The special show “Plastics shape the future” at K 2022, The No.1 Trade Fair for Plastics & Rubber (October 19 – 26, 2022 in Düsseldorf, Germany) will show how crucial plastics are for a sustainable future. It will demonstrate which fascinating developments are already happening today and that visions for tomorrow are already on their way to implementation. The special show will comprise seven theme days – with discussions on innovative technologies, keynote speeches, entertaining demonstrations of lighthouse projects and exciting experimental shows. “Plastics shape the future” will address economic, ecological and socio-political aspects while also presenting solutions for problem facing the plastics industry. The program language will be English.
The special show is a project of the German plastics industry under the leadership of PlasticsEurope Deutschland e. V. and Messe Düsseldorf. It promises insights and outlooks for exhibitors and trade visitors at K 2022 as well as for the media and the interested public.
Day 1 – Wednesday, October 19
The great transition! An industry becoming climate neutral!
10:30 – 11:00 am
Welcome and outlook: Virginia Janssens, Managing Director, Plastics Europe
Keynote by Christiane Rohleder, State Secretary, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), Germany
Introduction: Ingemar Bühler, Managing Director, Plastics Europe Deutschland and Representative of the exhibitors’ advisory board
Official opening by the K organizers, statements by
- Ulrich Reifenhäuser, Chairman, K Fair Exhibitors Committee, CEO Reifenhäuser Group
- Erhard Wienkamp, Managing Director Operative Trade Fair Business, Messe Düsseldorf
- Ralf Düssel, Chair Plastics Europe Deutschland and Senior Vice President / General Manager High Performance Polymers, EVONIK
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
- Keynote speech “State of the World” by Ilham Kadri, CEO, Solvay
- Moderated fire-side chat: The great transition! An industry becoming climate neutral!
- Martin Stuchtey, Founder and Managing Partner, SYSTEMIQ Ltd.
- Lucrèce Foufopoulos-De Ridder, Vice President, Plastics Europe and Executive Vice, President Polyolefins, Circular Economy and Innovations & Technology, Borealis AG
- Introduction, moderation and wrap-up: Virginia Janssens, Managing Director, Plastics Europe
1:30 – 2:00 pm
Plastics experiments show
2:00 – 3:00 pm
Panel session: Implementing the change – challenges and opportunities faced by the plastics industry
With members of Reshaping Plastics Report Steering Committee or Expert Panel:
- Martin Jung, Member of the Steering Board, Plastics Europe and President
- Performance Materials, BASF
- Kim Ragaert, Professor – Chair of Circular Plastics, University of Maastricht
- Joan Marc Simon, Executive Director, Zero Waste Europe
- Werner Bosmans, Policy Officer, DG ENVI, European Commission
- Introduction and closing: Virginia Janssens, Managing Director, Plastics Europe
Moderation by Carina Bastuck
4:00 – 4:30 pm
Plastics experiments show
Day 2 – Thursday, October 20
Resilience of the industry – which technologies will make the circular economy work?
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Fireside chat (10:30-11:00): “What’s next on the industry’s circularity paths”
- André Bardow, Professor for Energy and Process Systems Engineering, ETH Zürich
- Katharina Schlegel, Director Strategic Council, End-of-Life and Circularity, Plastics Europe
Panel discussion: “How politics support the industry on its journey to become circular”
- William Neale, Adviser for Circular Economy, DG ENVI, European Commission
- (invited)
- Henning Wilts, Director Circular Economy, Wuppertal Institute
- Benoît Hennaut, President EuPC, Chairman and Managing Director Herige Group
- Ton Emans, President Plastics Recyclers Europe, Director Group Recycling
- Sebastien Bariller, Vice President Polymers / “Low Carbon Solutions” TotalEnergies
- Introduction, moderation and wrap-up by Carina Bastuck
1:30 – 2:00 pm
Plastics experiments show
2:00 – 3:00 pm
Panel discussion “Let’s go circular – strategic approaches to transforming the industry”
- Mark Williams, Member of the Steering Board Plastics Europe and Vice President
- Europe, SABIC
- Lars Boerger, Vice President Renewable Polymers & Chemicals, Neste
- Manfred Hackl, CEO, EREMA
- Franco Meropiali, Member of the Plastics Europe Steering Board and Head of
- Polyethylene and Intermediates Business, Versalis
- Toshio Shiwaku, President & CEO, Polyplastics Co., Ltd.
- Introduction and closing: Katharina Schlegel, Director Strategic Council, End-of-Life and Circularity, Plastics Europe
- Moderation by Carina Bastuck
4:00 – 4:30 pm
Plastics experiments show
Day 3 – Friday, October 21
Circular Plastics and Net zero by 2050. “Blah, blah, blah?”
10:30 am – 12:30 pm – Two-part panel discussion
Part 1: Circularity – opportunity or threat? (45 minutes)
- Video address by Kerstin Jorna, Director General, DG GROW, European Commission
- Emma Silver, Global Public Affairs Director, Minderoo Foundation’s No Plastic Waste
- Initiative
- Willemijn Peeters, Founding Director, Searious Business
- Benny Mermans, Vice President Plastics Europe and Vice President Sustainability,
- Chevron Phillips Chemicals
- Nicholas Kolesch, Vice President, Projects, Alliance To End Plastic Waste
- 10 min break
- Part 2: Does the plastics industry have a future in Europe? (45 min)
- Sabine Pahl, Prof of Urban and Environmental Psychology, Vienna
- Lynette Chung, Chief Sustainability Officer, Covestro
- Ralf Düssel, chair Plastics Europe Deutschland and Senior Vice President / General Manager High Performance Polymers, EVONIK
- NN, Deloitte
- Introduction and closing: Sylvie Aitken, Director Communications, Plastics Europe
- Moderation by Carina Bastuck
1:30 – 2:00 pm
Plastics experiments show
4:30 – 5:00 pm
Plastics experiments show
Day 4 – Saturday, October 22
Digitalization – Strengthening digital tools to accelerate a Circular Economy
10:30 – 11:30
Digitalization – a game changer for a circular plastics industry?
