SOLSTICE’s Post

This week, PESCO-UP project partners Lutz Walter from Textile ETP, Marjo Määttänen from VTT, Anneli Auranen from Nordic Bioproducts Group Ltd, and Isabel De Schrijver from Centexbel attended the 4th International Conference on Circular Economy in Textiles and Plastics, organized by Centexbel in Ostend. The project was showcased through a poster, sparking engaging discussions with experts in the sorting, separation, and recycling of end-of-life textiles, composites, and nonwovens. These exchanges provided valuable insights to support the technical advancements of PESCO-UP.

At this week’s Reloop event in Paris, our Catherine Athènes, VP of Sustainability, joined a panel discussion to explore the challenges and opportunities of drastically increasing the recycling rate of packaging through the Extended Producer Responsibility system currently in place. While aluminium recycling capacity in France has expanded significantly, including 130,000 metric tons at Constellium’s recently opened recycling center in Neuf-Brisach, only 50% of cans in France are recycled, far behind the leading countries in Europe (95-99%). To overcome challenges in the collection and quality of used beverage cans, and meet the EU target of 90% recycling by 2029, a robust deposit system remains the most obvious solution while more can be done to advance consumer awareness and sorting systems within the current framework. Thank you to Reloop and all the panelists for a productive discussion! #sustainability #CircularEconomy #recycling #aluminium #aluminum

🌟 Review of E-Waste World 2024 in Frankfurt 🌟 We're pleased and inspired to look back on the E-Waste World Conference & Expo 2024, held two weeks ago at Messe Frankfurt. The increasing popularity of the event reflects the growing importance of e-waste (WEEE), the world's fastest growing waste stream. During the show, we had the opportunity to exchange ideas with market players, as engaged dialogue remains essential to drive recycling forward. We also showcased our solutions for highly complex sorting tasks, such as the effective removal of brominated plastics using sensor-assisted sorting. This enables us to re-use recyclable plastics. A key highlight was the panel talk "Tackling WEEE Plastics: Design to Recycling Phases", in which Dr. Stefan H. made an appeal to producers and distributors: The aspect of "design for recycling" must be given greater consideration. In this way, we can improve the recyclability of products in particular and return secondary raw materials to the material cycle more efficiently. Many thanks to everyone who visited us and took part in the discussion. Together we are driving innovation in the field of e-waste recycling! 🌍🔄 #STEINERT #EWasteWorld #WEEE #Recycling #CircularEconomy #Innovation

Being sustainable means not only looking at legislation impacting your product's packaging, but also being aware of the impact the production of that packaging has on the environment. If you are currently in glass packaging, but want to rid yourself of the breakage risks, shipping costs and energy consumption of glass, consider shatterproof polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin. Pretium offers several sustainable solutions as recyclable PET resin, rPET (recycled PET) in 30%, 50% and 100% , as well as Prevented Ocean PlasticTM PCR. Life Cycle Analysis can be provided, specially made on your business case to support sustainability claims. See our clear difference at Fachpack, 24 – 26 September in Nuremberg, Germany in Booth 4-117.

🌱♻️ REBIOLUTION_project Takes the Stage at the Plastics & Paper Conference At the Plastics & Paper in Contact with Foodstuffs conference in Vienna, Gaelle C., representing Normec OWS, shared key insights on the benefits of compostable materials in food contact applications. 💡 These materials play a crucial role in diverting food waste from landfills, enhancing organic recycling, and minimizing contamination in composting facilities — especially for challenging items like multi-layer or heavily soiled packaging. 🌍 During her presentation, she introduced the REBIOLUTION_project, showcasing its innovative contributions to integrating compostables into a sustainable circular economy. The project demonstrates how these solutions can bridge the gap between environmental responsibility and industrial practicality. 🌟

