We use cookies
To help provide you with a good experience on our website. By continuing to browse the website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

GO CIRCULAR 2023
SNAPSHOTS

4th Edition
287 Attendees
50+ Speakers
28 Partners
1 Start-up
competition
1 Site visit
WATCH VIDEO

Go Circular is a business-focused conference where participants have discussions around the main plastics circularity challenges and is the perfect place to start building plastic circularity collaborations. 

It covers the entire plastics circular value chain, starting from petrochemical companies to brand owners.

The 4th edition of Go Circular took place in Rotterdam in partnership with the Port of Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe.

AUDIENCE PROFILE

20% (Petro)chemical Manufacturer / Polymer producer
19% Plastic Recycling Solutions
11% Packaging / Plastic Converters
10% Brand Owners / Retailers
8% Specialty Chemicals / Additives
6% Digital Services / Technologies
5% Waste Management / Sorting
5% Consulting / Market Research
4% Bioplastic Producers
4% Equipment
4% Governmental Institutions
4% Non-governmental Organizations
2% Industrial Hub / Park
29% Sales / Business Development
21% Sustainability
18% General Management
9% Marketing / Communications
8% Research & Development
7% Operations / Logistics
3% Engineering
2% Finance
2% Information Technologies
1% Procurement / Purchasing

KEY TOPIC HIGHLIGHTS AND TAKEAWAYS

Mattia Pellerini, Head of Unit at European Commission in his presentation addressed the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, focusing on 5 key elements of the legal proposal.

One of the core measures he mentioned was “As of 2030 all packaging items have to be recyclable, and to that end meet the design for recycling (DfR) criteria, to be established in
secondary legislation.”

Hilde van Dujin, Head of Global Value Chains at Circle Economy, shared the unexpected outcome of the Circularity Gap Report they have been producing since 2018. Hilde shared that “The global situation is getting worse year on year—driven by rising material extraction
and use.

Rising material extraction has shrunk global circularity: from 9.1% in 2018, to 8.6% 2020, and now 7.2% in 2023. This leaves a huge Circularity Gap: the globe almost exclusively relies on new (virgin) materials.”

On the UN treaty to end plastic pollution a representative of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty representative, Venetia Spencer outlined in her presentation “Global rules are important for businesses. We cannot rely on national action plans alone.

A legally binding treaty must help governments create a level playing field for a globally operating industry and prevent a patchwork of disconnected national solutions.

Because of the international trade of plastics products, packaging and waste, the treaty provisions must be based on common definitions and metrics as well as on harmonised standards. Businesses struggle to comply with different rules in 193 countries around the world.”

The second day of the conference started focusing on unlocking plastic waste feedstock.

Pranav Goenka, Senior Advisor & Co-Chair, Recycling Solutions at the Alliance to End Plastic Waste outlined three challenges, need to improve availability of feedstock at affordable price, need to improve quality of recyclates and need to invest in recycling capacity.

To address these challenges, there is a need for economic incentives and broad collaboration across stakeholders and shared Alliance’s approach through creating a value chain pull.

Joe Papineschi, Chairperson at Eunomia Research & Consulting, in his presentation focusing on recycling technology comparison overview & market readiness.

Among the key takeaways from his presentation was energy and material intensity may become key determinants of winning technologies, and Europe still lacks a clear vision for the roles of
different recycling technologies.

Throughout the conference agenda, participants discussed different circularity gaps and how to address them. In his presentation, Joachim Amland, SVP Head of TOMRA Recycling Feedstock mentioned the quantity gap.

Addressing the quantity gap is very important because, in Europe alone, 12 million tonnes of plastics are lost to incineration and 7 million tonnes to landfill. Also, waste collection and sorting remain inconsistent and fragmented, with significant investment required in
developing and improving infrastructure.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY START-UP COMPETITION

The most promising startups pitch their solutions on helping the plastic circular economy value chain to achieve sustainability targets.
AIONs business model and our technical industry experts enables the orchestration of closed loop solutions for industrial plastics, and with our digital platform AION Loop at the core - collecting data in all parts of the circular value chain for plastics, and thereby providing industry players and plastic users with traceability and documented environmental effects.
Clewat circular economy solution brings the challenging plastics from the seas to recirculation. Ocean plastic is one of the most sought after recycled plastic components in top brand retail products and the cleat solution allows for a new magnitude of reasonable cost access to that recycled material flow.
Plastic Back supplies the petrochemical industry with plastic-derived-feedstock which can be used to create new products, and thus - contributing to a more circular economy.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GO CIRCULAR 2023 IN A PRINT-FRIENDLY PDF

DOWNLOAD EVENT REPORT.PDF

REGULAR PARTICIPANTS


WHY INDUSTRY PROFS ATTEND THIS EVENT