K 2022: The programme of the Special Show „Plastics shape the future“

The special show Plastics shape the future at K 2022, The No.1 Trade Fair for Plastics & Rubber, from 19 to 26 October 2022, shows how crucial plastics are for a sustainable future. It shows which fascinating developments are already taking place today and that visions for tomorrow are just on their way to implementation. Seven focus days take place – with discussions on innovative technologies, keynote speeches, entertaining demonstrations of flagship projects and exciting experimental shows. The special show equally addresses economic, ecological and socio-political aspects while also presenting solutions for problematic issues the plastics industry has to deal with.

The special show is a project of the German plastics industry led by PlasticsEurope Deutschland e. V. and Messe Düsseldorf. Plastics shape the future promises insights and outlooks for exhibitors and trade visitors at K 2022 as well as for the media and the interested public.

The programme will be held in English.

Day 1 – Wednesday, 19 October

The great transition! An industry becoming climate neutral!

10:30 – 11:00

Welcome and outlook: Virginia Janssens, Managing Director, Plastics Europe

Introduction: Ingemar Bühler, Managing Director, Plastics Europe Deutschland and Representative of the exhibitors’ advisory board

Official opening by the K-Fair organisers, statements by

• Ulrich Reifenhäuser, Chairman, K Fair Exhibitors Committee, CEO Reifenhäuser Group
• Erhard Wienkamp, Managing Director Operative Trade Fair Business, Messe Düsseldorf
• Ralf Düssel, Chair Plastics Europe Deutschland and Senior Vice President / General Manager High Performance Polymers, Evonik

11:00 – 12:00

• Keynote speech “State of the World” by Ilham Kadri, CEO, Solvay
• Moderated fire-side chat: The great transition! An industry becoming climate neutral!
• Martin Stuchtey, Founder and Managing Partner, SYSTEMIQ Ltd.
• Lucrèce Foufopoulos-De Ridder, Vice President, Plastics Europe and Executive Vice, President Polyolefins, Circular Economy and Innovations & Technology, Borealis AG
• Introduction, moderation and wrap-up: Virginia Janssens, Managing Director, Plastics Europe

13:30 – 14:00

Plastics experiments show

14:00 – 15:00

Panel session: Implementing the change – challenges and opportunities faced by the plastics industry

With members of Reshaping Plastics Report Steering Committee or Expert Panel:

• Martin Jung, Member of the Steering Board, Plastics Europe and President Performance Materials, BASF
• Kim Ragaert, Professor – Chair of Circular Plastics, University of Maastricht
• Joan Marc Simon, Executive Director, Zero Waste Europe
• Werner Bosmans, Policy Officer, DG ENVI, European Commission
• Introduction and closing: Virginia Janssens, Managing Director, Plastics Europe

Moderation by Carina Bastuck

16:00 – 16:30

Plastics experiments show

Day 2 – Thursday, 20 October

Resilience of the industry – which technologies will make the circular economy work?

10:30 – 12:00

Fireside chat (10:30-11:00): “What’s next on the industry’s circularity paths”

• André Bardow, Professor for Energy and Process Systems Engineering, ETH Zürich
• Katharina Schlegel, Director Strategic Council, End-of-Life and Circularity, Plastics Europe

Panel discussion: “How politics support the industry on its journey to become circular”

• William Neale, Adviser for Circular Economy, DG ENVI, European Commission (invited)
• Henning Wilts, Director Circular Economy, Wuppertal Institute
• Benoît Hennaut, President EuPC, Chairman and Managing Director Herige Group
• Ton Emans, President Plastics Recyclers Europe, Director Group Recycling, CeDO
• Sebastien Bariller, Vice President Polymers / “Low Carbon Solutions”, TotalEnergies
• Introduction, moderation and wrap-up by Carina Bastuck

13:30 – 14:00

Plastics experiments show

14:00 – 15:00

Panel discussion “Let’s go circular - strategic approaches to transforming the industry”

• Mark Williams, Member of the Steering Board Plastics Europe and Vice President Europe, SABIC
• Support the transformation of the industry by closing the circle a la Neste, Lars Boerger, Vice President Renewable Polymers & Chemicals, Neste
• Let´s go circular - strategic approaches to transforming the industry, Manfred Hackl, CEO, EREMA Group GmbH
• Versalis´complementary solutions towards plastics circularity, Franco Meropiali, Member of the Plastics Europe Steering Board and Head of Polyethylene and Intermediates Business, Versalis
• Designing the circular economy of whole plastics, Toshio Shiwaku, President & CEO, Polyplastics Co., Ltd.
• Moderation by Carina Bastuck

16:00 – 16:30

Plastics experiments show

 
Day 3 – Friday, 21 October

Circular Plastics and Net zero by 2050. “Blah, blah, blah?”

10:30 – 12:30 – Two-part panel discussion

Part 1: Circularity - opportunity or threat? (45 min)

• Video address by Kerstin Jorna, Director General, DG GROW, European Commission
• Emma Silver, Global Public Affairs Director, Minderoo Foundation's No Plastic Waste Initiative
• Willemijn Peeters, Founding Director, Searious Business
• Benny Mermans, Vice President Plastics Europe and Vice President Sustainability, Chevron Phillips Chemicals
• Nicholas Kolesch, Vice President, Projects, Alliance To End Plastic Waste
• 10 min break
• Part 2: Does the plastics industry have a future in Europe? (45 min)
• Sabine Pahl, Prof of Urban and Environmental Psychology, Vienna
• Lynette Chung, Chief Sustainability Officer, Covestro
• Ralf Düssel, chair Plastics Europe Deutschland and Senior Vice President / General Manager High Performance Polymers, Evonik
• NN, Deloitte
• Introduction and closing: Sylvie Aitken, Director Communications, Plastics Europe
• Moderation by Carina Bastuck

13:30 – 14:00

Plastics experiments show

16:30 – 17:00

Plastics experiments show

Day 4 – Saturday, 22 October

Digitalisation – Strengthening digital tools to accelerate a Circular Economy

10:30 – 11:30

Digitalisation - a game changer for a circular plastics industry?

