THE INTERNATIONAL CLUSTERS DISCUSS RECYCLING BUSINESS IN THE KIELCE CENTRE DURING PLASTPOL 2019 TRADE FAIR

The forum was very popular with PLASTPOL guests

Kielce was the meeting platform for waste management clusters from Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.  The second day of the PLASPOL witnessed the conference of the . Cluster Business Forum , a part of the project: "Internationalization of the Waste Management and Recycling Cluster through the Cluster's partners and introduction of new eco-products into foreign markets."

- Today, broadly defined recycling is in public attention’s focus. However, the industry is struggling with serious image problems - when the general public thinks  plastics, they often seef the so-called "Marine Litter", i.e. plastic waste in seas and oceans - said Dr. Kazimierz Borkowski, director of the Plastics Industry Association PlasticEurope Polska. - The answer to this problem? A few days ago, the EU Single Use Plastic Directive which aims to prevent creation and enhance reduction of marine plastic waste. This directive prohibits the use of products such as plastic cutlery, take-out containers and mugs for drinks in the EU.  

Szymon Dziak-Czekan from the "Polish Recycling" Association also participated in the meeting held within the scope of the  PLASTPOL at Targi Kielce -  he spoke about the limits to  circular economy. These limits are determined by the weakness of the Polish system, which is outdated and ill-suited to the current market conditions. Increased role of entities which introduce plastics to the market in providing finances the system, improvement of collection and segregation systems and fair distribution of money in the recycling market may be the response.   

Jolanta Okońska-Kubica from the Waste Management and Recycling Cluster spoke about the internationalization and cooperation wit foreign partners which have joined the clusters. Another way to develop clusters is the introduction of new eco-products to foreign markets, participation in international fairs, conferences, events and business missions.  Anna Istenes from the Hungarian cluster KEXPORT Hungarian Environmental Cluster, Vojtěch Brož from the Czech cluster WASTen Euroforum Group, as, Libor Baraňák from the Czech company ENRESS and Tomáš Ocelek from E&H Services (Czech Republic) expressed similar opinions.

Recycling  innovations, technologies, knowledge and experience, lithium-ion batteries disposal - this was presented by Zbigniew Miazga from Polblume. Grzegorz Kowalczyk from Protechnika explained what the key issue in waste management is - reduction of solid waste amount and mass. Witold Chemperek from Polska Recycling Corporation talked about new challenges for the recycling business sector.  New challenges for Polish recyclers related to the so-called the manufacturer's extended responsibility for the product and its packaging introduced to the market were also presented in this lecture.  Bartosz Kubicki from Elektrorecyklin presented an innovative line for dismantling refrigerators, 100 refrigerators per hour capacity. In return, the company recovers such materials as aluminium, copper and polyurethane foam. The latter is used by the company to produce panels that can be used, for example, for civil engineering insulation or in the household appliances industry. This is European market novelty.

 Ed. (KK)