He told the audience the war, climate change and other events were increasing the need to move ahead on the decarbonization and circularity strategies that Plastics Europe outlined in its Reshaping Plastics report in April.
But to achieve that, said ten Bruggencate, who is also a senior executive at Dow Inc., the industry will need to increase collaboration.
The report called for a rapid increase in investments to reduce fossil feedstocks for plastics over time, as well as new policy frameworks to help grow both mechanical and chemical recycling.
"If we ultimately want to achieve what I just summed up, we really need to make sure we get to a collaboration which is super effective in the sense, like a COVID-19 vaccine development, where companies, science, investors, government all came together and were able in record time to develop innovative groundbreaking vaccines, which have saved many people's lives," he said. "That's what we need to do."
The report said the investment decisions the industry makes in the next few years will determine how well it can meet a goal of being net-zero carbon emissions in 2050, a point ten Bruggencate echoed.
"Whatever we decide today will be decisive for the future of this industry," he said. "To look at the next three to five years, we will need to take many decisions — decisions which will lay out the pathways for our industries — because the industry works on long cycles."
He said walking around K, with its 3,000 exhibiting companies, shows the willingness of the industry to innovate and invest in new technology such as mechanical recycling, chemical recycling and "making sure that the feedstocks you're using are decoupled from virgin fossil feedstocks."
"We as an industry are committed; we're willing to move to a circular and decarbonized world," ten Bruggencate said.
But he also told the audience that the industry, particularly Europe's industry, was in a precarious situation, with skyrocketing energy prices threatening its competitiveness.
That theme was echoed at press conferences throughout the eight-day fair, from many sectors of the plastics industry.
"With the energy crisis at hand, we need to conclude that our industry is in a crisis mode; our industry is going through a very, very tough time," ten Bruggencate said. "The competitiveness of Europe's industry is at stake, jobs are at stake, and if we're not careful, we will see lots of investment and business going abroad, and with that, also the investment that is needed to effectuate the transformation to a circular and decarbonized world."
He called on governments to enact supportive policies.
In an interview after his speech, as an example of those policies, he pointed to the European Commission's plans in November to release an updated Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. PPWD is expected to include targets for recyclability, recycled content and nonvirgin fossil feedstocks.
"They are going to set the parameters under which the customers of ours will need to start buying these products," ten Bruggencate said, arguing PPWD's policy framework will stimulate demand to help the industry's transition.
"If the policy framework wasn't there … we could try anything we want, but the customers wouldn't want that much because of the price," he said. "All of this costs money, to put chemical recycling and mechanical recycling up."
