TOMRA Talks Circular: Recent Episodes
TOMRA Circular Economy
A podcast that aims to affect real change with real conversations. In each episode, we connect with industry experts, business owners, activists and others, to discuss our transition to a circular economy - the challenges we face, the solutions that exist, and the innovations that could drive us into a waste-free future.
In this episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we are joined by Parshva Mehta co-founder of Polyperception and Andile Dlamini, Head of Digital Solutions, Recycling at TOMRA to explore how their partnership is changing the recycling game.
In this episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we explore the power of collaboration with guests Lars Enge, EVP Strategy at TOMRA and Christine Akselsen, CEO of Kezzler. Discover how TOMRA's recent stake in Kezzler is revolutionizing product traceability and recycling processes, driving circularity, and setting new standards for the circular economy.
Positive climate tipping points often spark rapid transformation. This TOMRA Talks Circular podcast discusses how super-leverage points and technology adoption can cut emissions in one key sector and support faster changes in other parts of the economy. Our guests, Ben Dixon and Maaike Witteveen from SYSTEMIQ, share their expertise and insights on tackling plastic pollution and decarbonizing industry. This special Earth Day episode outlines ideas for reshaping our world. Listen in to find out more!
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Is textile recycling the missing link for creating circular fashion? This TOMRA Talks Circular podcast explores what it takes to establish systems that collect and sort textiles for reuse and fiber-to-fiber recycling. Our guest, Vibeke Kroh, Head of TOMRA Textiles, shares her insights and key beliefs to enable textile circularity. From textile policy to reuse and technology-driven solutions, we discuss what it will take for the textile industry to transform from a linear to a circular economy. Listen in to find out more!
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Wealthier nations are responsible for much of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. How can residents in these countries proactively reduce their environmental footprint? In this TOMRA Talks Circular podcast, we interview a mother and son duo from Denmark to talk about generational differences and how they approach sustainability. Together with Helena Dreisig, Senior Vice President of People & Organization at TOMRA Food and her son, Sebastian (18), we hear how the impacts of climate change influence their daily habits. Listen in to hear the pro and contra arguments for a driver’s license, lights, rice and much more!
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The circular economy is a lifeline for our collective future. In this podcast episode, Tove Andersen, CEO and President of TOMRA shares her insights on the latest developments that positively impact the circular economy. The discussion runs the gamut of innovative ways to save precious resources, including using AI-based technologies to make mining, agriculture, waste management, textiles, packaging, and plastic production more sustainable.
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For decades, there has been a general gridlock on modernizing or expanding deposit return systems in the United States. But in 2021, lawmakers in Connecticut addressed the beverage industry and stakeholder challenges head-on. In the episode of TOMRA Talks Circular podcast, we talk to Mike Noel, Director of Public Affairs at TOMRA, to learn how policymakers passed legislation that will provide jobs, reduce waste disposal and recycling costs, and boost circularity.
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As policymakers from more than 170 nations come together for the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (#INC3) in November, intense discussions are underway about which mandates will be in a legally binding global plastics treaty. In this new TOMRA Talks Circular Podcast episode, environmental policy advocates Dominic Hogg, Founder and Director of Equanimator Ltd, and Jacob Rognhaug, Vice President of Public Affairs System Design at TOMRA, share their top takeaways for tackling plastic pollution. Covering a range of topics, including how mandatory extended producer responsibility can help cover the costs of waste collection and plastic recycling, giving countries in the global south a unique opportunity to leapfrog some of the world’s leading nations in circularity
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Did you know that the fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world? It contributes to 10% of global carbon emissions and 20% of global water waste. In this episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, Hilde van Duijn, Head of Global Value Chains at Circle Economy, shares her knowledge and perspectives on how industry players and consumers can work together to create a circular textile value chain.
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How can we reuse our way to true circularity for valuable resources, and what does this concept look like in practice? If you missed our webcast on Reuse, tune in to this week’s episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, as we have published part 2 of the audio recording. This episode features industry expert Andy Grant, Technical Director – Local Government at Eunomia.
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How can we reuse our way to true circularity for valuable resources, and what does this concept look like in practice? If you missed our webcast on Reuse, tune in to this week’s episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, as we have published part 1 of the audio recording. This episode features industry expert Geir Sæther (Senior Vice President, Circular Economy at TOMRA). Part 2 with Andy Grant (Eunomia) is coming soon.
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The UN treaty on plastic pollution has the potential to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy for plastic. With negotiations well on their way, we sat down with Nancy Strand, Senior Advisor at Avfall Norge, and Jacob Rognhaug, Vice President of Public Affairs, System Design at TOMRA to discuss the recent INC2 meeting in Paris.
