PLASTICIRCLE will celebrate its final forum showcasing disruptive technologies for the circularity of packaging waste

This event will take place on 13 April 2021 and is organised by ITENE research center in collaboration with KIMbcn, Proplast and ICLEI, with the support from Ecoembes and PlasticsEurope. • Speakers from the European Commission, ITENE, PlasticsEurope, SAV, Picvisa, KIMbcn, Axion, Proplast, Armacell, Derbigum, CRF, Hahn Plastics and Interval will explain the technologies and the new products developed in this Horizon 2020 project. • Valencia (Spain), Alba Iulia (Romania) and Utrecht (The Netherlands) municipalities will explain the results achieved with the project pilots in these cities.

Collaborative strategies and new technologies for plastic circularity have proven to be a reality ready to be implemented in the market thanks to PLASTICIRCLE. The results and impacts of this Horizon 2020 project will be showcased in a final forum, to be held online on 13 April. The event is organised by ITENE research center in collaboration with KIMbcn, Proplast and ICLEI, with the support from Ecoembes and PlasticsEurope.

Free of charge, the final forum is aimed at industrial players along the plastic packaging value chain -including plastic industry, converters, waste managers and recyclers-, as well as to public authorities and policymakers, and will offer an overview of the PLASTICIRCLE achievements. This project comes to an end in May 2021 after four years of intense and innovative work to rethink the packaging waste cycle and transform it into a circular model, aligned with the European Union strategy.

After an introduction by ITENE, as coordinator of this 20-partner consortium, Jiannis Kougoulis, European Commission´s Project Officer, will explain the EU´s circular economy strategy through Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes and PLASTICIRCLE’s role. Then, Patricia Vangheluwe, Circularity Director of PlasticsEurope, will offer a high impact presentation on the circular economy with plastics.

ITENE, SAV and PICVISA will show the technologies developed in PLASTICIRCLE, and Las Naves (Valencia, Spain), Alba Iulia Municipality (Romania) and Utrecht Municipality (The Netherlands) will explain how these innovations were implemented through three pilot projects and what results were achieved. In addition, KIMbcn and ITENE will present the sustainable business model to promote circularity offered by PLASTICIRCLE.

In the afternoon session, Axion will show the PLASTICIRCLE strategy for the development of new products with post-consumer recycled plastics, while PROPLAST will offer an overview of the outputs obtained from recycled plastic. These products will be presented as circular economy success stories by the companies Armacell, Derbigum, CRF, Hahn Plastics and Interval.

With this cross-cutting vision, PLASTICIRCLE will demonstrate how the industry can already benefit from these developments to realise the new paradigm of the circular economy.