The Future of Plastics is Cradle to Cradle

7th International Cradle to Cradle Congress Series 2

Berlin, September 7, 2021

Ladies and Gentlemen

Alternatives for conventional plastics are in hot demand in many industries. Environmental destruction and health problems caused by harmful substances in plastics and microplastics have already led to a ban on single-use plastic products, while at the same time resources for conventional plastics are becoming increasingly scarce - so substitutes are in demand. Or entirely new and innovative products. On September 7, 2021, the second stage of the Cradle to Cradle Congress 2021 showed what diverse alternatives already exist today, how innovative business models can lead to a plastics industry that leaves a positive ecological, economic and social footprint, and what political framework conditions we need to continue on this path towards a C2C economy.

The upcoming federal election in Germany and the focus on climate and environmental issues in the current election campaign also played a major role at the digital event. "Everyone is talking about transformation. And before the federal election, everyone agrees that something has to happen. But the question is: what? Complex questions need complex answers. That's why we've been thinking about this together with our partners, our advisory board and our many volunteers," said Tim Janßen, executive director of C2C NGO at the start of the Congress` second series.

"We clearly need to do more than just talk about a 1.5-degree world. As Cradle to Cradle NGO, we don't just want to stop the problems getting worse, but show how we can do things differently. That is why we have shaped a political briefing with the ten most important points for the path towards a Circular Society according to Cradle to Cradle and made it available to politicians as an opportunity for the coming years," added Nora Sophie Griefahn, executive director of C2C NGO. Please find the briefing (in German) here.

Federal Minister for the Environment, Svenja Schulze, who is the “Schirmherrin” of the C2C Congress for the second year in a row, highlighted Cradle to Cradle as a sustainable approach: "Sustainable product design is a crucial approach to ensure that today's products do not become tomorrow's waste," she said in her welcoming address.

Manuela Matz, head of the economics department of the city of Mainz, the capital of Rhineland-Palatinate, described Cradle to Cradle as a "very important and forward-looking topic." The approach puts a finger in the wound, she said, as it is the duty of all of us to develop concepts on how to steer the economy in a different direction. In Mainz, for example, textiles made from compostable materials are being developed. "We also see in Mainz that many are not only thinking about it, but also founding businesses accordingly," Ms. Matz said. She still sees a need to catch up in the area of public procurement. Here, she said, parameters need to be set in order to make public sector purchasing an accelerator for the transformation toward a C2C economy. A new state ordinance in Rhineland-Palatinate should now ensure that sustainability plays a greater role in municipal procurement in the future.

Katrin Eder, State Secretary in the Ministry for the Environment of Rhineland-Palatinate, said that the state has set itself the most ambitious climate protection targets in Germany. Waste management plays an important role in this, she said. She said today's figures on recycling are critical, as they do not show the true proportion of materials that are actually recycled. "In developing countries, there is shocking environmental pollution," Ms. Eder said of one of the consequences of today's production methods.

C2C solutions for the plastics industry

Materials that pollute the environment are also an ongoing issue in the context of the plastics industry. In the first discussion panel of the day, Dr. Anne Lamp, Co-Founder & CEO of Traceless, Michael Pooley, CEO of IFCO Systems, and Reinhard Schneider, Managing Partner and Owner of Werner & Mertz, all engaged in an alternative approach to the issue of plastic packaging, shared their thoughts on the subject.

"Forty percent of our plastic waste ends up in the environment," said Ms. Lamp, who invented a biodegradable plastic alternative from agricultural residues. Basic materials for packaging materials for the biological cycle are very rare, Ms. Lamp said, which served as her motivation to produce such a substance. A few days ago, Traceless announced a cooperation with mail-order company Otto, which will result in compostable packaging solutions for shipping textiles starting in 2022.

IFCO and Werner & Mertz, on the other hand, have focused their C2C business models on the technical cycle. IFCO produces so-called RPC containers, which most consumers know as the green boxes in which fruit and vegetables are sold in supermarkets. IFCO has 325 million boxes in circulation worldwide. The crates are filled with food, taken back after the food is sold, washed and used again for the same purpose. Taking back the crates, which are made of polypropylene (PP), is a fundamental part of the business model, Mr. Pooley said. "Reusable solutions are not a good solution if you don't take back reusable products. For us, the recovery of RPC is really important, because without us taking them back, the cycle is not closed. So that's a huge ecological and economic factor in our business model," Mr. Pooley added.