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Environmental, Sustainability and Governance standards are significantly reshaping the business landscape, and it’s not only nature that’s benefitting. Sustainable action has the potential to reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction and reduce business risk. In this week’s episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we have an inspiring conversation with Marcin Grzeszek (Global Manager for Industry Segments Fitness and Recycling at Habasit) and Alexander Verlo (Senior Mechanical Engineer, Design & System Architecture at TOMRA Collection) about collaboration along the value chain.
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A recent study published by Reloop (in partnership with Zero Waste Europe), highlights the benefits and vast potential that mixed waste sorting – also known as mixed waste processing – has to positively impact not only recycling and recycled content targets, but also reduce our CO2 emissions.
In today’s episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we have the co-creators of this study, Clarissa Morawski, co-founder and CEO of Reloop and Janek Vähk, Zero Waste Europe’s Climate, Energy, and Air Pollution Programme Coordinator, to talk us through their findings.
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It’s been almost a year since we had Annupa Ahi, VP Public Affairs, Head of Asia at TOMRA, on the show to talk about the state of EPR in Asia. Today, we’re happy to have her back to talk us through what’s happened since then. Has intention turned to action?
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Digitalization is transforming how many companies do business – from the ways they communicate, to the ways they create, produce, and distribute their products. The waste management industry is no different. In this week’s episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we chat to Felix Flemming (senior vice president and Head of Digital at TOMRA Sorting) and Andile Dlamini (Head of Digital Solutions Recycling at TOMRA) about how big data is shaping the world of sorting and recycling.
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In the 2nd part of our episode on how deposit return systems (DRS) significantly improve the circularity of one of the most littered items in the world, beverage containers, Michael Löwe, VP Public Affairs and Head of System Design at TOMRA, talks us through the trends and challenges of implementing DRS around the world, among other things.
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When we give plastic a value, we help ensure that it is treated as a resource that can be used again and again. This is why deposit return systems (DRS) work to greatly accelerate the circularity of beverage containers. In this episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we chat to Michael Löwe, VP Public Affairs and Head of System Design at TOMRA, about what makes this system so successful, and how it is being implemented around the world.
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There’s no doubt that climate change is a multi-generational problem, but how do different generations think and talk about the crisis? To kick off 2023, we decided to get climate perspectives across generations. Father and son, Volker Rehrmann (EVP and Head of TOMRA Recycling) and Roque Rehrmann (student at the Technical University in Munich, Germany) join us for an enlightening chat on responsibility, challenges, and solutions.
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Only with clear and quick action can we accelerate solutions to the climate crisis and affect real change before it’s too late. Tove Andersen, TOMRA’s President and CEO, echoes this sentiment in our final podcast episode of 2022. Listen to her thoughts and hopes for the future now.
In March this year, the resolution titled: ‘End Plastic Pollution: Towards a legally binding instrument’ was adopted to address our waste crisis. In this episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we talk to Jacob Rognhaug, Vice President of Public Affairs, System Design at TOMRA, about the monumental negotiations that began recently to develop this legally binding instrument.
In this episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we talk to Pauline Bergan, Senior Business Development Manager at TOMRA, about the trends shaping the future of deposit return systems (DRS), the role of reverse vending machines in the digital ecosystem of DRS, and more.
In this week’s episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we continue to talk to Louisa Hoyes, Business Development Manager, Textiles at TOMRA, about the current state of affairs across the textiles value chain, and the solutions that exist to help close the loop and shift to a true circular economy for textiles.
In this week’s episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we talk to Dickon Bonvik-Stone, Communications Manager at TOMRA, about the norms of communicating climate change, why this approach has proven ineffective in driving action, and what we can do to change that.
In this week’s episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we talk to Louisa Hoyes, Business Development Manager, Textiles at TOMRA, about the current state of affairs across the textiles value chain, and the solutions that exist to help close the loop and shift to a true circular economy for textiles.
In part two of this episode on chemical recycling, we delve deeper into the topic with John Sewell, Secretary General at Chemical Recycling Europe. This episode covers the global landscape as it stands today, the need for capacity, as well as the political support for chemical recycling technologies, among other things.
Join us as we chat to John Sewell, Secretary General at Chemical Recycling Europe, about the potential that chemical recycling has to help tackle plastic pollution. We start with the basics, covering what chemical recycling is and its relationship to mechanical recycling, and work our way through this complex topic. Keep an eye out for part 2.
How a product is manufactured, how it’s used, how long it lasts, and how it’s disposed of – these are all elements that must be thought of while designing products and packaging. In this week’s episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we talk to Mateusz Wielopolski, founder of ÆVOLUTION, about his vision of circular product design. Don’t miss it.
In part two of our discussion with Jürgen Priesters, SVP, Business Development at TOMRA, we discuss what can be done now, and in the future to ensure that we meet recycling quotas and accelerate the transition towards a circular economy.
