October 5, 2020
Directly from practice: Jan Bauer (Managing Director of RIGK GmbH) talks with plastship about the challenges the industry faces in implementing the circular economy.
Jan Bauer, Managing Director of RIGK GmbH, a provider of take-back systems for plastics and packaging, discusses with plastship the challenges facing the industry in implementing the circular economy. He also addresses the importance of strategies in the context of establishing the circular economy, as well as the applications and significance of plastic recyclates.
When asked how a functioning circular economy can be achieved, he responds as follows:
What is important for us as a company, and I believe also for the industry, is that cooperation occurs across the entire value chain. Only in this way can we achieve an effective and sustainable circular economy in the field of plastics.
plastship: Can you briefly introduce yourself and RIGK GmbH?
My name is Jan Bauer. I am the managing director of RIGK GmbH, which was founded in 1992 by the plastics manufacturing and processing industry with the purpose of establishing take-back systems for plastics and packaging. We do this successfully with currently seven systems in Germany and a branch in Romania.
plastship: Where do you see the biggest challenges in establishing a circular economy in the plastics segment?
The biggest challenges are ultimately also the greatest opportunities. They lie in the fact that the path to a circular economy is based on strategic processes and decisions. This means that we cannot complete the transition overnight; instead, the transition and establishment take time. However, they become more sustainable once successfully implemented. As I mentioned initially, transitioning to a circular economy affects the entire value chain. It starts with product design, continues through distribution, take-back, recycling, and finally the reuse of (recovered) raw materials.
plastship: How do you contribute to overcoming these challenges?
We work towards this goal daily, as our business purpose is precisely to advance the circular economy for plastics. At RIGK, we bring stakeholders from the value chain together to actively shape and promote the return of plastics through our systems, thus increasing the amount of plastics returned to the cycle. By founding plastship, we have also introduced new impulses at the beginning and end of the value chain. plastship focuses on design for recycling and the marketing of recyclates. This means we ensure that recyclable packaging enters the market. Additionally, we address the issue currently pressing for both industry and politics, namely the use of recyclates, stimulating demand in this area, and establishing uniform quality standards. For this, plastship's platform model is the perfect tool. From our perspective, digitization is a catalyst for circular economy models.
plastship: Where does RIGK's strength lie in the systematic approach?
Our strength lies in the fact that we come from the industry and work for the industry. We represent the interests of the industry regarding the circular economy for plastics. This means we know how to bring various stakeholders from the disposal sector and the plastics processing or manufacturing industry to the table, where the common interests lie that need to be connected, and where the synergies are.
plastship: Are there any flagship projects you could highlight?
Our entire system landscape can be seen as a success for more sustainability. In 1992, we launched the RIGK system. It was established by the industry to meet the obligations of the Packaging Ordinance. We have been successful with it to this day and have ensured high recycling rates for industrial packaging through our performance. A newer model is the ERDE system, which is based on a voluntary commitment. Within this framework, we have managed to establish a take-back system that has returned and recycled 26,000 tons of plastics from agriculture this year alone. The basis for this is a voluntary commitment made last year with the Federal Ministry for the Environment.
plastship: Where and how should more recyclates be used? How could we increase the use of recyclates and where could this happen?
I see it clearly: We want and must have an ambitious goal. The most ambitious and probably most sustainable goal for using recyclates is still to use them in the products from which they originate, i.e., to establish closed-loop recycling. This means using packaging recyclates back in packaging as much as possible. This is already happening. There are good examples in the film and hard plastics sectors, and I believe this is the future. A good example is agricultural film recycling, where the produced recyclates are used again in film applications. Silage films and asparagus films, for example, can be produced with a higher recyclate content. In the hard plastics sector, there are already high-quality packaging products with recyclate content produced from closed-loop processes. These are flagship projects we should definitely look to in order to get the wheel of the circular economy turning and keep it moving sustainably.
If you have questions or suggestions, please contact me!