Introductory remarks by:

• Christian Hopmann, Professor - Head of the institute at IKV Institute for Plastics Processing, RWTH Aachen University of Technology

Best Practices from industry:

• Combining the power of digitization and standardization to secure global supply chains for recyclates, Christian Schiller, Co-Founder & CEO cirplus
• HolyGrail - Digital markers for better sorting recycling, Gian de Belder, principal scientist and packaging technologist, Procter & Gamble
• Digitalization with OPC UA - World Production Language, Harald Johannes Weber, Consultant Technology and Innovation, VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery
• Introduction, moderation and wrap-up by Carina Bastuck

13:30 – 14:00

Plastics experiments show

16:00 – 16:30

Plastics experiments show

Day 5 – Sunday, 23 October

Plastics for Climate Protection

10:30 – 11:30

Plastics for a sustainable world – how the material helps other sectors to become climate neutral

Best Practices from industry:

• Driver for the energy transition: Markus Mingenbach, Global Vice President, PU Specialties, Covestro
• Sustainable building and construction: Andreas Hartleif, CEO, VEKA AG
• Clean mobility: Frederique van Baarle, Managing Director, LANXESS Performance Materials
• Industrial Hemp as a raw material for bio-based plastics made from renewable resources: Martin Wittau, Managing Director, Linnaeus Kompetenzzentrum Hanf GmbH
• Introduction, moderation and wrap-up by Carina Bastuck

13:30 – 14:00

Plastics experiments show

16:00 – 16:30

Plastics experiments show

Day 6 – Monday, 24 October

Raw Materials and Cycles – What will the future be made of?

10:30 – 12:00

Fossil based feedstock – no, thanks?

Best Practices from industry

• The role of biobased plastics in reaching a carbon neutral circular economy, Walmir Soller, CEO, Braskem
• Closing the recycling gap – how key technologies like chemical and mechanical recycling need to work together, Bernhard von Vacano, Head of ChemCycling, BASF
• Carbon2Chem – CO2 emissions for plastics intermediates, Stefanie Eiden, Covestro
• Specialties to Enable Sustainable Plastics Applications, Patrick Glöckner, Head of Global Circular Plastics Program, EVONIK
• R-cycle – a European digital product pass, Benedikt Brenken, Director, R-Cycle Initiative, Reifenhäuser Group
• Introduction and moderation by Carina Bastuck

13:00 – 14:00

WAK Award Ceremony (DE)

Ceremony of the prizes awarded by the “Wissenschaftlicher Arbeitskreis Kunststofftechnik” / Scientific Alliance of Plastics Technology (WAK)

15:00 – 16:00

EU value chain platforms - enablers for circular progress

Introductory remarks by:

• Marco ten Bruggencate, President Plastics Europe and Commercial VP EMEA, DOW

Best practices:

• homas Hülsmann, Managing Director, VinylPlus Deutschland
• Christian Crépet, Executive Director, Petcore Europe
• Jens Kathmann, Secretary General, Styrenics Circular Solutions
• Paolo Bochicchio, Secretary General, PCEP
• Introduction, moderation and wrap-up by Carina Bastuck

16:30 – 17:00

Plastics experiments show

Day 7 – Tuesday, 25 October:

Reality check: global crises – curse or blessing for an industry in transition

10:30 – 12:30

Keynote on Crises & Opportunities

• Marco ten Bruggencate, President Plastics Europe and Commercial VP EMEA, DOW
• Fire-side chat: The power of blue-sky thinking for a future with plastics
• Virginia Janssens, Managing Director, Plastics Europe
• David Katz, Founder and CEO, The Plastic Bank
• Marco ten Bruggencate, President Plastics Europe and Commercial VP EMEA, DOW

Wrap up - looking back on K

Closing words by:

• Virginia Janssens, Managing Director, Plastics Europe
• Ingemar Bühler, Managing Director, Plastics Europe Deutschland
• Introduction and moderation by Carina Bastuck

13:30 – 14:00

Plastics experiments show

16:30 – 17:00

Plastics experiments show

The programme is also available online at:

www.k-online.com/en/Visitors/Specials_K_2022/Plastics_shape_the_future

Information for participants and visitors:

During the event, the organisers will take photos and videos of guests and participants for public relations purposes. These records may be published on the organisers' websites, in social networks, or print publications for the aforementioned purpose.

K 2022 is open daily from Wednesday, 19 October, to Wednesday, 26 October, from 10.00 am to 6.30 pm. Tickets are available exclusively online. The day ticket costs 55 euros, the three-day ticket 120 euros. Pupils and students pay 15 euros for the day ticket.

K Basics:

K was first organised by Messe Düsseldorf in 1952 and is held every three years. The last K in 2019 recorded 3,330 exhibitors from 63 countries on 177,000 m² net exhibition space, and 224,116 trade visitors, 73% of whom came from abroad. For further information visit www.k-online.de.

To the K online magazine: https://mag.k-online.com/