On 18 April, circular, rigid food packaging manufacturer Faerch celebrated the grand opening of Cirrec, its new flagship recycling plant in Duiven, the Netherlands. The festive event was opened by Lars Gade Hansen, Faerch Group CEO, who looked back at the 5 years of development and significant investment leading up to the realisation of the new Cirrec plant.
“We're here to celebrate,” he declared. This is the start of a transition for our industry into true circularity—and true circularity is close to our heart. We are now tripling our recycling capacity to manage 60,000 tonnes of tray feedstock from post-consumer waste.
We now know that in this way, we will future-proof Faerch. It is really the way to make sure that this great company will also be an important player 50 and 100 years from now.”
The opening was attended by guests and customers from around the world and included a keynote from Paul Polman, former Unilever boss and current climate and equalities campaigner. Polman praised Faerch for the scale of the project, which shows ‘courage and vision’.
He went on to emphasise the role of ESG in driving profitable businesses and better shareholder value, saying ‘You're doing that by embracing partnership’.
CEOs and companies are increasingly facing challenges due to economic, political and technological changes - with climate change being the biggest threat, said Polman, who went on to speak at length about the urgency of addressing climate change. Another theme was the need for a ‘regenerative, restorative’ mindset in addressing plastic pollution and the importance of a full lifecycle approach to solving this problem, involving governments, regulations and binding commitments from all levels of the industry.
“There are very few CEOs who go out there and say we actually actively need to governments to work with us to create a sustainable industry. So I applaud you for that,” he said.
Other speakers included Mark Conrad, a materials economics manager at McKinsey, who talked about supply and demand but also pointed to the need for businesses to take responsibility and to take action to facilitate consumer recycling. “Currently, there’s no way to get the right plastic where it has to go,” he argued.
Jan Nielsen, chief investment officer at A.P. Moller Group, owner of Faerch, then highlighted the potential of Faerch’s technology to reduce waste and CO2 emissions, and the need for business ideas that contribute to sustainability. He noted the complexity of transitioning to a circular economy, and emphasised the need for collaboration and scale.
Asked about what he felt was the most important takeaway from today’s event, Nielsen said that it was the fact the solution was here. “It's ready to be adopted. It is doable. This is not some moonshot five years away. It's here right now.”
For Lars Gade Hansen, it was the feeling of pride at what had been achieved. He added: “We are a very ambitious company. We will now take this into the world.”
At the end of the speakers' programme, Hansen and Nielsen together pressed the button to officially open the new Cirrec facility.