Plastics Recycling Hub

The transition to a circular economy is in full swing. Waste containing plastics represents an important stream for potential recycling activities with high added value on an economic and social level. Flanders, with a large presence of chemical and recycling companies, can play a prominent role in this. The chemical sector and the government are therefore fully committed to the transition to innovative, circular chemistry. However, the supply of waste streams for recycling presents logistical challenges in a number of areas, ranging from collection and pre-treatment to organizing transport in an efficient and sustainable manner.

OPPORTUNITIES

• Flemish companies can take up an important position in innovative chemistry and thereby create new activities and considerable added value
• Taking a lead in the transition to circular chemistry can strengthen the position of the sectors involved and guarantee their continued existence in a sustainable society

Results

• Several recycling hubs, each specialized in specific material streams: in this way, plastic-containing waste can be recycled in an effective and efficient way
• A recycling hub, focused on one or more material streams, can give the current geographically dispersed and industrially fragmented activities an impetus to integrate so that technical, logistical and operational strengths are optimized.
• Inland navigation in Flanders offers some important advantages to successfully establish these hubs. For example, buffers can easily be built up and decoupling of production and logistics is possible. Moreover, transport and processing speed is not of great importance with these waste streams.
• The price calculations performed by Multimodaal.Vlaanderen in this project show that further optimization and orchestration of the flows are needed before multimodal transport also becomes economically beneficial.
• The right recycling infrastructure tailored to these waste streams is currently under construction. The legal framework is also evolving. This indicates that both industry, and government believe in the future of the circular economy.