Polish Leaders of the Circular Economy have been selected!

Platform to buy sets of fabrics and unused scraps in production, Swapp refillomats! limiting the number of disposable plastic packaging or the "Fix it, don't throw it away" initiative are only some of the awarded projects in the Stena Circular Economy Award competition. Stena Recycling was accepted into the 4th edition of the competition as many as 57 applications in 3 competition categories, 4 main prizes and 5 distinctions were awarded.

Published by Eurostat, the so-called Poland's circularity index (circular use of materials) is only 9.8%. It is lower than the EU average. Meanwhile, the circular economy is currently one of the most important global trends. As a society, we consume more and more, the amount of waste we produce is increasing and our natural resource are being exploited more and more. Therefore, it is necessary to intensify the process of changing the linear economy model into circular one, i.e. one in which materials used by society or during production are used repeatedly. The applications of companies and students in the Stena Recycling competition are an example that there are already many interesting, circular solutions on the Polish market.

- I am glad that, also thanks to the Stena Recycling competition, the interest in issues related to the circular economy is growing year by year. As a member of the jury, I must admit that this year it was very difficult to choose the best submitted activities also because the participating companies very different industries represented the competition. However, this shows that circular economy can be introduced in various industries. I hope that this year's ideas will inspire other companies to implement circular solutions - says Michał Mikołajczyk from the Rekopol Packaging Recovery Organization.

For years, Stena Recycling has been running a number of initiatives supporting the idea of ​​circular economy. On a daily basis, the company provides entrepreneurs with support in the field of waste management and management. He is also the initiator of many educational campaigns, conferences devoted to circular economy and the Stena Circular Economy Award competition - Closed Circular Economy Leader.

- The record number of submitted applications has shown that more and more companies operating in many different areas are striving to find processes that will help adapt their operations to the circular economy. We are glad that circular initiatives are not only the domain of the corporation. The leaders of circular practices are also smaller enterprises and startups. In addition, we observe a growing interest in the subject of circular economy among students. After all, this new generation will soon build our future - says Piotr Bruździak, Sales and Marketing Director, Stena Recycling.

The first place in the "Implemented practices in the circular economy" category was awarded ex-aequo to three companies: Carrefour Polska Sp. z o.o. and Swapp! Sp. z o.o. for the joint launch of cosmetic refillomats, which encourage customers to limit the use of disposable plastic packaging while shopping, and for the startup Creative Publishing Katarzyna Wooden for the "Circular Scrap" project, i.e. the first platform in the fashion industry, specializing in into the recycling of post-production textile waste. In addition, awards for the implemented circular economy practices were awarded to: BASF Polska Sp. z o.o. for creating high-quality, universal biodegradable material Ecovio®, and Żywiec Zdrój S.A. for fulfilling the obligation to collect and recycle as much plastic as the company has placed on the market.

As the best solution in the "Implemented measures promoting circular economy" category, the competition jury recognized the initiative "Fix it, do not throw it away" implemented by the educational and sales platform North.pl, which focuses on repeated use and replacement of damaged parts in household appliances and electronics. Awards in this category were also awarded to the following companies: Jeronimo Martins Polska S.A. and Amazon Fulfillment Poland. The Biedronka chain of stores has been recognized for placing colored segregation pictograms on the packaging of private label products. In this case, the competition jury noticed a wide scale of reaching consumers and thus a real possibility of improving waste segregation. In turn, Amazon Fulfillment Poland received an award for implementing grass-roots activities and initiatives in the field of sustainable development and transferring them to the scale of the entire enterprise.

Among the "Proposals for the implementation of circular economy" submitted by students, the main prize was awarded to Łukasz Ziemba (Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice) for the "Łach" project, which engages inmates in the production of covers for telephones, laptops or tablets from leftover materials created during the production of workwear. An additional distinction was awarded to Piotr Długosz and Jacek Organiściak (Lodz University of Technology) for their joint project "Reusable courier packaging", the aim of which is to minimize waste production by introducing reusable courier packaging made of "green" polymers.

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