Sappi people are powering our sustainability journey forward. 🌱 ♻️ Read what Alfeld Mill’s Pulp and Utilities Manager, Toni Handke has to say about it. ⬇️ You might say I was born into paper making. I grew up in a mill town in Germany that produces one million tonnes of paper a year, which led to my fascination with paper science and an eventual PhD in process engineering. After 20 years in the business, it’s hugely satisfying to see how the reputation of paper has positively evolved. When I got started, paper was not so valued as the bio-based material it is today. Now, as the world confronts climate change and pollution from plastic waste, society is awakening to the power of trees to provide solutions to these major challenges. Here at Alfeld, my team and I play our part to make our pulping process more efficient and sustainable. I'm also a member of Sappi Europe's Sustainability Council, where I use my manufacturing expertise to enhance our sustainability roadmap. The question that’s always on my mind: how can we unlock more and better value from every resource we use at Alfeld. See how we are making our mills eco-effective: https://lnkd.in/eZcnHMSs #sustainability #sustainablesolutions

Last week, we hosted our penultimate Circular & Biobased Textiles Innovation Hub learning webinar of the year, this time focusing on ecodesign for recycling ♻️ We first heard from Paolo Armando Ghezzo from Centrocot S.p.A. who explored the concept of eco-design, emphasising its systematic and lifecycle-oriented approach to sustainability, and from Lucile Rébillard who explained how Refashion offers tools like eco-modulation to incentivise eco-design, durability, and the use of recycled materials. Finally, Jan Anders Karlsson described how FreyZein - NextGen Textiles is addressing the environmental harm caused by petrochemical fabrics using cellulose. Thank you to #RISERISE Research Institutes of Sweden's Lisa Schwarz Bour for introducing the session and for moderated the debate, and to our own Kamilla Drubina for organising it. Interested in joining the following webinars and other Circular & Biobased Textiles Innovation Hub activities? Subscribe now!⬇ https://lnkd.in/ec245pUP

🌎Today is Earth day, bringing businesses and individuals together on a collective #mission to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement world wide. This year’s theme is vital to our planet’s future health, #plastic. That’s why at QSRP we’ve been working for years to reduce our plastic. 🌳We concentrated our efforts into eliminating single use plastic items in our restaurants, replacing most of our products with non-plastic substitutes, and today single-use plastic items make up only 2.2% of our total packaging Group-wide. 🌱We shifted from plastic straws to paper based alternatives, which, together with paper lids, are only provided upon request and for take-away and drive-thru orders. 🌿Since 2018, NORDSEE GmbH has been part of the Mak-Pak research Project, partnering with Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences and the Alfred-Wegner-Institut Bremerhaven. Backed by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the project is pioneering an #innovative, #biodegradable packaging material derived from #macroalgae. The next step will be to produce the packaging with an industrial machine and test it in one of NORDSEE’s stores. 👏 To learn more about #Planet Vs Plastics and join the movement for a #plasticfree future visit 👉 https://lnkd.in/g7TSpkQj Burger Brands Belgium Burger King Restaurants Italia O’Tacos Corporation O'Tacos International O'Tacos BeNeLux NORDSEE GmbH #EarthDay #EveryNumberMatters #QSRP #QSRPride #PlanetVsPlastics #sustainability

Sustainable and healthy: stainless steel drinking bottles for all employees 💧 The health of our employees is our top priority. For this reason, we have selected a high-quality raw material for our #drinkingbottles that is even better than previous plastic materials. The #BUTTING material “stainless steel” was considered to be the best material for our requirements. ⭐ Our supplier, the young company “Blockhütte” from Paderborn, has set itself the goal of reducing plastic and plastic waste. The founders of “Blockhütte” emphasize that by using #sustainable #stainless #steel products, the average plastic consumption of 40 kg per person per year can be reduced by up to 6 kg. This fits seamlessly into BUTTING's sustainability vision. 🌿  “BUTTING's goal is to create a more sustainable future for generations to come and thus pass on a healthy company to the next generation,” says CEO of the BUTTING Group, Dirk Meinecke. #future #purposive #generation #sustainablity

ICYMI New APR Approved Recyclable Shrink Sleeves: Siegwerk & Partners Innovate Zack Meister from Siegwerk reveals how Multi-Plastics and Tripack helped create a fully recyclable shrink sleeve for water bottles. Learn more! Watch the video >> https://hubs.li/Q02Q7sMv0 Sponsored by Multi-Plastics, Inc.