On 16 May 2019, more than 100 policy makers, innovators and circular economy experts gathered at Scotland House in Brussels for the PlastiCircle and ICLEI Europe conference ‘Circular Cities – Innovating to tackle plastic waste’.
Held during EU Green Week, the conference was a hub of activity for industry, NGOs, academia and Horizon 2020 projects – all looking to debate from policy, city and industry perspectives on the challenge of plastic waste and the need for real innovation in a circular economy.
“Linear is out, circular is in!”
The conference was opened by Werner Bosmans of the European Commission’s DG Environment, with a keynote presentation on a European strategy for plastics in the circular economy. Joined on the panel by Daiva Kvedaraitė (European Economic and Social Committee) and André van de Nadort (European Committee of the Regions), Mr Bosmans’ intervention was a timely reminder of the urgent challenges facing cities across Europe, and the critical importance of new legislation introduced by the EU institutions.
The European strategy for plastics in a circular economy revolves around four key axes: curbing plastic waste and littering; improving the economics and quality of plastics recycling; driving investments and innovation towards circular solutions; and harnessing global action. And conference-goers were especially eager to press Mr Bosmans on the specifics of what the European Commission foresees from 2019 onwards.
How can cities solve the plastic challenge?
With the conference co-organised by the European Secretariat of global city network ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the city dimension was a crucial component of the event – which also attracted representatives from regions and municipalities around Europe.
The second panel of the day, moderated by Zero Waste Scotland’s Iain Gulland, brought about robust discussions on the best strategies for city leaders to engage with citizens and address growing concerns over municipal waste management (including plastic packaging). Cristina Monge (AVEP), Jonas Mortensen (the city of Copenhagen), Eric Velthuizen (the city of Utrecht) and Ana Moya of PlastiCircle all offered key insights from their cities.
The PlastiCircle perspective was crucial, given project experiences in not one but three European cities: Valencia (Spain), Utrecht (the Netherlands) and Alba Iulia (Romania).
Can plastics innovations make cities more circular?
The final panel of the day gathered key industry representatives, plus the co-ordinators of the PlastiCircle and CIRC-PACK projects. The CEO of Veolia Netherlands, Hildagarde McCarville, was joined on the panel by fellow industry innovator Howard Waghorn of HAHN Plastics Ltd. – both offered key insights into how innovations in urban waste management can "close the loop" and make the circular economy visible to the citizens of Europe’s urban areas.
But the conference also offered some welcome additional spaces for collaboration and exchange, not least the lunchtime ‘Innovation Space’, featuring industry clusters such as Plastipolis, companies such as Veolia, and Horizon 2020 projects such as BioVoices, FORCE, CIRC-PACK and PlastiCircle.
In–depth discussions – New plastics, digitalisation, measuring the circular economy and more
The parallel workshops were also a key highlight of the day. With CIRC-PACK hosting a well-attended workshop on new plastic materials and ecodesign, ICLEI Europe hosted a workshop on local approaches to measuring the circular economy.
There was also a highly interactive set of focus groups during the workshop ‘Digitalisation for a circular economy’. These discussions were led by Ander Pijoan of the Waste4Think project, Annika Hedberg of the European Policy Centre, Henning Wilts of the Wuppertal Institute and Alberto Bellini of the University of Bologna and co-ordinator of the eCircular project.
“Cities are consumers – and can lead by example”
The 100 or so participants at ‘Circular cities – Innovating to tackle plastic waste’ heard discussions on plastic waste from a wide range of perspectives; city-focused, industry-focused and from an innovation-centred perspective. But throughout the discussions on plastic waste, a number of key themes arose again and again.
Closing the conference, ICLEI Europe deputy regional director Ruud Schuthof noted that awareness raising is key – with the issue of plastic waste there is an opportunity for communicators and all stakeholders because “plastic waste is very tangible”. But the public in all of Europe’s municipalities need be better informed on plastic solutions, with “clear descriptions on what we mean in terms of waste, re-use and recycling”. In reality, noted Mr Schuthof, “cities are consumers, and can lead by example!”
The 16 May conference also released the official PlastiCircle promo video, which runs through the essence of the PlastiCircle innovation by innovation! The video is on YouTube.