Detergent manufacturer Werner & Mertz ("Frosch" brand) has been making the bottles for its cleaning products from recycled material for years. For the company's PET bottles, which are made of 100 percent recyclate, up to 50 percent of the material now comes from the yellow bag, with the rest coming from bottle collections. "Our goal is to create a perfect cycle. We want to be a role model for other sectors, such as the food industry," Mr. Schneider said. However, he also urged policymakers to set fair competitive conditions necessary to achieve a circular economy. "In Germany, the processing of crude oil into plastic is still subsidized. The only product that can be made from crude oil without ceding a single tax for it is Virgin Plastic. That should not be the case in the future," he said. He suggested introducing the European plastic tax in such a way that companies are taxed according to the polluter pays principle and the use of recyclate is offset against it.

This demand is also shared by Marcella Hansch, Founder & CEO of Everwave. The company develops technologies to remove plastic and other waste materials from rivers even before the materials reach the oceans. "The goal must be to eliminate Virgin Plastic 100 percent of the time. Recycling must be made affordable," Ms. Hansch said in her keynote. In order for no more plastic to end up in the oceans in the future, "design for recycling" is needed. Today, Everwave removes many composite materials from rivers, she explained. These are difficult or impossible to recycle.

A new business model for the textile industry

Another industry that uses a lot of plastic and at the same time is one of the dirtiest industries of all is the textile sector. But here, too, change is slowly taking place, as Dr. Jenny Shao said in her keynote. Ms. Shao is a Global Partner at Fosun International as well as Executive President of Fosun Fashion Group. Fosun is the largest private sector conglomerate in China and one of China's largest investors. In her role, Ms. Shao is, among other things, a supervisory board member at Wolford AG, which has been producing C2C textiles for many years. As a plastics processing industry, it is the responsibility of the textile industry to consider how it deals with the problem of plastic waste, she said. Wolford uses a polymer that can circulate in the technical cycle but is also biodegradable. According to Ms. Shao, the corresponding Aurora product group is to be expanded. The goal is to manufacture half of all products according to C2C in the next three years, she said. "As an investor, we value the Wolford brand very much. Not only because it has a long history, but because there is substance behind the brand: the quality of the products, the technology behind it, and C2C is a very important part of Wolford's ability to innovate," Ms. Shao added. In this regard, she said, the topic is also an important strategic issue for the other brands in the Fosun portfolio, including Tom Tailor, and will be pursued further in the coming years.

In the early afternoon, participants had a choice of four parallel interactive fora.

Forum I focused on how norms and standards can support the transformation towards C2C. Moderated by Alexandra Engelt, Senior Project Coordinator in the Circular Economy Business Area Development at the German Institute for Standardization (DIN), the panelists included Dagmar Glatz, Project Manager Sustainability Packaging at the drugstore chain dm, Dr. Harald Lehmann, Vice President Plastic Materials and Processing at sorting equipment manufacturer Tomra Sorting, and Christian Schiller, Co-Founder & CEO of Cirplus, a digital platform for plastic recyclate trading.

"The quality of a material is key to producing appropriately high-quality recyclates from it. Recyclates today have a bad image because they really were of poor quality in the past," Mr. Lehmann said. Standards could help bring this quality down to a common denominator.

Together with Cirplus, Mr. Schiller was part of a consortium that in recent months has developed a DIN SPEC - and thus a standard in line with the market - for the classification of plastic recyclates for use and (Internet-based) trade. It was adopted a few days ago and formulates what data of recycled material must be available for a potential buyer to be interested in it. "We can already use standards to ensure that the transaction costs for recyclate fall," says Schiller.  

The drugstore chain dm offers more than 650 products in packaging with a recycled content of more than 70 percent, Dagmar Glatz reported. But as a pan-European company, she said, the company needs a European solution, and standards for recyclate quality could help. "With customers, we don't see that they don't want recycled packaging. We also don't see that our gray packaging with a high recycled content is selling poorly," Ms. Glatz said. Now, she said, the industry has to show that it is capable of bringing completely recycled packaging to market. For this reason, she said, dm is currently converting many packages to recyclable designs, such as films that previously could not be recycled.

