Plastics Unwrapped

In this episode, Carsten Larsen, Dow’s Commercial Director for Recycling in EMEA & APAC is  joined by Iain Gulland, CEO of Zero Waste Scotland, and Sirt Mellema, CEO of Fuenix Ecogy Group, to discuss ‘game-changing’ advanced recycling technology. 

Advanced recycling takes hard-to-recycle, mixed plastic waste and breaks it down into its basic chemical elements – allowing waste to become infinitely recyclable. The panel look at what this technology means for both industry and consumers.

Key discussion points include:

1. What is advanced or feedstock recycling ?
2. How to recycle plastics that were previously unrecyclable.
3. Advanced recycling in a circular economy.

Why is it so difficult to recycle plastics? What is the difference between recyclable and recycled? Why do recycling rates change so drastically from country to country and even street to street? Dow's Romain Cazenave, Marketing Director for Packaging & Specialty Plastics in EMEA, and Karin Katzer, Marketing Director in EMEA, shed light on this topic and explain how plastic manufacturers can create products that are easier to recycle as well as support recycling systems. They are joined by Krzysztof Krajewski, Director of Packaging Sustainability at RB, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies.

Key discussion points include:

1. Why recycling rates differ from so much between areas
2. The role of plastics manufacturers in creating products that are easier to recycle, as well as supporting recycling.

Dow's Thomas Reutter, Product Director for Packaging & Specialty Plastics in EMEA, and Panu Routasalo, Vice President at UPM Biofuels, talk about market growth for renewable feedstocks and how this fits with the industry’s plans to reduce its carbon emissions. They discuss why approaches like mass balance are important in supporting market growth for bioplastics, as well as the industry's role in ensuring the growth of renewable feedstocks and the need to continue working together with others to find more sustainable solutions.

Key discussion points include: 

1. What are renewable feedstocks?
2. Potential challenges of feedstocks as an industry solution (8:28 - 8:47)

Dow’s  Marco ten Bruggencate, Commercial Vice President for Packaging & Specialty Plastics in EMEA, and Carsten Larsen, Commercial Director for Plastic Recycling in EMEA, are joined by Jim McClelland, Editor of SustMeme magazine, to discuss ‘Emotion versus Science’ and how that plays out in today’s debate around plastics. Our guests discuss how we can balance the emotional response we all feel when seeing waste, with a logical, scientific approach when it comes to choosing materials.

Key discussion points include: 

1. Whether the industry is doing enough to combat the negative (20:58-21:21)
2. How we can demonstrate the benefits of circular plastic (10:42-11:19)
3. The role of the value chain (8:13-8:41)