Reusable instead of disposable: Messe Düsseldorf and Borealis launch sustainable cup system at K 2025
06.06.2025
Messe Düsseldorf is using a comprehensive reusable cup system for the first time at K 2025. Together with Borealis, a newly developed polypropylene foam based on OMV's ReOil® technology will be used. The aim is to reduce disposable waste and promote circular value creation.
FAQ: International Strategies for a Circular Economy
17.04.2025
How are countries around the globe advancing the circular economy in the plastics and rubber industry? Our FAQ addresses the most important questions.
Closed loop recycling for more sustainability in the textile industry
23.10.2024
Everyone is talking about recycling, and yet there are sectors where it is only used to a very limited extent - for example in the textile and clothing industry. Fristdas has managed to create a closed loop recycling system for its clothing. In this interview, Lena Bay Højland explains how this affects the product range and what Fristads' vision is for further development.
Digital Twin for Resource Management
14.08.2024
The circular economy presents an increasingly complex challenge for companies. Sustainability is no longer just a compliance issue but a crucial success factor. In this context, Interzero offers a solution: the Materialkonto (‘material account’). This provides companies with a digital twin of their resource and circular management.
Covestro and Alibaba Cloud for Supply Chain Transparency
02.08.2024
Driven by increasing consumer expectations and regulatory requirements, the need to measure the use of sustainable materials and their associated carbon footprints has become essential. Covestro and Alibaba Cloud have teamed up to develop solutions that enhance supply chain transparency, focusing on sustainable plastics and carbon accounting through advanced digital technologies.
Digital Recycling Tool: CYCLOPS
03.07.2024
An innovative tool called CYCLOPS – Circularity Optimisation for Plastics has set itself the task of closing the gap between the need for information and the supply of recycled materials. By providing comprehensive data and assessments, it helps companies to make more sustainable decisions and organise their production processes in a more environmentally friendly way.
Digital reusable cup from Vytal and PepsiCo
19.06.2024
Vytal and PepsiCo are taking reusable tableware to a new level in their cooperation. With individual IDs for each cup, which can be read using a QR code or RFID tag, efficiency at large events is increased enormously. The technology not only optimises the return of the cups, but also the entire recycling process, thus making an important contribution to the Circular Economy.
"Industrial communication will change”
20.05.2024
Industry interview on OPC UA with Dana Ford, Auxiliary Controls Engineer for Material Handling/Auxiliary at Wittmann Inc.
OPC UA significantly simplifies processes
30.04.2024
Industry interview with Georg Kiesl, General Manager at Billion SAS on the spread of the OPC UA standard in the USA.
PLASTICS and VDMA must work together on OPC UA
22.03.2024
Industry interview on OPC UA with Glenn Anderson, Chief Operating Officer at the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) and Thorsten Kühmann, Managing Director of the VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association
Digital marketplace as a driver for the Circular Economy
10.01.2024
The forthcoming EU packaging regulation is casting its shadow: minimum quotas for recyclates are putting the plastics industry under pressure. Cirplus presents a digital platform that not only makes the recyclate market transparent, but also enables real-time coordination between the players.
Automated Lab: Robots optimise adhesive development
10.05.2023
Robots already take over a large number of monotonous, repetitive tasks today – freeing up time and resources for creative and more exciting tasks. Henkel is also automating work steps in its new Inspiration Center Düsseldorf (ICD). In a data-driven laboratory, new adhesive formulations are automatically prepared and tested around the clock.
Circular Collaboration Platform: for more recyclates in food packaging
21.04.2023
The share of recycled material in plastic products is growing. The exception: food packaging. The requirements for the quality of the material for food contact are high, but in the case of recyclates there is still often a lack of corresponding information today. The project COPPA wants to create transparency in this area – with an open digital platform.
Lessons from natural photosynthesis: conversion of CO2 to raw materials for plastic
21.10.2022
A research team at Osaka Metropolitan University has succeeded in producing fumarate from pyruvate and CO2 through artificial photosynthesis. Fumarate can be used to produce biodegradable plastic such as polybutylene succinate. In this process, the carbon is stored in a compact, durable and solid form.
BASF and NEVEON cooperate on mattress recycling
24.03.2022
The first trials on chemical recycling of mattresses by BASF and NEVEON were successful. BASF is developing a wet chemical recycling process for used mattresses made of flexible polyurethane. Mattress take-back pilot is an important step towards circular economy.
ERDE Recycling: recovery and recycling systems for agricultural plastics
18.03.2022
ERDE is a recovery and recycling system focused on the return of silage sheets and covers and agricultural stretch films in Europe. The company has big goals, such as a recycling rate of 65 percent in 2022, but also faces challenges, such as the cross-border transport of agricultural plastics.
Using circular economy principles to recycle toys
28.12.2021
Many of us are familiar with this scene in our children’s bedrooms: when the kids have outgrown their toys, the latter typically get boxed up until we finally take heart and purge them. But it doesn’t have to be that way: the initiative of the HolyPoly company takes recycling steps to create new toys – that look slightly different.
The many ways that 'going digital' is changing manufacturing
23.08.2021
There are many aspects and forms of digitalization in manufacturing, ranging from Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence and additive manufacturing, to augmented and virtual reality, 5G connectivity, mobile apps, blockchain technology, and more.
Sustainable packaging: towards a circular economy in the Asian market
09.06.2021
PRISM – a data platform for the circular economy
06.04.2021
In mid-December, U.S. IT company IBM announced it had joined the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. Together, they are designing the PRISM platform – a unified ecosystem of NGOs, the plastic value chain participants, communities, regulators, and any organization looking to deploy and improve waste management decisions and programs.