Brightlands Circular Space: a testing ground for plastic recycling
Today, October 7, Brightlands Circular Space (BCS) officially opens its doors at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen. As a European ecosystem for circular plastics, BCS brings together businesses, knowledge institutions and governments. A new open-access demonstration facility offers the space and capabilities to develop, test and scale up circular plastics more rapidly towards industrial applications.
Brightlands Circular Space is an initiative of Maastricht University, Brightlands Chemelot Campus and TNO. BCS offers an environment for close collaborations between with businesses, governments and European partners on the development of a circular plastics economy.
The missing link between pilot and factory
Every year, a large proportion of collected plastic waste is incinerated, while at the same time, demand for high-quality circular materials is growing rapidly. New European rules require products to be more recyclable and encourage the use of more circular materials in new products. Yet many promising innovations get stuck at the pilot stage. The knowledge, facilities and partners needed to take an innovation from pilot to industrial application are still too often fragmented.
Brightlands Circular Space therefore brings the different links in the innovation chain together in one location. Companies can develop new materials, test recycling processes, validate products and scale up innovations before investing in commercial production. Initially, the hub will focus on circular solutions for plastic packaging, where the urgency and market demand are greatest. From that base, the ambition is to also work on the recycling of other plastic materials, such as textile fibres and plastics from cars, electronics and healthcare.
European ambitions
With an investment of more than €60 million, of which €25 million originates from the National Growth Fund through the Circular Plastics NL programme, the hub has advanced research, pilot and demonstration facilities at its disposal. These are open to businesses, start-ups, scale-ups and knowledge institutions from across Europe.
Brightlands Circular Space aims to grow into a European meeting place where innovation, industry and societal transition come together and where new solutions for circular plastics find their way into practice.
