🔜 Plastic Waste Management FORUM
🗓 May 26-28, 2025
📍 Centro Carlos Santamaría, San Sebastian (Spain)
Thought and organized by Prof. Steven De Meester, Prof. Kim Ragaert and dr. Haritz Sardon, the event is an open forum related with Plastic Waste Management that will be celebrated between the 26 and the 28 of May 2025 in San Sebastian, Spain.
Considering the urgency towards the need to develop solutions to the plastic emergency, we believe that to gather some of the leaders in a comfortable environment offers incredible opportunities to align in the complex and urgent problem of plastic waste management.
Concept and aim
We have a dual focus. On the one hand to foster the academic/industrial collaboration between the different key players involved in the meeting and on the other hand, to discuss some main topics that were defined in the event conception and preparation.
The event features both academic and industrial reaserchers, as well as policy makers which are willing to transform the current linear plastic production into a more circular plastic production as we believe that
Collaboration is essential to solve the plastic waste issue, and we believe that your expertise is unique and can help to speed up the development of real solutions in the plastic waste area.
We are therefore very excited to welcome our guest in the beautiful San Sebastian in 2025 for this event and share ideas and plans!
TOPIC 1: Haritz Sardon and Rita Kol
Is there a need to develop new plastics that are more circular or we should try to focus the efforts in giving solution to current plastics?
TOPIC 2: Kim Ragaert and Ciaran Lahive
Is the scientific community working on the most important real problems? Can We agree in a “technology roadmap” for plastic type or sector of plastics?
TOPIC 3: Steven De Meester and Stephen Dempsy
Can recycling approaches be the same in developed and non-developed countries? How to link technical research to the country context? Could we try to do an exploratory approach in a region (Basque Region) and expand it afterward?
TOPIC 4: Markus Antonietti and Ali Goonie
How do we make better the mechanical recycling? We need to develop new additives, new compatibilizer, new machinery?
TOPIC 5: Catharina Bening and Coralie Jehanno
How to face the incompatibility of consumerism with sustainability efforts?
TOPIC 6: Michael Shaver and Marianne Kuhlmann
How do we get the technical solutions implemented in our society? How to handle non-technical barriers and stakeholders.
Participants
Michael Shaver / Manchester University, UK
Markus Antonietti / Max Planck Institute, Germany
Catharina Bening / ETH, Switzerland
Katrina Knauer / NREL, Colorado, USA
Bernhard Von Vacano / BASF, Germany
Bosman Werner / EU Commision
Karolis Vilcinskas / Reckitt, UK
Maria Soliman / SABIC, Netherlands
Mark Miodownik / Manchester University, UK
Stefanie Kohler / INEOS, Germany
Bert Weckhuysen / Utrecht University, Netherlands
Gerald Rebitzer / Amcor, Switzerland
Héctor Alonso / Inditex, Spain
Wouter van der Berg / The Compound Company, Netherlands
Helen Holmes / Manchester University, UK
Xu Shimei / Chengdu Univeristy, China
YOUNG INVITED
Coralie Jehanno / Polykey
Ciaran Lahive / Manchester University
Rita Duarte Kol de Carvalho / Utrecht University
Ali Gooneie / Maastricht University
Marianne Kuhlmann / ETH
Stephen Dempsey / NREL
ORGANIZERS
Steven De Meester / Ghent University, Belgium
Kim Ragaert / Maastricht University, Netherlands
Haritz Sardon / POLYMAT, University of the Basque Country, Spain
Past events
