Frans Beckers

FBBasic/ Cirmar

Owner Cirmar and FBBasic

Frans Beckers is the Founder and Owner of Cirmar and a pioneer in closed and open loop business models and the circular economy. Before establishing FBBasic in 2012 and Cirmar in 2015, Frans worked in the waste management sector for almost 15 years. He also has experience in the health and chemical sectors, specializing in purchasing, logistics, and environmental management. As the managing director of both FBBasic and Cirmar, Frans helps companies rethink and develop new business models with practical and digital solutions.

Setting the scene

A quick overview of the current state of affairs regarding the transition to a circular economy, focused on plastics. Frans Beckers will introduce the topic and address the elephant in the room: how are we going to make it work? For decades, international, European and national goals have been defined, looking to transform our mostly linear economy to a more sustainable, circular economy. These goals are underpinned by material scarcity, high prices of resources and the need to gain a grip on our environmental footprint. At the same time, we face geopolitical developments that put a high pressure on the European recycling market. Within this transition, there are many buttons to push. But what role can analysis play? And how do we make sure analysis combines with real-world challenges to move from ambitious targets to tangible circular progress.

Nomenclature and Digital Product Passport

One of the biggest challenges in scaling the circular economy, is for everyone to speak the same language. Companies trying to apply recycled content in their products have to deal with the cost and availability of materials. Additionally, continued quality that fits the specific use of materials is not evident. If we want to scale recycled content in products, we should develop a uniform nomenclature (common language), that helps us understand the qualities and possible uses of recycled content. In this talk, Frans will elaborate on the formation of such a common language and relate it to another promising development that can translate the efforts of analysis to applications in more circular products: the Digital Product Passport.

The urban mining company

FBBasic recovers raw materials. They do this by transforming linear production- and consumption systems into circular systems, that they strengthen step by step. FBBasic focuses on product design, reverse logistics, refurbishment & recycling and applications - the elements of a circular system. Where necessary, they also provide support to companies tackling topics like business model innovation, marketing & communication and change management. They develop, offer support and optimize. In addition, they operationalize return logistics, recycling and provide tech applications through Cirmar.

Tech tools for the circular economy. This is what Cirmar does.

The transition to the circular economy is a challenge. It won't happen overnight, but with the right tech tools you can make great strides. At Cirmar, we focus on the essence of the circular economy: material recuperation. That is why we help you with insights into your material use, recording the supply chain and automatically calculated impact data.