Intersectoral debate “Eco-Design for Circularity”

As part of the plas­ti­cLIFE­cy­cle project on 20^th of May 2025 a debate titled “Eco-Design for Cir­cu­lar­i­ty” was held dur­ing the con­fer­ence The Future of Plas­tics: Recy­cling and the Path to Cir­cu­lar­i­ty, accom­pa­ny­ing the PLASTPOL 2025 trade fair in Kielce (Poland).

The event brought togeth­er experts from across the plas­tics recy­cling and pro­cess­ing sec­tors to dis­cuss cur­rent chal­lenges and future direc­tions for the indus­try with­in the con­text of the cir­cu­lar econ­o­my.

The dis­cus­sion focused on sev­er­al crit­i­cal issues, includ­ing the increas­ing reg­u­la­to­ry and mar­ket demands placed on man­u­fac­tur­ers, the neces­si­ty of design­ing prod­ucts with end-of-life pro­cess­ing in mind, and the urgent need to imple­ment viable and scal­able mate­r­i­al recy­cling tech­nolo­gies.

A par­tic­u­lar empha­sis was placed on PLC tech­nol­o­gy, which is designed to enhance the recy­cla­bil­i­ty of mixed rigid plas­tics. This inno­v­a­tive solu­tion enables the recov­ery of mate­ri­als from both source-sep­a­rat­ed and mixed waste streams. Through advanced sep­a­ra­tion process­es, valu­able plas­tic frac­tions can be extract­ed and reused as sec­ondary raw mate­ri­als.

The main speak­ers in the debate were:

• Mrs Agniesz­ka Ryfa – Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer, Ecopol­plast
• Mr Walde­mar Skotarek – Oper­a­tions Direc­tor, Elek­trore­cyk­ling Pol­s­ka
• Mr Arka­diusz Primus – plas­ti­cLIFE­cy­cle Project Man­ag­er

The plas­ti­cLIFE­cy­cle project is not only focused on devel­op­ing mod­ern recy­cling infrastructure—it also serves as a plat­form for dia­logue, edu­ca­tion, and the exchange of knowl­edge. The debate in Kielce marked anoth­er impor­tant step toward sys­temic change in the way plas­tics are han­dled in Poland—from thought­ful design and respon­si­ble use to effi­cient pro­cess­ing and recy­cling.

Below a pho­to col­lage from the debate: