Webinar ‘The circular paradox’
The increasing focus on sustainability is all around us. How do you get beyond greenwashing? The next leap is to move beyond the usage of sustainable materials in products and packaging design, which will increase costs. Solving this paradox opposes challenges to continue decreasing the environmental footprint in the coming years. The challenge resides in the additional costs of using higher-value materials. How to create real, new values? Is there a need to change the classical business model to accommodate these costs and solve this paradox? Changing the existing value chain related to refurbishment, reuse, recycling and upcycling becomes an obligatory play in the field.
To reach this leap you’ll need to: intensify front-end learning, incorporate new services and business models, new ecosystems and new partnerships, and consequently look different to the product ownership. This equation becomes more and more strategic, moving beyond circular products and packaging. The ‘Circular paradox’ webinar dives into how to address the users’ ‘sustainability’ unmet hidden needs and accelerate new value chains.
During this webinar we’ll discuss how product and packaging circular design are at the heart of the circular economy, but will need to be leveraged to a next level through new materials, leveraging upon ecosystems and services.
Thursday 23 September 2021
From 9h30 till 10h45
9h30: Strategies on circularity – Packaging sustainability & beyond (Henkel)
9h55: From waste plastics to (precious) chemicals (UAntwerp)
10h20: Transformation towards circular ecosystems (Verhaert)
Calendar 23 September 2021
9h30: Strategies on circularity – Packaging sustainability & beyond (Henkel)
Sustainability is firmly anchored in Henkel’s activities. During this session we’ll leverage our understanding of key sustainability trends as a central pillar of our innovation strategies. This way we advance product portfolios with a particular focus on sustainable packaging solutions and the further roll-out of brands with purpose.
Olena Onyshchenko
Sustainability Data Manager
Maresa Zimmermann
Senior Manager Packaging Sustainability
9h55: From waste plastics to (precious) chemicals (UAntwerp)
This talk highlights the technological prospects of (thermo)chemical recycling of predominantly polyolefins (PE and PP) which are widely used in packaging. Smart molecule management, not restricted to a single value chain, requires collaborative innovation, yet transforms our way of managing materials. Next to a technology overview, a glimpse is provided on predicting “recyclability” quantitatively and more universally, as a guide to designers and consumers.
Pieter Billen
Chemical Engineering Professor
10h20: Transformation towards circular ecosystems (Verhaert)
In the circular economy many new technologies, processes, products, services and new business models have been developed. Despite the fact they often have proven to fail or simply weren’t yet good enough, many have shown promising perspectives. But the pace of progress and wide spread user uptake lacks, that’s a dispiriting context for all involved. Especially in the light of events that took place in the course of this summer across the world, the climate change impact cannot be denied anymore. We need to speed up. So what does it take? Circular economy is by far as systemic economy, an economy demanding circular value chains. Transforming these chains demands interventions surpassing new technology development aiming to create new ecosystems for an entire value chain.
Filiep Dewitte
Consultant InnoLab
