News

The ECOBULK consortium met for the 3rd time, this time hosted by partner TOMRA in Koblenz, Germany. With the project entering the design phase, the new design framework was tested during the workshops and further discussions were held on material, product and demonstration slelections. During the visit, the partners also had a chance to see the inside of TOMRA’s innovation and testing centre.

To be circular is to thrive within our planet’s natural boundaries. This requires a shift from a ‘take-make-use-waste’ economy to a ‘make-use-save’ economy. The move to a circular economy will require systems thinking, will deal with complex problems and challenge deep-rooted – perhaps unconscious – behaviours, though the end result might be simple. ECOBULK is part of that move.

At the recent consortium meeting in Koblenz, Germany, John Jostins, Managing Director at MicroCab and one of the ECOBULK partners, presented an overview of how MicroCab has integrated circular economy concepts into its own designs.

Where circularity is a business objective, a business model may have to be changed or enhanced; possibly meaning different value propositions, partners, revenues streams, costs and investors etc. Transitioning to a circular economy will instigate change – there will be opportunities for new businesses to form, for new partnerships to develop, for new products, for using new technologies in efficient ways.

The host for the third ECOBULK consortium meeting kindly invited the project partners to visit the automatic sorting test center at the company’s recycling hub in Mülheim-Kärlich, Germany.