In May 2024, our co-Founder Ambarish Mitra was invited to the first ever Closing the Loop with Recycling Forum to share Greyparrot Analyzer’s impact on resource efficiency at global recovery facilities, and discuss the need for a unified value chain informed by detailed waste data.
Speaking alongside experts from CITEO, The European Commission, Veolia, and Dow, a shared aspiration emerged for improved communication among key players in the production, consumption and disposal ecosystem:
Evolving regulation should be celebrated, but waste management inconsistencies remain
The evolution of regulations like the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and extended producer responsibility (EPR) in the UK and US states like New York was widely regarded as a positive move at InventU’s forum.
Inconsistent waste management processes could hinder progress at both a regional and national, though: the different recycling methods used by EU countries result in varied recycling rates and inconsistent management of packaging lifecycles, and in the USA, each state defines its own waste legislation.
Producers need waste sector guidance to meet new requirements
Brands are looking to waste management to help track packaging improvements, especially with the development of PPWR and EPR.
Despite regulations and policies creating legal and financial obligations, there's insufficient information to hold individuals accountable, monitor progress, or facilitate improvements across the value chain. For instance, certain brands may make considerable commitments and changes, but these best practices aren’t recorded.
Regulators will increasingly look to the insights being generated in the waste sector to accurately enforce legislation like EPR and PPWR, and shape future policies that make a measurable impact.
Sector innovators are overcoming chemical recycling challenges with AI
Progress in chemical recycling was praised by the majority of attendees, but many flagged the quality of feedstock material as a persistent challenge.
Ambarish discussed how our customer Greenback used a single Analyzer unit to monitor infeed lines to assess feedstock quality. Insight into feedstock has allowed them to adjust infeed blends as material composition shifts, but they’ve also tied it even more closely to product quality:
Automatically gathering data on feedstock material has enabled the Greenback team to create a fully-transparent chemical recycling system, detailing exactly which materials make up their high-quality polymer oils.
Catch up on the discussion from Closing the Loop with Recycling Forum
If you couldn’t make it to InventU’s Closing the Loop with Recycling Forum, you can still learn more about one of the key topics discussed by Ambarish and his fellow attendees. Find out how Greenback are using AI waste analytics to certify the quality of their chemical recycling output 👇
How Greenback uses waste intelligence to certify product quality
