Circular Plastics NL during 'Dare to Be Circular' by BISCI

2 minutes

Brightlands Institute for Supply Chain Innovation (BISCI) organized the event "Dare to Be Circular" at the MECC in Maastricht on Thursday, March 2. Marc Spekreijse director of Circular Plastics NL participated in a panel session on the role of government and society in a circular economy.

Business, students, teachers and researchers
BISCI welcomed a large group of attendees from top business executives to international students, teachers and researchers. The great enthusiasm of the more than 200 participants showed that the topic is alive and well and working hard. Both scientific research and practical examples were discussed during the event.

Collaborating on sustainable supply chains
The world is changing rapidly and much more is going to change in the coming years. Global goods flows and supply chains are at a tipping point. From old-fashioned thinking in chains in which goods are transported from A to B as cheaply as possible, we are seeing a shift to more intensive cooperation within smarter chains in which digitization, data and sustainability play an increasingly important role. A scarcity of raw materials and rising energy prices, among other things, are forcing companies and governments to work together on sustainable supply chains. The same applies to plastics, of course.

Therefore, the goal of Circular Plastics NL (CPNL) is to make plastics fully circular and use subsidies to accelerate the transition. CPNL's program lines focus on bottlenecks in various value chains to close the cycles for existing plastics.

The role of government and society in a circular economy
In the Chemical breakout session, panelists Marc Spekreijse managing director of Circular Plastics NL, Guy de Sevaux (Invest-NL), Anton van Beek (the Dow Chemical Company), Loek Radix (Chemelot) addressed the role of government and society in a circular economy

For example, it was emphasized that in a circular supply chain, we need to make products without emissions. For example, in the chemical industry, 30% is emitted during the production of the product, while the remaining 70% is in the product itself. This shows that the circularity aspect of chemical products plays an important role in the product life cycle. In addition, the scale at which circularity must be applied is enormous in the chemical industry. It was also mentioned that today's value is not tomorrow's value and therefore companies need to constantly evaluate their value proposition.

Marc Spekreijse explained Circular Plastics NL's program with a focus on supply chain challenges in the plastic value chain. "Plastic waste has value, but it is also bulky. What are the ideal locations to recycle it in the chain, where is it needed in the next step in the process? How do we find the right "supply - demand" balance in a market where everyone is looking for feedstock for his/her process. How do we deal with the huge quantities that need to be recycled and how do we improve and secure the quality of the recyclate so that it can be used more, higher quality and more efficiently?