Sustainability often starts close to home. The advantage of geographical proximity can also be applied to resource efficiency and technological developments. “People rarely realize that innovative companies are located in their own environment that are implementing exactly what they themselves actually need,” says Source One project manager Charlotte Garske. “In this context, classic real neighborhood help is also extremely valuable for companies. The transfer of knowledge alone is exciting. And when you talk to each other or help each other out, synergies can arise very quickly.”
The regional funding project “neu/wagen – Transformationsnetzwerk Hannover/Hildesheim” also follows the guiding principle of active neighborhood. The cluster network has set itself the goal of supporting regional companies in the automotive industry in “identifying and implementing their own transformation paths”, among other things with a “working group on the circular economy”. “This project is about rethinking the automotive industry and establishing classic approaches to the circular economy or innovative solutions for greater energy efficiency,” says Charlotte Garske. “We are looking at which sustainable processes Source One can set up within the network to make the manufacturing and supplying companies in our region’s automotive industry fit for the future.”
In her presentation on March 13 at the Technology Day for Plastics Processing in Hanover, Charlotte Garske will show that recycling management and energy efficiency go hand in hand in the long term. She will be speaking at the “neu/wagen” network trade fair about “energy-efficient recycling” and will be building a bridge between the automotive industry’s used plastic parts, dry-mechanical cleaning processes and alternative energies, using the example of Source One Plastics’ sorting and recycling plant in Eicklingen.
“We can support our neighbors in their transformation to a circular material use both in an advisory capacity with our recycling know-how and operationally with the management of waste streams,” says Charlotte Garske. ”Mutual neighborly hands-on help is also possible when an additional conveyor belt is needed or when a material needs to be tested to see how it behaves. It’s just great when we can test the feasibility of unconventional ideas in an equally unconventional and timely manner with the help of equipment, tools or injection molds from the neighborhood. It makes sense to create shared opportunities regionally – this way we can accelerate solutions.”