processes.

Find out more about DePoly at https://www.depoly.co/ Or reach out to Samantha via Linkedin

An African start-up transforming plastic waste into building materials - with Kidus from KUBIK

Kidus is the CEO and Co-founder of KUBIK, a Nairobi-Based start-up that converts plastic waste into building materials. As a son of Ethiopia, Kidus tells us how his memorable childhood experiences got slowly disrupted by the adverse effects of urbanization. This was part of his motivation to act and look into ways how to valorize plastic waste as a building material.

An experience-rich personal background and his career at Google led him finally into the space of sustainability and circularity with plastics. And, voilá, KUBIK was born.

After observing the big problem of plastic collectors at Cote d’Ivoire, and its effect on society and education, KUBIK’s mission is grounded in transforming society by taking care of the environment. By focusing on this simple existential problem, KUBIK converts plastic waste, as a problematic low-cost material, into a cheaper alternative for building materials.

In this inspiring podcast, we spoke with Kidus about his company and the general situation of plastic waste, circularity and problems caused by the urbanization in Africa.

You can find out more about Kubik at https://www.buildkubik.com/ or reach out to Kidus via LinkedIn

Launching an algae plastic start-up from the kitchen - with Jessica Farda from Noriware

Jessica's fascination for algae-based materials was born when she went to Mexico for vacation. There, she came up with the idea to create an algae-based packaging material after seeing algae on the beach and learning about their potential as a sustainable and circular material resource. 

Without any scientific background in chemistry or polymers, she did her own research and performed experiments at home in her own kitchen. Actually, by accident, she discovered a process for making plastics. That’s when she decided to move out of the kitchen and start collaborating with the ETH in Zurich to bring in more specific expertise in polymer chemistry. Et voila, there she is now with Noriware.

Aside from talking about her journey of co-founding Noriware, in this podcast we also discussed the feasibility and sustainability aspects of their products, and the challenges to gather funding for a tech start-up if you are not a scientist. Jessica also told us about the current state of algae-based material research, innovation and production in Europe.

You can find out more about Noriware at www.noriware.com or reach out to Jessica via LinkedIn.

From Passion to Mission for the Jordanian Marine Life - with Beisan AlSharif from Project Sea

In this episode, we have our first guest from the Middle East, Beisan AlSharif.

Beisan is a marine enthusiast with a passion for diving and the environment. She spent most of her time in South Jordan. During the pandemic, she found a traumatizing amount of waste underwater caused by the skyrocketing plastic usage. This then led her to co-found Project Sea, to extend her passion for scuba diving.

Project Sea aims to change the culture of littering and waste disposal by organizing monthly diving clean-up events in Jordan. They also educate the public by arranging interactive lectures, campaigns, and collaboration with local brands.

During the talk, we discussed how we often turn our eyes on Europe and sometimes forget that ocean plastic is a global and wider problem. We gained a new perspective from Beisan about what the situation is like in Jordan. She also tells us how demanding it can be to free the ocean from our plastic waste - especially when it gets caught in coral reefs.

You can find out more about Project Sea at https://www.linkedin.com/company/thisisprojectsea/ or reach out to Beisan via LinkedIn

Mimicking Nature: Sustainable honeycombs and sandwich materials - with Wouter Winant from EconCore.

Wouter Winant's expertise in the field of polymers started as a coincidence. Without a degree in chemistry or materials, he falls in love with the intersection between material science and the environment. Now, he has been working for over 15 years as a technical manager in EconCore, a company that develops technology for the continuous production of thermoplastic honeycombs.

The name says it all - the structure of thermoplastic honeycombs mimics nature's honeycombs, and it contains 80% air. By copying nature (through the biomimicry approach), the company successfully developed an environmentally friendly lightweight material requiring less plastic. In addition, they also focus on minimizing material usage by utilizing plastic waste, closing the loop with circular product design, and increasing their continuous production efficiency to reduce CO2 emissions.

 In this podcast episode, Wouter explains his work on all fronts to develop this innovative material that can be utilized for various mobility applications. We also discuss how reducing resources impacts the economic value of a product and the importance of considering economic viability alongside with sustainability.

You can find out more about Encore at https://econcore.com/en or reach out to Wouter via LinkedIn.

How to design polymers and composites for a circular future? - with Philip Taynton from Mallinda.

If you ever wondered what butter and eggs have in common with thermoplastics and thermosets, then this podcast is for you. Philip Taynton, the CEO from Mallinda, dives with us into the world of new sustainable, recyclable and circular polymer technologies for future composite applications. On that journey, he uses the most creative analogies and tells us why Mallinda is doing “eggs that melt”…

During college, Philip clicked with organic chemistry and found his niche in the world of polymers. It then lead him into co-founding Mallinda, a company that creates a novel and innovative vitrimeric resin system called VITRIMAX™.

In this episode, we get to know Philip’s innovative approach of reversible bond exchange in polymeric networks, which led him to founding Mallinda. He motivated us with his story and explanation to rethink how we design new materials to make them reversible by design and therefore circular. We learned that thinking “out of the box”, by changing the design strategy for plastics through reversible chemistry, will help us to achieve circularity.

You can find out more about Mallinda at https://mallinda.com/or reach out to Philip via LinkedIn.

How Data Drives The Circular Economy with Andrea Canepa from Net Zero Insights

In this episode, we invited a guest who is neither a polymer expert nor in the recycling field but heavily contributes to circular economy, Andrea Canepa.

Andrea accomplished his bachelor's in economics and continued studying quantitative finance. His educational background and work experience revolve around data, and since then, he knew for sure that he wanted to do something impactful with it.

That’s what motivated him to start Net Zero Insights with a mission to create a platform to support entrepreneurs by connecting them and simplifying the search for technologies and innovative organisations developing climate positive solutions. Currently, Net Zero Insights aims to provide access to insights on climate innovation to investors, governments, policymakers, researchers, and business developers. It is a platform with a massive database of climate-positive startups in Europe and North America. The companies listed are broad-in-purpose, but have the same goal of saving the environment.

In this episode, we mainly discussed how data enables us to understand the impact of our material world on the environment and sets a benchmark for the success of our actions. It is highly needed to understand and measure the complex interrelationships between stakeholders because “If you can measure, you can manage!”

You can find out more about Net Zero Insights at https://netzeroinsights.com/ or reach out to Andrea via LinkedIn.

Using Enzymes to Biodegrade Plastics with Andrii from Enzymity

In previous episodes, we talked about mechanical recycling and inorganic chemical recycling. This time, we invited someone from another recycling domain - one that uses enzymes as chemical reaction catalysts. Unlike inorganic chemicals, enzymes are bio-based substances, namely proteins that reduce the activation energy of a reaction. The advantage is that enzymatic processes are relatively mild and can be very tuned to drive very specific chemical reactions.

Driven by his high school dream, Andrii Shekhirev, who has studied business and finance, came back to the biotechnology field by co-founding Enzymity.

Enzymity is a Latvian-based biotech start-up that aims to drive materials circularity by breaking down plastics into their building blocks through an enzymatic process. The start-up focuses to use a tool kit in engineering naturally occurring enzymes, improving them and seeking commercialization with industrial partnerships.

During the discussion, we also heard Andrii's perspective on the financial aspect of the business, and the development of the start-up environment in Latvia. He also agreed with us that solving the plastic problem requires a mix of solutions, and hoped that Enzymity will become a part of it!

 You can find out more about Enzimity at https://enzymity.com/ or reach out to Andrii via LinkedIn.