list of names behind the HolyGrail 2.0 initiative reads like a who’s who of the international consumer goods market, including Danone, Mondelez, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé, and Pepsico, with hardly a big name missing. Add to this illustrious circle of big players, retail giants such as Aldi and Amazon and a few large packaging and chemical companies. The European Brands Association (AIM) coupled with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste are the driving force of this broad-based partnership. Henkel manager Carsten Bertram attaches great importance to this partnership. “The success of HolyGrail 2.0 depends on broad acceptance by the industry. Opportunities for scaling lie in getting more packaging manufacturers, brands, and recyclers to participate in the initiative,” Bertram emphasizes. The practical feasibility and effectiveness of digital watermarks for sorting, identifying, and recycling plastic packaging has already been proven in practical tests. What is still unclear, however, is whether the recycling industry will be willing to convert its plants accordingly. And who will pay for the necessary investments? Dr Markus Helftewes, managing director of Grüner Punkt, sees addressing these questions as a far greater challenge than developing the technology ready for series production. He openly admits that digitalization in the waste management and recycling sector is lagging behind other industries. “But the question is who is ready to bear the additional costs of such developments,” says Helftewes who calls for increased government funding and, above all, long-term acceptance guarantees by the industry. “Circularity doesn’t come for free,” Helftewes states. In other words, even if digital technology works in recycling, we still have no functioning business model for it, at least not as long as recyclates are more expensive than virgin material.” Christian Schiller’s business model is transparency. The founder of Cirplus, the 100% digital trading platform for recyclable material, is considered a digital pioneer in the plastics industry and has long been committed to more than just the success of his own start-up. He believes digital advancements on the path to a circular economy to be crucial. “In order to optimize recycling flows, we need to know exactly where which type of plastic is located, what it’s composed of, its quality, and quantity, and all this as up-to-date as possible. No human brain can do that. This is precisely why digitalization and the use of artificial intelligence are necessary prerequisites for seriously closing the loops,” says the Hamburg-based entrepreneur. Legally binding norms and standards are a key requirement. “In order to bring waste and recyclate flows into the digital world, we need to find a common language so that we can generate clear and comprehensible data records and manage the complexity. This is the only way to build up reliable supply chains along the value creation chain around the globe and make a successful circular economy happen. That’s why we initiated and financed DINSPEC 91446, the world’s first standard for high-quality plastics recycling and digitization,” says Schiller. Optimizing material flows starts with collecting and separating trash and ends with the procurement of high-quality, recycled material. The use of digital innovation promises considerable opportunities across this entire spectrum. In this, as with product development and production, we have the classic chicken-and-egg situation. From an economic perspective, market incentives for the necessary scaling are still not there in many cases. 13
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