The conference is all about turning waste plastic via pyrolysis /chemical recycling into new plastics competing with plastics made from virgin fossil oil. This requires that current recycling value chains change to a new sustainable ecosystem. The creation of innovative new ecosystems will be a challenge with so many new and existing stakeholders.
The new ecosystems contain the following steps in the materials cycle:
- End of life Plastic Waste Stream Collection
- Cleaning, Sorting and Separation
- Recycling
- Chemical recycling
- Thermal and Thermochemical recycling / Pyrolysis
- Processing of recycled materials (plastics and chemicals)
- Production of recycled plastic materials
- Reuse of the newly created plastics in applications
- …and back to end of life plastic waste stream collection
Besides the development of a new ecosystem, additional topics are related and relevant for the success of this new ecosystem:
- Can chemical recycling become economically viable?
- Can chemical recycling be cost-competitive with virgin plastic?
- What is the demand for the chemical recycling outputs of the different recycling processes?
- What are the real environmental and health impacts of the different recycling processes when operating at scale?
- How do the Life Cycle Assessments of the different recycle technologies compare
- What key parameters determine the choice for chemical versus mechanical recycling
- Can this type of recycling become complementary to the other waste management processes. What needs to happen to make this possible?
During the conference the (inter)national speakers will present the current status and (nearby) future of the above mentioned steps/issues. Besides the conference, partners will demo their solutions at the demo location.
Image: Extarz/Shutterstock