In our latest podcast, Jürgen Priesters, SVP Business Development at TOMRA, takes us through the first hundred years of waste collection systems in Germany, the current state of affairs, and what we can expect in the future. This is part one of a two-part episode.
Demand for aluminum is set to increase by over 40% by 2050. To meet that demand, we must collect and sort this material stream more effectively. In this episode, we talk to Frank van de Winkel, Business Development Manager, Metal at TOMRA, about the technologies that exist to help us achieve circularity for aluminum and other metals.
The amount of packaging waste that litters our environment continues to rise, and there has never been a greater need, first and foremost, for the circularity of post-consumer waste. In the latest episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, we talk to Laszlo Szekely, TOMRA’s Head of Plastics Applications, about how much plastic is in post-consumer waste streams, and the importance of collecting, sorting, and recycling these materials, among other things.
When talking about the circular economy, there are other waste steams than plastic that should be considered and handled in a way that allows us to maximize its use while minimizing its impact on the environment. Wood is a key example.
In this episode, we will talk about wood with Jose Matas, who works to protect this precious resource as a Segment Manager Wood at TOMRA.
This month, global environmental communities shared, and celebrated innovation at IFAT — the world's leading trade fair for environmental technologies — for the first time since the pandemic began. In our latest episode, we talk to Philipp Eisenmann, Exhibition Director at IFAT, about the visitors and exhibitors that came to Munich from around the world, the key focuses of this year’s event, and more.
To accelerate the transition towards a circular economy, we need innovation and new business models, of course. But more than that, we need to maximize the use of the effective systems that already exist. In our latest episode, we talk to Dr. Debbie Fletcher, Director of Operations at Eunomia, about how we can leverage existing solutions to achieve our sustainability targets.
Asia is the largest continent in the world, with many complex and culturally unique regions. This makes the development of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks for each region a large, complex, and unique undertaking.
In our fourth episode on EPR, we talk to Annupa Ahi, VP Public Affairs – Head of Asia Business Development and Strategy at TOMRA, about Asia’s current vision for circularity, how important EPR is in achieving that vision, and so much more.
Over the past two episodes, we have covered various aspects of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), but we have yet to hear from those who are most impacted from this policy principle – the producers themselves. Until now.
In this week’s episode, we talk with Katharina Marquardt, Head of Sustainability and Technical Communications (DACH region) at Procter and Gamble (P&G). We discuss the ever-increasing sustainable packaging demands from consumers, how P&G is responding to those demands, and the biggest impacts, challenges, and opportunities that EPR has on brand owners like P&G.
EPR provides the legal framework for producers to take responsibility for their product and packaging at all stages of their lifecycles and is fast becoming a recognized approach for ‘closing the loop’. But for EPR to really work, we must all play our part.
In this week’s episode, Mike Noel, Public Affairs Director at TOMRA, shines a light on the role consumers play in EPR and Deposit Return Systems. We discuss why it is critical for consumer convenience to be built into the design of collection systems, what we can learn from today’s high-performing EPR systems, and why Deposit Return Systems are a form of EPR, among other things. Don’t miss it!
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an important policy principle in the transition towards a circular economy, as it can create a framework to capture valuable materials and ensure their quality is effectively preserved for use in multiple cycles. The concept is simple enough – producers take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of products and packaging they place on the market – from the initial design phase until they reach end-of-life and are prepared to be used in a new lifecycle.
In today’s podcast, we discuss EPR with Bilyana Ignatova, VP Circular Economy Europe, Governmental Affairs at TOMRA. Not only do we cover EPR’s history, examples of success, who is involved, and where we stand today, but we also touch on how EPR should be designed to achieve effective and sustainable results. It’s a complex topic, so we’ll be covering it in more detail in future episodes too.
‘Climate change is the challenge of our lifetime’. In this special episode, Volker Rehrmann, Executive Vice President and Head of TOMRA Recycling/Mining and Circular Economy, talks about this challenge: how we rose to it in 2021, and how we may continue to rise in 2022.
We discuss breakthrough technologies, discoveries, and solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change, as well as how collaboration has been shown to enhance growth and performance in the waste management industry, and may be one of the most critical behaviors in achieving our sustainability goals. One thing is for certain: we need to act now, and we need to act fast. Don’t miss this inspiring episode!
Governments and policy makers can only do so much in the fight for a waste-free future. To help inspire real change, we need leaders with a deep drive to make a difference, a passion for problem solving, and the knowledge to back it up. We need more leaders like Dr. Ramesh Ramachandran, the newly-appointed CEO of Minderoo Foundation’s No Plastic Waste initiative.
In our 10th podcast, we chat to Dr. Ramachandran about what sets Minderoo apart from the rest (spoiler alert: actions speak louder than words) and the importance of building collaborative partnerships as a way to invest in a more circular economy. Don’t miss this!
