The Plasticity Forum will hold its fifth annual international conference on April 27-28 in Shanghai, China. The forum – to be held at the Andaz Xintiandi, Shanghai – focuses on the future of plastic, and where opportunities can be created with resource recovery, job creation and waste reduction. It takes place the same week as CHINAPLAS 2016, the world’s second-largest trade show, in Shanghai, where many of the world’s largest plastic producers will be present. Plasticity’s theme this year focuses on “Material Solutions for Undervalued Resources.” 

The Plasticity Forum gathers leading experts, including innovators, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, brand managers, educators, think tanks, government agencies, designers and investors to share key learnings, experience and strategies around the use and recovery of plastic. This year’s forum will include the latest developments in waste as a resource, scalable innovations in plastic that save money, use of new materials, designing for sustainability, and solutions for a world where plastic is used – but without the environmental footprint. 

“Plastic is a valuable resource, but the current processes within many of our communities do not allow optimized resource recovery,” according to Plasticity founder Doug Woodring. “Companies now realize that environmental sustainability has a positive impact not only on the communities they serve, but also on their own bottom line. Managing the plastic ecosystem through recycling, reuse and closed-loop methods can create jobs, save money, improve brand value and create efficiency in corporate supply chains.”

The Plasticity Forum was formed to address the global growing plastic waste issue, and brings together experts from all across the spectrum of plastic use, production, design and reuse in a positive and productive environment. This is needed to collectively create solutions that companies and governments can use in all types of circumstances and societies. The event talks about what technologies and processes are available today, or which are just on the horizon, and can be readily adopted by companies to gain a leading edge in their business operations.

“We’re pleased to see the ‘big conversation on the future of plastics’ that Plasticity started in Rio in 2012, now moving to the mainstream alongside CHINAPLAS 2016 in Shanghai,” said Steve Davies, Director of Public Affairs for bioplastics producer NatureWorks.

* Dr. Mike Biddle, clean-tech entrepreneur, founder and board member of durable-product recycling pioneer MBA Polymers, will be one of the featured speakers. He has won the 2012 Gothenburg Sustainability Prize, Economist Innovation Award, World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, World Technology Network Award and many others. Other winners of these awards include Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Al Gore and Kofi Annan. 
  * Mr. Kim Siu, General Manager of Marketing for A.S. Watsons, will also be presenting. He was responsible for the exciting shift from zero to 100% recycled PET material for Watsons Water bottles in Hong Kong in 2015. Watsons was the first company in Asia to make such a move, saving 75 million bottles from the waste stream as a result. 
  * Dr. Lai Li from the Jiangsu Province Information Center will speak about his region’s work to become a leader in the movement toward a circular economy within Jiangsu’s industrial parks and communities; and
* Mr. Akshay Sethi, the young CEO of Ambercycle, and winner of the H&M Global Change Award, will speak on his firm’s unique process to digest polyester from waste in the textile industry, and turn that into high-quality raw material again. See the Plasticity Forum website at www.plasticityforum.com for the latest, most complete agenda and speaker information.

Plasticity Forum is pleased this year to welcome the World Plastics Council as a significant new sponsor. WPC is a group of leading global plastic resin makers that includes the Chinese Petrochemical and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF) as a member of its Executive Committee. Other forum sponsors include Ingeo, Dow and BASF and the Global Ocean Commission.

As an added feature to this year’s program, Plasticity is offering participants the chance to join a half-day design workshop on April 28 in central Shanghai called “Products & Packaging – Designing Sustainably.” Partners in this event will be Successful Design Organization, CBi China Bridge, Green Initiatives, EMG, and Ruder Finn Public Relations – all thought leaders in their respective spaces. On April 26, the day prior to the conference, participants can join a guided tour of the CHINAPLAS show as part of the knowledge building related to the Plasticity Forum. An event trailer can be viewed here.

About Plasticity Forum
The Plasticity Forum is a cross section of thinkers, solution providers, brands, users and those who appreciate scale to expedite the solutions and innovations that exist today to keep plastic from becoming a problem for our communities and environment. Plasticity offers a global discussion and perspective on solutions, how to standardize across products or industries, and how to bring about new opportunities in production and recovery operations. For more information, visit www.plasticityforum.com.

About Ocean Recovery Alliance
Ocean Recovery Alliance brings together new ways of thinking, technologies, creativity and collaborations in order to introduce innovative projects and initiatives that help to improve our ocean environment. It has two projects with the Clinton Global Initiative focused on the reduction of plastic pollution, and is one of the only NGOs in the world to be working with both the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Oceans. It is the founder of the Plasticity Forum, originally launched in 2012 at the Rio+20 Earth Summit, and is an advisor for The Economist’s World Ocean Summit. For more information, visit www.oceanrecov.org.

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