On February 12 & 13 2020, the PlastiCity partners will come together in Portsmouth (UK) to discuss in depth the plans for the work packages “Developing logistics & processing scenarios” and “Developing business cases for the new value chains from plastic waste”.

Prof. Patrick Beullens (University of Southampton) will give a keynote lecture on waste logistics.

Work package 2 "Developing logistics & processing scenarios” delivers evidence towards actors on how to optimise the trade-off between quantity-quality of waste, which is crucial in the circular economy. Sufficient waste mass is needed to achieve a competitive business case, but lumping all waste together is a risk, possibly resulting in serious contaminations. Source separation is then needed to keep flows at high quality, e.g. wrap foils around food deliveries or clothing, or trays containing automotive parts. The answer on this trade-off needs to be a smart interplay between design of logistics and the feedback from industrial separation and recycling possibilities.

Technical solutions are usually not sufficient for a successful circular economy. Work package 3 "Developing business cases for the new value chains from plastic waste” therefore aims at the implementation of the technical solutions in the 4 case study cities (Den Haag, Ghent, Douai and Southend on Sea) by inducing behavior change by sensitisation, by systematically bringing actors together for capacity building and co-creation, and by creating sustainable business models and business cases/plans.