Michael Brunn

The combined event brings together stakeholders from the waste management, recycling, secondary raw materials and circular electronics sectors. With a single registration, visitors gain access to all four exhibitions and their associated conference programmes. Attendance for both the exhibition and conference is free of charge.

With the PAC2PAC project, the Swiss Bachmann Group, an established packaging manufacturer, initiated a feasibility study to develop a technically viable recycling loop for PET packaging in Switzerland. Project partners included Sesotec, Starlinger Viscotec, Krones and PET-MAN. The aim was to evaluate a system capable of processing mixed plastic packaging streams from household collection and returning food-grade PET into equivalent packaging applications.

The publication analyses mechanical, dissolution and chemical recycling technologies across major plastic waste streams such as packaging, waste electrical and electronic equipment, end-of-life vehicles, and construction products. It follows plastic waste from collection and sorting through to recycling, offering a comprehensive view of process interdependencies. Recycling technologies are categorised using a traffic-light system that reflects their level of industrial maturity, ranging from early development to established large-scale application.

The project aims to support material development by enabling data-based predictions of relevant properties and by improving efficiency in research and development processes.

The initiative contributes to ongoing efforts to strengthen a circular economy for polystyrene by supporting established collection and processing structures. It focuses on increasing recovery volumes of post-consumer polystyrene and on ensuring that collected material can be directed into stable recycling pathways with defined end markets.

A "Made in Europe" approach is seen as a means to reinforce industrial capacity, secure strategic material supplies and contribute to the EU objective of achieving a 24 per cent Circular Material Use Rate, as outlined in the Clean Industrial Deal.

According to the study, the European Union's measures to date to diversify raw material imports have not yet had any measurable effects. Bottlenecks in availability slow down industrial development within the EU, while the recycling of strategic materials plays only a minor role. Against this background, the auditors consider it unrealistic that numerous funded projects can be implemented within the planned time frame.

The forthcoming calculation methods under the Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) are therefore of central importance. The way recycled plastic is defined for regulatory purposes will influence whether recycled content targets are met through European recycling operations or through material sourced from outside the Union.

Methane is a short-lived climate pollutant with a high warming potential that affects both near-term and long-term climate dynamics. The study indicates that decisions taken today in waste management have measurable climate effects extending well beyond mid-century.

A research project funded by Innosuisse at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts is investigating the conditions under which workwear can nevertheless be integrated into textile cycles and where existing limits lie.