issue 05/2021
Highlights: Fibres, Textiles, Nonwovens Biocomposites Basics: CO2-based plastics
Highlights:
Fibres, Textiles, Nonwovens
Biocomposites
Basics: CO2-based plastics
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Conference Review<br />
By:<br />
Harald Kaeb, narocon InnovationConsulting<br />
Berlin, Germany<br />
and Alex Thielen<br />
Well attended: More than one hundred professionals<br />
informed themselves online and on-site<br />
Challenging: The hybrid format requires high technical efforts<br />
Speakers had to consider video-transmission,<br />
almost like in a TV studio<br />
Second bio!TOY<br />
Toy industry seeks information and sustainable<br />
plastics<br />
Over one hundred international participants attended<br />
the second edition of the bio!TOY conference,<br />
organised by bioplastics MAGAZINE and innovation<br />
consultancy Dr Käb, in Nuremberg (Germany) on the 7 th<br />
and 8 th of September. This meeting of toy manufacturers<br />
with plastics companies demonstrated the industries’ high<br />
interest in sustainable production and circular economy.<br />
Both the presentations and resulting discussions point to a<br />
growing dynamic in the competition for biobased and highquality<br />
recycled plastics.<br />
Against the backdrop of increasingly threatening climate<br />
change and substantial criticism of the use of plastics,<br />
the search for more sustainable solutions has now fully<br />
arrived in the toy industry. The list of participants at the<br />
conference reads like a Who’s Who of the industry. On the<br />
podium, the top 3 in the industry, Lego, Hasbro, and Mattel,<br />
explained what goals they are pursuing and how they are<br />
implementing them step by step. While smaller players like<br />
Viking Toys, Dantoy, and eKoala talked about the challenges<br />
and opportunities they face. At the top of the toy industry’s<br />
wish list for more sustainable toy design in the future are<br />
recyclability and the use of renewable raw materials as<br />
well as recycled plastics. At the conference, raw material<br />
manufacturers were able to explain the supply options<br />
and effects on durability and recyclability directly to their<br />
potential customers.<br />
The hybrid format of the conference – about two-thirds<br />
on-site, one-third online – was a technically challenging<br />
innovation. Despite the pandemic and the avoidance of<br />
emission-intensive air traffic, proximity and intensive<br />
discussion were possible after a long period of abstinence.<br />
The conference was supported by the German Toy<br />
Industry Association DVSI and Spielwarenmesse Nürnberg.<br />
In their greetings, both industry platforms pointed out<br />
the growing importance of the presented and discussed<br />
solutions, as well as their own activities. It is still a long<br />
way to complete climate neutrality and a comprehensive<br />
circular economy, said the German chemical industry<br />
association in a presentation, but important steps are now<br />
possible for every company. The first step is information,<br />
here the direct and open exchange definitely helps and<br />
motivates, the organisers explained.<br />
The feedback of the participants was unanimously<br />
positive and the joy about real face-to-face exchanges was<br />
palpable. The next bio!TOY conference, in March 2023, will<br />
without a doubt deliver news and updates on the progress<br />
that is about to be made.<br />
8 bioplastics MAGAZINE [<strong>05</strong>/21] Vol. 16