Page 33 from: Out now: Recycling Technology 2021!
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2021
On the horizon
Figure 1: Deadlock between the three main actors in the quest for circularity.
Figure 2: Automated specification of post-consumer PP polymers by NIR spectrometry (horizontal)
versus experimental verification data (vertical) for a number of samples (van Engelshoven et al., 2019).
The situation is sketched out in Figure 1.
Each actor is focused on its own business,
waiting for overall vision and initiative to
arise from others. Since industry does not
present a convincing plan, agenda or volume
growth, the public sector does not see the
point of investing in a comprehensive legal
and regulatory framework or in research that
supports their circular developments. In the
absence of public leadership, industries carry
on as usual with their small incremental im-
provements.
Surprisingly, the most convincing plans for
circular products come from companies like
Apple or Ecover, who simply want to offer the
best possible product to their customers; true
circularity is one of the aspects that differenti-
ates them from their competitors.
Data technology to lead way
I believe the coming decade may see us
move away from the deadlock between the
three main actors. Accepting that govern-
ment funding for innovations purely in re-
cycling technology will remain poor in the
short run, technology development in our
field will have to lean heavily on high-tech
innovations in other sectors of industry. I
would bet on automated data technologies
as the most promising step forward in the
2020s.
The immediate gain of knowing exactly
what materials are in the input waste and what
are the specifications of the output products
may not seem big, but the secondary effect
of data is that: new markets arise for recycled
products; standards can be created; regula-
tions can protect the industries that innovate;
the trading value lost because of uncertainty
diminishes; and producers of waste have an
incentive to act more professionally.
And the recycling winners are…
Recyclers who are able to automate their
data flow and link the specifications of mate-
rial flows with the processes of buying and
selling may bind more interesting clients
to their products (Figure 2). With data and
standards, the recycling sector will be able to
start communicating with client industries
and with the public sector about the track to
circularity. Then, at the end of this decade,
China and Europe may come to recognise our
field as a business in which it is worth invest-
ing rather than talking about.
Leading a research ‘business’
Prof. Dr Peter Rem is a physicist and is chair of Section Resources & Recycling (R&R) at
Delft University of Technology, which creates technologies that make raw material cycles
more circular in terms of material value. Spinouts are Resteel, Inashco, Umincorp, C2CA
Technology and Scrapscanner, and these provide R&R with the means to protect patent
portfolios, and to team up with industry and test innovations in industrial conditions be-
fore implementing them worldwide. With about 50% of its patents now part of industrial
practice, the income from patents and shares in spinouts forms a part of the research fund-
ing for R&R. Current research focuses on sensor- and data-driven recycling of concrete,
packaging plastics and non-ferrous scrap.
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