Focus on feasibility and partnership at Go Circular
Argus Media is a media partner for the upcoming Go Circular conference, which will take place in Mannheim, Germany, from 23–26 March. Argus Consulting will also be presenting its forecasts for the development of mechanical and chemical recycling and outlining the methodology and main factors expected to affect the industry in the coming years.
We spoke to Evnika Polovinkina, the managing director of conference organiser Globuc, about how the event has changed since its inception, and what to expect later this month.
In its seven-year life, Go Circular has straddled the “Blue Planet effect” years that brought huge focus on plastic circularity, and the challenging post-Covid years in which some European recyclers have closed and investment has become more difficult to obtain. How has the mood of the conference changed over the time it has been operating?
When we just started, I think we could see more confrontation or heated discussions between mechanical and chemical technology providers. But with time, I can see that the industry realised that the key to success is synergy and different innovations complementing each other.
And, you rightly said, there was a lot of excitement about the chemical recycling technologies and so many projects announced, but we can see now not all of them are going ahead. What I always say is the Go Circular Summit is a business-to-business summit. So firstly, we talk about the feasibility of those investment projects and what it means to be profitable in recycling and circular economy.
Another change has been the focus on partnership. We can see many players from the value chain involved as partners in a particular project — such as chemical companies, technology licensors, startups and brand owners — all working together as partners rather than as one owner and suppliers.
Has the focus regarding chemical recycling become more on profitability, compared with the more “conceptual” early stages of the industry, and how has the expectation of chemical recycling’s development in the near term changed?
I think we had a similar situation to the early days of hydrogen, in terms of overexcitement about a particular new solution or technology. But during our surveys and preparation for the event, chemical recycling is always mentioned as one of the key topics people want to hear about. And we do have mixed, contaminated plastic waste where the solution for recycling is still chemical recycling.
As well as technology providers, we have associations, brand owners, retailers, packaging companies participating, and we talk not only about the success stories, but also the failures. We try to focus on case studies and real projects, and financing, as people really want to know where they can find money because it's not easy. This year we're also introducing a global aspect — what's happening in China, India, Indonesia — to understand where Europe stands in the global landscape and what they can learn from other countries.
There are quite a few sessions covering the feedstock side and plastic waste. Have you seen more interest in this, particularly since the three-year ban on plastic waste exports was announced by the EU that will come into play later this year?
Yes, there's more interest in sorting and infrastructure, because there are quite a few cases of recycling plants that actually face a shortage of waste feedstock. The paradox is that we have so much plastic waste on the planet, but we need sorted waste for those plants, and project owners or investors need to start thinking about feedstock availability and quality at the feasibility stage.
Bio-based plastics is another topic. We have seen a situation in Europe where a number of bio-based plastic projects have been delayed or deferred. Have you seen a change in the mood of that industry and what's needed to get progress moving?
We do know — and that's what we heard preparing for the event — that it is a challenging time for the industry, including bioplastics. I would agree with you that progress on projects has stalled to some extent for different reasons, such as legislation or the general economic situation in Europe.
But brand owners and packaging companies still want to hear what the options are in sustainable packaging. So they want to hear presentations from big players such as TotalEnergies Corbion, LyondellBasell, Braskem, who still have projects in the pipeline for bio-based plastics.
Again, the focus will be on what projects are actually going ahead. UPM Biochemicals are building a biorefinery in Germany and will give a presentation. From end-users we can still see there is an interest in that.
Are there any other topics that you have seen come to the fore over the lifetime of the conference?
One very important focus this year is textile recycling. Seven years ago there was not even the conversation on that in terms of projects and potential. Last year we had a session and this year we had so much interest in the topic, that we dedicated a whole separate day on textile recycling in partnership with Rehubs and Euratex. I think that's where we will see a lot of developments, and we see quite a few fashion and textile brands participating.
It's driven by the new legislation on sorting, and the availability of more technologies which can deal with textile waste. On that day, we have more newcomers and startups in the technology area, as well as some established companies like Sulzer that provide both plastic and textile recycling technologies. Most of the technologies are at the startup stage or are new names but, because these solutions are available now, we have progress in this topic as well.
Author name: Will Collins, Global Editor Recycled Polymers and European Chemicals Deputy Editor, Chemicals
