Driving a polyolefin circular economy
First PCEP Annual Conference a success
The very first PCEP Annual Conference was a success. It featured talks from more than 15 speakers working in the circular economy and had around 70 attendees.
In her opening address, Venetia Spencer, PCEP Secretary General, highlighted both the challenges and the opportunities linked to turning the global polyolefin industry into a circular economy. Venetia also took stock of the advances made since last year and explained that PCEP is making good progress towards its ambitious Voluntary Commitments.
The morning sessions focussed on setting the scene at the start of the new EU legislature. Paolo Da Silva Lemos, Policy Officer, DG Environment, European Commission, said that "PCEP has the ideas and we need to put them into practice". Michael Scriba, mtm plastics and Chair PCEP WG "Enhancing Collection & Sorting" shared his thoughts on best practices in collection, sorting, recycling and design for recyclability. Gian De Belder, Packaging Technologist, P&G, presented the Holy Grail 2.0 project and showed its technology based on digital watermarks that enable higher recycling rates for packaging in Europe.
The afternoon started with an insightful speech by Willemijn Peeters, CEO Searious Business. She said companies can be agents of change in making plastics’ use more sustainable. Other sessions focused on delivering the PCEP Roadmap 2030 as well as opportunities for improving polyolefins recycling in different sectors.