Here’s the truth: All plastics, whether bio-based or traditional, have the same negative effect on the environment if they are left to burn or take up space in landfills. Clarissa Morawski, co-founder and CEO of Reloop, is back to remind us that no matter what a material is made of, we need to collect and process it properly if we’re going to ensure that it ends up being turned into something valuable (and stays out of landfills and incinerators).
This is the 2nd part of our chat with Clarissa, and in this episode, we turn our attention to the plastic industry. Clarissa defines the different types of plastic used today (including bio-based and degradable plastics) and discusses whether growing these materials to make new products should be a priority of ours or not. Join us as we discuss this hot topic, and so much more!
We have a plastic pollution problem, and we have massive garbage patches floating on the surface of the ocean to remind us that we need to do whatever it takes to solve it. We can no longer sit on the sidelines, and no one knows that better than Emily Penn.
In this episode, we talk to skipper, dedicated ocean activist, public speaker, and advisor Emily Penn about the many challenges we face today when it comes to the health of our oceans. We also touch on microplastics, and Emily's organization, eXXpedition, which helps hundreds of women get educated, inspired, and mobilized to make a difference. If you’re looking for some inspiration today, look no further!
In this episode, Clarissa Morawski, co-founder and CEO of Reloop, explores the complicated matter of moving towards a circular economy – the challenges, as well as the solutions that will help us keep products and materials in the loop for as long as possible, and, by extension, help us regenerate our natural systems and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Reloop is focused on building a world where resources remain resources. To achieve that, they work with governments, industry, and society to accelerate the global transition to a circular economy for all resources. With over 25 years in the industry, we were very keen to hear what she had to say, and we know you will be too
If the goal is to collect and recycle as much waste as possible before it ends up being burned - then this episode covers one crucial solution in making that goal a reality.
We sat down with Arnoud te Winkel, Area Sales Manager at TOMRA, to chat through a waste model that has proven to increase the amount of high-value material that we recover from household waste. Waste destined for recycling, not incineration.
We discuss the entire process, from start (the collection of household waste) to finish (where sensor-based technology takes over), as well as the benefits of this process, how the concept of sorting prior to incineration is viewed in the waste industry today, and how it could affect consumer behavior. This conversation is an important piece of the mixed waste sorting puzzle – you don’t want to miss it!
In this episode, Tom Eng, Senior Vice President and Head of Recycling at TOMRA, joins us to talk about a solution that can help lessen our dependency on virgin materials and enhance the circularity of high-quality recycled content for new products and packaging.
To increase our recycling rates, we need to recover valuable materials before they end up in landfills and incinerators. That’s where Mixed Waste Sorting comes in. In this podcast, we touch on the challenges and benefits of this process, as well as showcase examples of how Mixed Waste Sorting is faring in the world today. You don’t want to miss it.
In this episode, Harald Henriksen, Head of TOMRA Collections, takes listeners through a TOMRA first – and a global first – 100 days to help rid a country of their plastic beverage container litter.
Due to TOMRA’s level of experience, high-performing service, and unparalleled digital solutions, the Lithuanian government chose us to implement a national Deposit Return Scheme (one of the most effective solutions to plastic waste litter). Harald explains how the system works, as well as the impact that it has had on the Lithuanian public, and key stakeholders.
In this episode, Wolfgang Ringel, Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs at TOMRA, talks Deposit Return Schemes (DRS): the benefits, the challenges, and the future of this tried and tested plastic waste solution.
DRS fits into TOMRA’s holistic approach to waste management (as highlighted in the new white paper, Holistic Resource Systems), and in this episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, you’ll find out exactly how, and why from a man who has spent the past 30 years in the business of climate protection and waste.
Thought provoking, to-the-point, and from the heart. You don’t want to miss it!
In this episode, Oliver Lambertz, Vice President, Head of Business Development at TOMRA Sorting, discusses Norway’s #1 waste management model for collecting the most household plastic waste.
For consumers, source separation can be inconvenient, complicated or confusing, which is how post-consumer waste ends up being incinerated instead of recycled. Enter the advanced mixed waste sorting facility that changed the game.
Oliver discusses the benefits of such a facility, as well as plastic recovery prior to incineration, and more. Detailed, focused, and thought provoking. Give it a listen!
In this episode, Volker Rehrmann, Executive Vice President and Head of TOMRA Recycling/Mining and Circular Economy, talks about the newest division at TOMRA, and how its approach to waste management can help us achieve the EU’s ambitious, but achievable green objectives.
TOMRA’s holistic approach to waste management (as highlighted in the white paper, Holistic Resource Systems), looks at three tried-and-tested recycling solutions: Deposit Return Schemes, Separate Collections, and Mixed Waste Sorting, and how integrating all three can help us accelerate the move towards a circular economy.