In Forum II, Paolo Pezzin, Senior Raw Materials Manager of the outdoor brand Napapijri, part of the global VF Corporation, presented its journey from a C2C project to an entire C2C product line. He spoke with Albin Kaelin, CEO Textiles at EPEA Switzerland, which helped implement C2C at Napapijri. Anyone implementing C2C would have to take a whole new look at their business model, Mr. Pezzin said. “The concept should be that you are not owning a product but you are using a design. In the end, you are not buying a Napapijri jacket but a Napapijri design. This will be the future”, he added. The brand uses the polymer Econyl from Italian company Aquafil for its textile products, which can circulate in the technical cycle. As a result, Napapijri jackets do not require harmful coatings that are common in conventional outdoor textiles. Napapijri also considers take-back. After use, products can be returned to Napapijri, which in turn returns them to Aquafil for recycling. Mr. Kaelin and Mr. Pezzin pointed out that despite increasing environmental and health awareness among consumers, price is ultimately a major reason for or against buying a product. But Napapijri also shows that it is possible to offer recyclable products of good quality at a competitive price. For Mr. Kaelin, the Italian-founded brand is also a role model in this area. “If you look at the outdoor industry, it is a greenwashing machine. Napapijri is the lighthouse project and a push for the entire industry to really change, now that we have shown that it is possible”, Mr. Kaelin concluded.

New technologies against microplastics

In Forum III, Nora Sophie Griefahn spoke with Dr. Carolin Völker, head of the PlastX junior research group at the ISOE Institute for Social-Ecological Research, and Dr. Katrin Schuhen, inventor, founder & CEO of Wasser 3.0 about the topic of microplastics. Very specifically about the risks associated with it, how microplastics can be identified, removed from the environment and prevented altogether in the future. PlastX studies biodegradable plastics, packaging, and marine debris and the environmental impact of microplastics. Water 3.0 is developing technologies to detect, remove and subsequently reuse microplastics. In their work, both note that chemicals processed in plastics, such as dyes or stabilizers, are the main reason microplastics are a problem that is harmful to the environment and human health. As a result of poor design and the incorrect use of materials, microplastic then ends up in the environment. Their conclusion: We need plastics designed for specific use scenarios.

In Forum IV, author and independent C2C expert Douglas Mulhall highlighted the important role of health in relation to environmental and climate protection. "Everyone knows that heavy metals in the environment are a crucial problem. But the real problem is that these heavy metals are very harmful when they get into our bodies," Mr. Mulhall said. There, for example, they can trigger heart disease. The heavy metals found in studies of heart patients often correspond to substances commonly found in packaging. The current guidelines and maximum values for harmful substances are therefore not safe enough for human health, Mr. Mulhall concluded. For companies that work with healthy materials according to Cradle to Cradle, this point can be emphasized in marketing in an increasingly health-conscious society, he added.

In the third keynote of the day, Marius Ehrlinspiel of consultancy Wider Sense and Cirplus CEO Christian Schiller presented a recent study examining the market for recycled plastic, coming to a clear conclusion, as Ehrlinspiel summed up: "The market for recycled plastic is broken." One of numerous problems, he said, is the price, which for newly produced plastic is between 20 and 30 percent lower than that of recyclate of comparable quality when purchased. That, he said, is due to appropriate subsidies and Virgin Plastic's established value chain. Mr. Schiller added that a systemic approach is needed to ensure a level playing field in the market for new and recycled plastics. "Because nothing works as well as when you can make money from it in a market economy," he said.

Closing the loop

The second major panel of the day also discussed necessary structural changes, in the context of resource management. Participants included Dr. Matthias Eder, Head of Communications at PreZero Foundation, C2C expert Katja Hansen, Peter Kurth, Executive President of the German Association of Waste Management, Water and Raw Materials BDE, and Jochen Moesslein, Founder & Managing Director of Polysecure, which has developed a marker system for traceable material flows.

Mr. Kurth spoke out clearly in favor of a determined policy for environmental protection and resource conservation. Therefore, he said, the European Green Deal must be implemented quickly in Germany. "The example of plastic shows: the cycle does not close by itself. Anyone who says the market will regulate this itself is mistaken," Mr. Kurth said. "As waste management companies, we want to move from a linear to a circular economy together with the industry," he added. At the same time, he appealed to the manufacturing industry and its innovative strength. "The better a product is designed, the better recycling succeeds," Mr. Kurth said. In this context, he said, it is good to look beyond one's own horizons and to change processes along the entire value chain, with all those involved.