Introductory remarks by:
- Christian Hopmann, Professor – Head of the institute at IKV Institute for Plastics Processing, RWTH Aachen University of Technology
Best Practices from industry:
- Digital Highway towards the Circular Economy, Christian Schiller, Co-Founder & CEO
- cirplus
- HolyGrail – Digital markers for better sorting recycling, Gian de Belder, principal scientist
- and packaging technologist, Procter & Gamble
- OPC UA, Michael Wittmann, Managing Director, Wittmann Group
- Introduction, moderation and wrap-up by Carina Bastuck
1:30 – 2:00 pm
Plastics experiments show
4:00 – 4:30 pm
Plastics experiments show
Day 5 – Sunday, October 23
Plastics for Climate Protection
10:30 – 11:30 am
Plastics for a sustainable world – how the material helps other sectors to become climate neutral
Best Practices from industry:
- Driver for the energy transition: Markus Mingenbach, Global Vice President, PU
- Specialties, Covestro
- Sustainable building and construction: Andreas Hartleif, CEO, VEKA AG
- Clean mobility: Frederique van Baarle, Managing Director, LANXESS Performance
- Materials
- Biobased raw material – Hemp: Martin Wittau, Managing Director, Linnaeus
- Kompetenzzentrum Hanf GmbH
- Introduction, moderation and wrap-up by Carina Bastuck
1:30 – 2:00 pm
Plastics experiments show
4:00 – 4:30 pm
Plastics experiments show
Day 6 – Monday, October 24
Raw Materials and Cycles – What will the future be made of?
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Fossil based feedstock – no, thanks?
Best Practices from industry
- The role of biobased plastics in reaching a carbon neutral circular economy
- Walmir Soller, CEO, Braskem
- Closing the recycling gap – how key technologies like chemical and mechanical
- recycling need to work together, Bernhard von Vacano, Head of ChemCycling, BASF
- Carbon2Chem – CO2 emissions for plastics intermediates, Stefanie Eiden, Covestro
- Holistic approaches for a circular plastics economy, Patrick Glöckner, Head of Global
- Circular Plastics Program, EVONIK
- R-cycle – a European digital product pass, Benedikt Brenken, Director, R-Cycle Initiative, Reifenhäuser Group
- Introduction and moderation by Carina Bastuck
1:00 – 2:00 pm
WAK Award Ceremony (DE)
Ceremony of the prizes awarded by the “Wissenschaftlicher Arbeitskreis Kunststofftechnik” / Scientific Alliance of Plastics Technology (WAK)
3:00 – 4:00 pm
EU value chain platforms – enablers for circular progress
Introductory remarks by:
- Marco ten Bruggencate, President Plastics Europe and Commercial VP EMEA, DOW
Best practices:
- Thomas Hülsmann, Managing Director, VinylPlus Deutschland
- Christian Crépet, Executive Director, Petcore Europe
- Jens Kathmann, Secretary General, Styrenics Circular Solutions
- Paolo Bochicchio, Secretary General, PCEP
- Introduction, moderation and wrap-up by Carina Bastuck
4:30 – 5:00 pm
Plastics experiments show
Day 7 – Tuesday, October 25
Reality check: global crises – curse or blessing for an industry in transition
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Keynote on Crises & Opportunities
- Marco ten Bruggencate, President Plastics Europe and Commercial VP EMEA, DOW
- Fire-side chat: The power of blue-sky thinking for a future with plastics
- Virginia Janssens, Managing Director, Plastics Europe
- David Katz, Founder and CEO, The Plastic Bank
- Marco ten Bruggencate, President Plastics Europe and Commercial VP EMEA, DOW
Wrap up – looking back on K
Closing words by:
- Virginia Janssens, Managing Director, Plastics Europe
- Ingemar Bühler, Managing Director, Plastics Europe Deutschland
- Introduction and moderation by Carina Bastuck
1:30 – 2:00 pm
Plastics experiments show
4:30 – 5:00 pm
Plastics experiments show
The program is also available online at: www.k-online.com/en/Visitors/Specials_K_2022/Plastics_shape_the_future
Information for participants and visitors:During the event, the organizers will take photos and videos of guests and participants for public relations purposes. These images may be published on the organizers’ websites, social networks or print publications.
K 2022 is open daily from October 19 – 26 – from 10.00 am to 6:30 pm. Tickets are available exclusively online. A one-day ticket costs 55 euros, a three-day ticket 120 euros.
For further information on visiting or exhibiting at K 2022, contact Messe Düsseldorf North America; Telephone: (312) 781-5180; E-mail: info@mdna.com; Visit www.k-online.com and www.mdna.com; For the K online magazine: https://mag.k-online.com/
For hotel and travel information, contact TTI Travel, Inc. at (866) 674-3476; Fax: (212) 674-3477; E-mail: info@ttitravel.net; www.ttitravel.net
