Lüdenscheid Plastics Institute
A delegation from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Environment of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as well as participants from the Business Metropole Ruhr and the Unna district’s economic development agency received comprehensive information about the innovative four-year “Materials Forum of the Future” project in the 5-location program at the WdZ site at Nature Compound GmbH in Schwerte on 4 June 2025. This forward-looking project integrates players from the circular economy and the plastics processing industry in the region and strengthens the plastics industry as an anchor of stability in NRW through targeted transformation.
The project was officially launched on 1 January 2024 as part of the 5-location program of the Business Metropole Ruhr regional economic development agency. The work packages are clearly distributed within the partners REMONDIS Recycling GmbH Co KG, the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy gGmbH, ZENIT GmbH, TechnoPark und Wirtschaftsförderung Schwerte (TWS) and the Kunststoff-Institut Lüdenscheid as consortium leader and are interlinked in an interdisciplinary way with the aim of choosing the best possible approach for the companies. The interactions between the players play an important role in the forum. Particularly with regard to sustainability strategies within the companies, it is important to understand what influences measures along the value chain have on each other. The partners have developed a viable concept for this in the form of a toolbox in order to get into “doing” in a targeted manner.
This was reason enough for the ministries to take a look at the work and the Schwerte site.
Materials forum supports companies in their transformation
One of the core objectives of the Materials Forum is to focus in particular on engineering plastics. These are used in key industries such as the automotive, electrical and construction sectors. Companies are increasingly confronted with regulatory requirements that demand the use of sustainable materials. As a result, the industry is facing a shortage of recycled materials that needs to be compensated for. The aim is to provide companies with the tools and knowledge they need to master the challenges of securing sources, e.g. with their own business models. The project partners use a toolbox of methods to identify this potential in company workshops. Recommendations for action and technological concepts have already been successfully developed in the first workshops. Small and medium-sized companies in particular benefit from this opportunity to integrate the approaches developed in the forum directly into their processes. Recording the status quo and evaluating possible material flows in the Materials Forum are the first steps towards deriving solutions for companies. The digital product passport, which documents the components, materials and their properties, will play a special role in the future. This data and characteristic values form the basis for a future evaluation scheme that assesses the recyclability and sustainability of plastics.
Partners of the Materials Forum achieve a further, genuine “marine value”, for example, with the integration of algae as a new source with ambitions in the context of sustainable materials, and not just for packaging. The forum thus also supports the expansion of the bioeconomy strategy of the state of NRW as a growth driver for the industry.
The vision of the Materials Forum extends far beyond the current funding period. The aim is to enable companies to independently expand the sustainable use of materials and transfer this to other processes. With regional roots at the interface of the district of Unna as a growth sector for the circular economy, the Ruhr metropolis and the strong plastics region of South Westphalia, the Werkstoffforum is creating a model for sustainable material use in North Rhine-Westphalia with national and international appeal.
The ministries as well as the economic development agencies were able to see for themselves how sustainable solutions can be created through interdisciplinary cooperation and innovative approaches. The Materials Forum combines technological innovation with a clear social mission and shows that plastics can not only be part of the problem, but also part of the solution.
5-location program
The 5-location program uses federal funds to help cope with the economic consequences of the phase-out of coal-fired power generation in North Rhine-Westphalia. The aim is to cushion the loss of value added and employment in the affected regions. To this end, the federal government is making up to 662 million euros available to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for projects to strengthen structures in Hamm, Herne, Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen and the district of Unna. Until 2038, these funds will be used to initiate innovative projects to create new economic prospects and opportunities at the five locations. One of these funded projects is the Materials Forum of the Future in Schwerte, which aims to provide forward-looking impetus for the region. The Materials Forum of the Future is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) and the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Delegation of the ministries of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Business Metropole Ruhr, Economic Development of the District of Unna and partners of the Materials Forum of the Future at the Nature Compound GmbH site, Schwerte 04.06.2025
f.l.t.r: Christoph Gutzeit (TWS GmbH), Markus Querfurt (BMR), Sascha Dargazanli (Ministry of Environment, Nature and Transport MUNV), Sabine Widdermann (ZENIT GmbH), Andreas Sturm (BMR), Michael Tesch (Kunststoff-Institut Lüdenscheid), Thorsten Witter (TWS GmbH), Michael Ritthoff (Wuppertal Institute), Christopher Juschka (Ministry of Economy, Industry, Climate and Development MWIKE), Nadine Boßle (MWIKE), Bärbel Mauer (MWIKE), Bettina Kittel (MWIKE), Andre Müller (WFG), Monica Harting-Pfeifer (REMONDIS)
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