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Innovation Agents on a mission
Every month, an innovation agent from ChemistryNL gives you insight into his/her daily work. Read the blogs of:Martin van Dord, Caroli Buitenhuis, René Reijtenbagh, Eric van Sprang, Marco Tibaldi and Lays da Cruz
This month : Martin van Dord
Blog: Circularity without skilled workers is an illusion!
There is something fascinating about the way we talk about circularity in the plastics industry. We invest millions in new polymers, recyclate streams, and innovative technologies — but for a long time, we expected operators on the shop floor to simply “pick it up.” As if knowledge is just as easy to recycle as HDPE. Spoiler: it isn’t.
We ask skilled workers to work with circular polymers that behave more erratically, are less predictable, and place higher demands on process control. And indeed: the accompanying learning content was often hopelessly outdated. Linear, static, and conceived far removed from practice.
That is a problem. Or rather: it was a problem.
Because what proved necessary here was up-to-date knowledge. Companies, educational institutions, and everyone involved in training employees in plastics processing have set to work and developed new learning content together that aligns with what is currently happening in the sector: the transition to a circular plastics chain.
No frills, but clear and usable modules on the processing of circular polymers. Focused on practice, relatable to the shop floor, and directly applicable in daily work. And perhaps most importantly: this content is available to the entire sector. No isolated pockets, but a shared foundation that all people and companies can work with.
That sounds obvious, but it isn’t. Especially in a time when everyone is struggling with the same transition, learning new things is the only way to pick up the pace.
With this, training definitively shifts from a secondary matter to a prerequisite. Not something you “do on the side,” but something that determines whether circular ambitions are feasible at all. Because you can have the best recyclate stream in the world — if no one knows how to work with it, innovation will still founder on the shop floor.
Perhaps that is the real breakthrough: we are finally treating knowledge no longer as a waste stream, but as a raw material.
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