| On 7 November 2019, RREUSE held its 3rd International Conference in Berriozar, focusing on the role of social and solidarity enterprises in the circular economy.

| It’s been one year since the first international rebellion was staged by Extinction Rebellion. This movement gained momentum until the May international rebellion drove Members of Parliament to declare a climate emergency in the UK.

| At Ecomondo Tomra launches Gain, a deep learning-based sorting technology, for advanced accuracy of complex sorting tasks at high throughput rates

| The Alliance for beverage cartons and the environment (ACE) has announced that the recycling rate for beverage cartons in the EU28 rose to 49% in 2018.

| RecyClass carried out tests on the compatibility of the ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) barrier in polyethlene (PE) film with the recycling process.

| The second International E-Waste Day held on the 14th October to promote the proper management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been hailed a huge success by its organisers, the WEEE Forum.

| As the effects on the world become too great to deny, we’re seeing more and more focus turning towards the level of waste produced globally. A widespread understanding that this isn’t sustainable has lead to various sectors looking for ways to address their own waste issues.

| San Francisco-based Recology has added four Max-AI units and one VIS to the Recycle Central, a 200,000-square-foot materials recovery facility (MRF) the company operates on San Francisco’s Pier 96.

| Ineos Styrolution has announced an agreement with Sirap to develop packaging solutions based on chemically recycled polystyrene.

| World crude steel production for the 64 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (Worldsteel) was 151.5 million tonnes (Mt) in September 2019, a 0.3% decrease compared to September 2018.

| BASF and Greentown Labs have selected five startups for their Circularity Challenge, a six-month accelerator program designed to advance innovative solutions to enable a circular economy.

| Stadler has opened its new global headquarters in Germany last Friday (18 October) at a key-handover ceremony.

| During a meeting held in Düsseldorf at the K trade show, the three Presidents of the European plastics industry associations, Renato Zelcher (European Plastics Converters), Javier Constante (PlasticsEurope) and Ton Emans (Plastic Recyclers Europe), agreed to oppose the Italian Government’s tax proposal of 1000 € per ton of plastic packaging.

| Borealis announces that it will become a Core Partner of the New Plastics Economy, an important global initiative led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. The New Plastics Economy unites a broad range of key stakeholders to bring about a circular economy for plastics, in which plastic never becomes waste or pollution.

| The plastics or polymers industry was for many years a hidden industry. For most of its history, nobody has known much about the plastics business because it is sandwiched between oil and gas and a huge variety of finished goods. The meat cannot be seen because of the high visibility of the bread around the sandwich. A guest contribution by John Richardson, Senior Consultant Asia, ICIS.