Over the past year, the news from the plastics recycling industry has been, for the most part, sombre. The low prices of virgin materials have attracted producers away from the use of recycled plastic, which has led to the shuttering of recycling plants across Europe. Now, bucking this trend is a young, dynamic startup in Modena, Italy, called Circular Identity, which is convinced that now is the time to act. “We envision a world where plastic waste is transformed into high-quality safety-critical components, reducing the negative impact of plastic waste on the environment and creating a more sustainable future for generations to come,” is how the company put it. Sustainable Plastics spoke with one of the co-founder owners of the company, Pierrick Cassin, a plastics recycling veteran who is well aware of the challenges ahead.
Hi Pierrick, it’s very good to see you again and to have this opportunity to talk. So, tell me a little about this new project – just how new is it?
Last time we spoke, in autumn last year, I mentioned that we - Renzo Gibellini, CEO at Reflexallen Group, a tier one supplier to the automotive industry, and myself - were hatching another project. And since then, we’ve officially launched our exciting new project, a new initiative, called Circular Identity.
Congratulations on that! Is the new company part of the Reflexallen Group?
No, well, of course we are brothers of Reflexallen and have a lot in common, but Circular Identity is an entirely separate company, in which Renzo Gibellini and I are partners. The company was actually founded on 19 June 2023, and we’ve since moved very fast to get it set up. We’ve already had many requests from customers that we’ve already started out- sourcing, as the plants we are planning have not yet been realised. There is a lot to do, but this work is my passion and it energises me. Over the past 12 years, in my career spanning roles from CEO of Agiplast – now part of Arkema – to leader- ship positions within Arkema and Ascend Materials, I've nurtured a deep passion for the sustainable regeneration of high-performance plastics. My focus has always been on finding ways to lessen our environmental impact. When I was a student, even my master's thesis was about sustainable purchasing.
For you, Circular Identity transforms your passion into practice?
Yes, with the launch of Circular Identity, I'm bringing this commitment to the forefront, combining my industry experience with an entrepreneurial spirit to cultivate a team that values agility, innovation, and a dedication to a greener future.
Throughout my 12 years in the industry, I was still focused on the linear instead of the circular. So, when Renzo, an entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience, approached me at K 2022 to talk about a strategy he was developing, I was excited. At the same time, I introduced him to a project for blockchain material traceability I had done for my then-employer, Ascend, with ITW Global Fasteners. He was interested in that concept, and I was interested in the strategy he proposed. He was motivated by passion and vision but also by the idea of gaining better control of his market.
As a tier one supplier to the automotive industry, you are caught between two “monsters”: the automotive OEM and the raw material suppliers. By gaining more control over the material, it would be possible to promote more circularity, for example, by being able to focus more on circular design principles. However, for Renzo, it would mean stepping back into raw materials – and this was neither the purpose nor the mission of Reflexallen. Finally, we decided to create a company together, and that decision led to the establishment of Circular Identity.
So, what exactly does Circular Identity do?
In the first place, we are a business-to-business company, and we are an industrial company. We are going to open a new plant in Modena, in the heart of the “Motor Valley”, where we plan to establish our recycling operations. At Circular Identity, we will handle the entire process of recycling with state-of-the-art machinery and equipment, ensuring the production of high-quality materials from various types of waste safely and efficiently. We have ordered all the ma- machines and aim to start production in July. Meanwhile, as I mentioned, we are already serving customers – we have the support of the machine builders and have been able to make use of some of their capacity there, renting an extrusion line for a week or even just a few days as needed.
Basically, what we want to do with Circular Identity is empower sustainable transformation by promoting sustainable practices.
Circular Identity is more than just a recycling company?
Yes. As I mentioned, after 12 years of working in recycling, I still felt that my approach was linear instead of circular. There was no way to control the products that were designed and produced, which meant that, even if they were produced from material with recycled content, they could often not be recycled themselves. There was no loop. To achieve a closed loop, we needed circular design. And this is another important reason to partner with Reflexallen – we want to work with the customer to create products that can be returned and reprocessed into the same product at the end of life. And that means you need to be involved from the beginning, at conception. It is an ambitious mission. It is challenging to create material from waste with consistent quality and produce products with consistent quality from that material.