Kicking off SYSCHEMIQ: Boosting circular plastics at scale

A cross-border effort for smarter recycling

SYSCHEMIQ is an ambitious, four-year Horizon Europe project that brings together public and private stakeholders from across the Netherlands, Flanders, and North Rhine-Westphalia. Its goal is to radically improve how plastic waste (especially from packaging) is collected, processed, and recycled across borders.

The project’s efforts are concentrated in the trilateral chemical region, one of Europe’s most innovation-driven clusters for sustainable chemistry. This setting offers a unique testbed for large-scale demonstration and systemic change in plastic value chains.

PNO’s role in SYSCHEMIQ

PNO supported the successful proposal preparation and will lead the overall project coordination. In addition, PNO is responsible for:

• Stakeholder mapping and engagement across sectors and regions
• Developing strategies for replication and uptake of project results
• Supporting the exploitation of innovations developed during the project

What SYSCHEMIQ will deliver

The project is designed to deliver several key outcomes that can be scaled across Europe:

• Methodologies to set up and manage multi-stakeholder Circular Hubs
• New value chain alignment models to boost recycling efficiency, especially in plastic packaging
• A first-of-its-kind commercial-scale chemical plastic recycling plant, to be demonstrated in the trilateral region

These efforts are aimed at accelerating the shift toward a truly circular plastics economy, reducing dependency on fossil-based feedstocks and minimizing plastic waste leakage.