What is this event about?
Plastic waste is one of today’s major environmental challenges. A large part of it comes from PET, a plastic commonly used in bottles, packaging, and many everyday products. As a result, huge amounts of PET waste accumulate around the world. Finding sustainable ways to recover and reuse this material has therefore become increasingly important.
UCSIA Fonds Bruyns Fellow Makram Elabed conducts research on chemical recycling, a promising technology that breaks PET down into its basic components so it can be transformed into new, higher-quality materials. This approach supports a circular economy in which waste becomes a valuable resource.
Why does this matter for Tunisia?
Plastic waste is also increasing rapidly in Tunisia. Yet advanced recycling technologies are still largely absent in the country’s industrial landscape. This gap could present a significant opportunity: Tunisia might become an attractive location for innovative recycling technologies and new investments. At the same time, various challenges remain – technological, social, economic, and infrastructural.
What does the panel aim to achieve?
This event brings together researchers, industry representatives, and policy experts to explore how scientific advances can be connected to real-world opportunities. We will discuss questions such as:
- How can chemical recycling help address plastic waste?
- What opportunities does this technology open for countries like Tunisia?
- What challenges still need to be tackled?
The goal is to reflect on how sustainable technologies can protect the environment and create new development pathways.
Scholarship Fund Bruyns
We organize this panel discussion in the framework of the Scholarship Fund Bruyns, which offers researchers from the Global South the opportunity to work at the University of Antwerp for an extended period. The collaboration is a two-way exchange: it strengthens the expertise of the visiting researcher while also enriching the University of Antwerp and UCSIA.
Since 2003, some twenty researchers from countries including DR Congo, Cameroon, Senegal, Ethiopia, and Pakistan have received a grant. One place is also available for a doctoral student from the Global South in 2027. Applications are open until 31 May 2026.
Programme
14:00
Welcome & introduction to the Scholarship Fund Bruyns
by Erik De Bom, Acting Director of UCSIA
14:10
Chemical Recycling of PET as a Pathway to a Circular Plastic Economy - Makram Elabed
by Makram Elabed, Fund Bruyns scholar
Plastic waste, particularly polyethylene terephthalate (PET), represents both a pressing environmental challenge and a significant untapped resource. This talk explores how chemical recycling technologies can transform PET waste into high-value materials, contributing to a more sustainable and circular economy. By breaking down plastic into its fundamental components, these processes offer new pathways to move beyond traditional recycling limitations.
Beyond the scientific perspective, this presentation also highlights emerging opportunities for developing regions such as Tunisia. The increasing generation of plastic waste, combined with the limited presence of advanced recycling technologies at the industrial level, creates strong potential for innovation, investment, and entrepreneurship.
At the same time, several challenges remain, including technological constraints, economic viability, and the need for appropriate infrastructure and policy support. This talk will therefore emphasize the importance of cross-border collaboration between researchers, industry actors, and policymakers to help bridge these gaps. Ultimately, it aims to show how sustainable recycling solutions can both address environmental issues and create new opportunities for development.
Makram Elabed is a PhD student at the University of Sfax and the University of Antwerp, and a UCSIA Fonds Bruyns Fellow. My research focuses on the chemical recycling of plastic waste, particularly on breaking down PET into its fundamental components and converting them into value-added materials such as copolyesteramides. Through my work, I aim to contribute to the development of circular economy approaches while exploring opportunities for sustainable technological innovation, especially in emerging economies like Tunisia.
14:30
Conditions for a flourishing chemical industry: shift of recycling to emerging markets? - Pieter Billen
by Prof. Pieter Billen, University of Antwerp
Although the EU has massively incentivized the Circular Economy of plastics, many new ventures fail during their scale-up trajectory. Policymakers are aware of particular challenges, and consequently new initiatives are on the horizon. But at this moment chemical recycling ventures play by the same set of market rules as any other commodity manufacturer.
Chemical recycling of plastics brings waste materials back into their essential chemical building blocks (monomers) which ought to be identical to virgin commodities. Therefore, intrinsically they are exposed to commodity pricing, which is currently dominated by access to low-cost energy in the United States and enormous economies-of-scale in China.
To solve this gridlock, and not solely rely on evolving EU policies, innovation is highly needed, to divert materials from commodity logic. Furthermore, and most importantly, searching for favorable investment conditions should not be restricted to EU countries, given that the market for sustainable molecules could be supplied from logistically and energetically attractive areas.
Therefore, connecting the demand for sustainable molecules, spurred by upcoming mandatory recycled content policies, to novel supply pathways could instigate a serious shortcut in plastics waste management trajectories in neighboring countries.
Pieter Billen is a chemical engineer and professor at the Faculty of Applied Applied Engineering of the University of Antwerp. He works on the circularity of organic materials, and bridges molecular science with sustainable process design. Chemical recycling of plastics is therefore evidently a staple application domain in the research group. Further interests are innovation policy and transformations of the chemical industry, and he is a mentor for several entrepreneurship programs.
15:15
Break
15:20
Panel discussion with
- Julia Wagner, European Commission, Desk Officer Tunisia at DG Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf
- Prof. Wim Deferme, Professor at the Institute of Materials Research, University of Hasselt
- Mr. Tarek Hosni, Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA) Tunisia, Director of the FIPA Tunisia Office in Paris
- Samira Benali, Researcher, University of Mons
The panel will be moderated by Prof. Philippe Nimmegeers, University of Antwerp
16:30
