ECOSERVICE
HUB TO INTRODUCE SUSTAINABLE PLASTICS IN BASQUE INDUSTRY
THE PLASTICS VALUE CHAIN IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY IS EXCESSIVELY LINEAR: there is a lack of complex waste management and transformation companies, no industry consuming secondary plastics, and in addition, the Basque Country receives a net quantity of plastic waste combined with other materials of interest (generally metal) which feed its landfills with added streams. Over 300,000 tonnes of plastic waste are sent to landfill; over 50,000 tonnes go to energy recovery, and around 60,000 tonnes are recycled but almost in its entirety not consumed by Basque industry.
GAIKER, a Technology Centre specialised in recycling, has led ECOSERVICE. ZICLA, innovation with waste specialists and HASTEN VENTURES, a consultancy firm specialised in new business models, have collaborated in this project.
DRIVING FACTOR
OBJECTIVES
- Trailblazing the Basque plastics value chain towards introducing sustainable plastics and improve post-industrial and post-consumer plastic waste processing in the Basque Country.
- Test a business model based on a line of services for industries related to the plastics cycle in the Basque Country, oriented towards sustainability throughout the value chain, with the aim of becoming a business role model in plastic materials sustainability in an economic area of interregional influence.
RESULTS
- Definition of plastic materials value chains of the highest interest in the Basque Country, using commercial, technical and strategic criteria.
- Definition of a potential business model which is initially contrasted against the market and reviewed according to the results.
- Identification of a strategy to introduce recycled chippings currently available on the market as the quickest strategy to test market readiness.
- Identification of opportunities not used until now, for integrating the use of secondary plastics in regular production by companies, leading to demonstrative actions and specific projects for interested companies.
CONCLUSIONS
- The need for services focused on the plastics circular economy to fill gaps in information, qualities, materials, specifications, certification, etc. that are detected in the value chain, has been identified.
- It was decided that as a business model providing ECOSERVICE with the appropriate trading form for the current environment, a collaboration agreement to maximise GAIKER’s development and innovation capabilities and ZICLA’s industrial and commercial relations to carry out larger-scale pilots will be subscribed.
- The critical importance of having an industrial partner factory with relevant capacity to act as a driver of secondary plastics value chains has also been noted, i.e.: a physical plant generating confidence and supporting the sector.
ENVIRONMENTAL
TECHNICAL
ECONOMIC
COMMERCIAL
ON THE MARKET
COLLABORATORS
