The industry gathering organised by the bvse will take place from 9 to 10 June 2026. As part of the International Circular Plastic Day, a joint workshop will be held by BKV and Plastics Europe Deutschland.

After several years, the venue is once again the Steigenberger Hotel in Bad Neuenahr, following the severe damage caused to the conference venue by the Ahr floods in 2021, which necessitated renovation work. The theme of this year’s International Circular Plastic Day organised by the bvse Bundesverband Sekundärrohstoffe und Entsorgung (Federal Association for Secondary Raw Materials and Waste Management) is: “Plastics Recycling 2026: Markets in Transition – Shaping the Future with the PPWR”.
 
The event will open with two welcoming addresses by the Chairman of the bvse Plastics Recycling Association, Dr Dirk Textor, and the Vice-President of the bvse, Herbert Snell. According to the programme, Prof. Dr Henning Wilts, Head of the Circular Economy Department at the Wuppertal Institute, will give a presentation on the topic: “Shaping the future with the PPWR”, followed by two panel discussions. The first round will address the question: “Regulation as a driver or a brake – which markets do we need?” The panellists will be Silke Karcher from the Federal Environment Ministry, Gunda Rachut from the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (Central Agency for Packaging Register, ZSVR), bvse Vice-President Herbert Snell, Dagmar Glatz, representative of dm-drogerie markt GmbH + Co. KG, and Prof. Dr Henning Wilts. The discussion will be moderated by Dr Martin Engelmann, Chief Executive of the IK Industrieverband Kunststoffverpackungen (Industrial Association for Plastic Packaging). The second panel discussion on the topic “Nordic Circularity – What Scandinavia is doing differently today” will feature: Dr Dirk Textor, Rickard Jansson (Swedish Plastic Recycling), Karl Johan Ingvaldsen (Plastretur AS) and Marianne Roed Jakobsen from the producer responsibility organisation Vana A/S. The session will be moderated by Klaus Wohnig, Deputy Chairman of the bvse Fachverband Kunststoffrecycling (Plastics Recycling Association).
 
Following the plenary presentation and the panel discussions, the two parallel workshops “Innovation makes the circular economy possible: Technical solutions for the market” (Workshop A) and “Strengthening the circular economy in Europe through a ‘level playing field’ and the use of qualified recycled materials” (Workshop B) will take place in the afternoon. In the first part of Workshop B, PED Main Managing Director Dr Christine Bunte will moderate the discussion on the topic “What measures strengthen the circular economy in Europe?”, beginning with a keynote presentation by Maximilian Nichterlein (PED) entitled “Changes in plastic trade flows as a result of geopolitical shifts”. Participants in this panel include bvse Vice-President Herbert Snell and Dr Jens Hamprecht from BASF.
 
The second sub-session of the BKV, on the topic of “Quotas versus Quality”, will be moderated by BKV Managing Director Dr Ingo Sartorius. The session will examine the importance of quality in relation to volume requirements within the context of waste management practice, from collection, sorting, treatment and recycling through to recycled material production and product use. Elisa Brade from the Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environment Agency, UBA) will provide an overview of the practical aspects of the recycling infrastructure for plastic packaging, and Lukas Scheeben from the plastics processor Pöppelmann will give a short presentation on the topic of “The use of recycled materials in applications with high-quality requirements”. According to the programme, the subsequent panel discussion will feature Alexander-Christian Root (Prezero Dual), Dr Dirk Textor (Graf Polymers), Dr Frank Buckel (Covestro Deutschland AG), Dr Peter Dziezok (Proctor & Gamble) and Dr Isabell Schmidt (IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen). You can find out more about the workshop programme on the bvse website for the International Circular Plastic Day.
 
Following the main programme, the traditional get-together will take place at the evening barbecue. On both days of the industry gathering, participants in the International Circular Plastic Day can visit a product exhibition and an exhibitor area. On the second day of the event, 10 June, a forum will be held featuring short presentations by exhibitors followed by a Q&A session, alongside the third workshop C: ‘Plastic product design in interdisciplinary dialogue: The opposite of good is not bad, but well-intentioned.’
 
Further information: registration
 
Sources:

• www.altkunststofftag-bvse.de
• bvse press release (21.5.2026)
• Image: © bvse