This is what the Schwarz Group, which includes supermarket chains Lidl and Kaufland as well as PreZero as a spin-off waste disposal and recycling service provider, is also trying to do. Last year, the group launched its own plastic products on the market that are made of 95 percent recyclate, and it is aiming for 100 percent in the coming batch, Mr. Eder said. "We are trying to act as an innovator and role model for the industry. Closing a real loop is possible if you get everyone involved together," he added.

For Mr. Moesslein, another lever to close the loop, is a clearer definition of intentional and positively defined ingredients. That, he said, improves not only sorting but also the processing of material streams. "We need sorting like letter sorting. You could sort the yellow bag just as efficiently," said Mr. Moesslein, who hopes Polysecure will help achieve that.

Similar to Mr. Moesslein, Ms. Hansen sees C2C design as an important lever for transforming the plastics industry. This, she said, includes dispensing with additives that negatively affect the recyclability of materials. At the same time, she said, digitization can help bring material flows into a cycle. "We need a mechanism, for example a Product Circularity Data Sheet, so that recyclers know what materials are coming their way and in what quality," Ms. Hansen said.

All four panelists concluded with specific demands for the upcoming federal government. While Peter Kurth called for a ban on landfills, Mr. Moesslein argued for rewarding the production of recyclable and positive products. Mr. Eder hopes that the political parties will not just leave it at empty phrases in the election campaign when it comes to environmental and climate policy, but will place the issue in the Ministry of Economics after the election so that announcements can be followed by action. Ms. Hansen suggested a reward system for innovative companies that implement Cradle to Cradle. In contrast to a punitive system, this would reward the pioneers of a circular and sustainable economy, she said.

"30 years of announcement policy"

In a conversation with Nora Sophie Griefahn and Tim Janßen, Volker Angres, head of ZDF's environmental editorial team, talked about 30 years of reporting on environmental and climate issues. During this time, he said, awareness has increased. "Today, we no longer have to explain that climate change exists. But whether we have made any progress on the issue itself is another question. In fact, I have experienced about 30 years of announcement politics," Mr. Angres said. The "one-dimensional focus on climate issues" hasn't helped either, he said. "We have to do much, much more," Mr. Angres concluded.

That's also the goal of the three startups that presented themselves and their C2C business models in the final panel of the day.

Lea Lensky is Co-Founder & Managing Director of Holy Shit, a student consultancy that helps implement C2C projects. One example is the development of the Vivamask, a Covid protective mask that is biodegradable yet offers FFP2 levels through interchangeable inserts. Ms. Lensky highlighted that when starting a C2C company, enthusiasm for the approach cannot be underestimated. "The will to change things in a positive way has to be there," she said.

Dr. Christina Linke is Co-Founder & CEO of Clean Ocean Coatings, producing coatings for ship hulls. It's an innovation that could have huge implications, since 90 percent of global goods are transported by sea and today's conventional coatings used to protect ships leave damage in the environment. The coating she developed does not erode and provides a smooth surface, saving up to 6 percent in fuel. These metrics are important, Ms. Linke said, in addition to the environmentally positive nature. "Just with the sustainability aspects alone, we don't win customers. Not only do we have to be better for the environment, but we also have to add value for customers," she said.

It's a similar story for Steffen Otten, who founded and runs Runamics, a C2C sports textile manufacturer. In addition to the C2C aspect, functionality is also important for his products. "We want to think up a sports world that does not involve harmful waste and enable sports that can be practiced with a clear conscience," Mr. Otten said. Runamics works with organic cotton and merino wool, among other materials, but also with synthetic fibers such as the Infinito yarn from Inogema, which is biodegradable.

"The climate and resource crises are interrelated challenges, as the discussions and best practices today have shown. There are great products and business models in the field of plastics and packaging - whether in established companies or startups - that leave a positive environmental, social and economic footprint in the long term," Tim Janßen concluded. "We need to define very clearly what we want our world to look like tomorrow. And today has shown that Cradle to Cradle is the right approach for many companies, but also for more and more politicians," Nora Sophie Griefahn added.

Selection of press photos for the Cradle to Cradle Congress 2021 | Series 2

Please find further information on the third and final Congress series on November 4, 2021 in Mönchengladbach on the C2CC21 website.

Feel free to contact us with any questions or interview requests for our executive board members.

Kind regards

Isabel Gomez

C2CC21 is supported by DIN, Werner & Mertz, IFCO Systems, Jokey, Deutsche Lichtmiete, GLS Bank, Stadt Kassel and PreZero.