'Rather recyclable than degradable'

'On the Brightlands Chemelot Campus, we all get it,' says Wouter van den Berg, commercial director of The Compound Company. 'We are moving toward circularity. The future is zero carbon footprint.'

The Compound Company (150 employees) is a company that produces thermoplastic (plastic) raw materials (granules) for the construction, automotive and packaging industries. Its headquarters are in Enschede; its Yparex business unit is in Sittard-Geleen and produces, for example, granules used to make plastic wrap around a meal of fish, meat or cheese. That plastic is very innovative material; only under a microscope can you see that it consists of several layers. 'Full plastic is completely recyclable, and so is this film,' says Wouter van den Berg.

After studying chemistry, he moved from Nijmegen to South Limburg to work at DSM. One of his first big jobs, 25 years ago, involved an innovation: carpet recycling. 'We were way ahead of our time and built a plant in the United States that was closed within two years. That really was a bummer. Today everyone calls for recycling, but back then it was difficult.' He came back and became product manager for Yparex, then part of DSM. When The Compound Company took over, he stayed on and convinced the new owner in Enschede to stay on campus in Geleen. 'We had quite a lot of outsourced research here then, too.' And so the Yparex director, an outspoken no-nonsense type, has been walking around the Brightlands Chemelot Campus for more than a quarter century.

He has seen the industry change quite a bit. 'We have to become circular, that is our ambition and it is absolutely necessary.' It sounds possibly surprising from the mouth of a producer who is a firm believer in plastic. 'Plastic is great until it becomes waste. It doesn't belong in the environment, finished, so we have to prevent that. And that defines our image problem, I understand that very well. 'We don't want plastic' is too easy. There is no alternative. So we have to identify the waste, upgrade it, process it somewhere and return it. It forces us and our customers to think. What kind of waste are we creating? Is that easy to work back again or not? If it's not easy, there's no excuse to leave it. Packaging consisting of a combination of translucent plastic and paper is dramatic for recycling. We just shouldn't want that anymore. They are all clumsy convulsions of marketers. Ultimately, we just have to make sure that plastic packaging becomes completely circular.'

Surprisingly, Wouter van den Berg has the least concerns about producers. 'They are willing. I was a member of Plastics Europe for a while. Everyone there agrees: we should and will do this together. Okay, only a few things are needed for that. European legislation, for example.'

According to Wouter van den Berg, former European Commissioner Frans Timmermans has laid down 'a good piece' with the Green Deal. 'Everyone was able to work with it just fine. It just needed to be ratified and fleshed out in detail. Then some political parties who want to put the climate plans through the shredder gnawed away at it. That doesn't help us in the end. Excuse me, but then you really have no idea what is going on in the world. The need is being questioned.'

Well remarkable that the industry embraces the Green Deal so much. 'At least that plan creates clarity. On the basis of which you can make investment decisions. Are you, flat out, going to drill a new oil well or are we building a new recycling plant? For a number of companies, those are the choices. But you don't build a megaton chemical recycling plant if doubts are cast on the agreements. Then such an investment decision becomes very difficult. Maybe then it even becomes tempting to consider opening an oil field or tapping a gas field somewhere after all. In industry, you have to think ahead. You write off a factory in 30 years, not in 5. So we do need that long-term vision. Think about that American carpet recycling plant, it was just way too early. We pulled about 150 million down the toilet there. Because we thought the market would follow. It wasn't ready. I just want to say: timing also plays an important role. And if that clarity is not there, you create unrest in the industry. And there will be companies that have butter on their heads. Or go for short-term profits. But most people in my industry get it: we are going circular. We are going to zero carbon footprint.'

To that end, The Compound Company has a roadmap ready. But it must be facilitated by legislation. 'You now see many recyclers going bankrupt in the Netherlands. Because they can't make it now. Because there is too much ambiguity. That is a mortal sin. You destroy companies that will be desperately needed in two years. As a compounder, we have the advantage of being able to make the transition gradually. But not everyone has that luxury.'

The Compound Company is deploying more and more recyclates, using more and more biomass. 'Chemical recycling is in full development and movement. Which in turn is a feedstock for us. But it runs faster the more clarity there is. And it stalls when there isn't. Take Black Bear. They do tire recycling. Their products are classified as waste and are therefore not allowed to cross the border. While it is a usable product that can be reused. So you can recycle, but the legal frameworks have to be right too.'

According to Wouter van den Berg, sustainability is by far the most important topic on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus. 'Everyone is working on circular and biobased, or trying to make the switch to electrification. Everything to get rid of fossil. Investment funds and growth funds are also moving in that direction.' He calls the image of plastic "quite a challenge. 'We all have an opinion about plastic packaging. But let's not forget that most of our plastic applications are precisely about sustainable applications: films to make solar panels work for 25 years, pipes and cladding used in construction that must remain intact for decades, car parts that must last 300,000 miles. And all of these applications have the lowest carbon footprint imaginable. Plastic has gotten a bad press because people associate it with things that float in the ocean. That's not good. And that's certainly not circular. But plastic as waste is really a sub-problem of the big picture. What floats in the Pacific is not circular. So we have to get rid of that. But we also have to get rid of the idea that we just make everything biodegradable then so we don't see it anymore. The sea turtles will undoubtedly be grateful, but we would rather see that material returned and used for new production. I also notice this change in thinking among partners of mine who remove fishing nets from the sea. Not so much because it is unpleasant for the fish, but because you can take hundreds of tons of them out of the sea and use them to make new nets or other products, for example. You don't have to make recyclate out of oil. It's as simple as that. And you can work out that the emission of CO2 then goes to practically zero.'

For the TCC director, the challenge is to develop new sustainable products through innovation. 'Because to do it based on recyclates makes it just a little bit more difficult. But we like that kind of challenge. We are well equipped for it and make use of the possibilities at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus. Thanks to the available infrastructure and equipment, knowledge and cooperation with CHILL, Brightlands Materials Center or educational institutions, we have perhaps just a little more development power. Partly because of this, we were recently able to present a heat-resistant film that can be used in double-glazing. This blocks solar heat when it is warm. We are now waiting for an industrial partner.'