Circular economy in the plastics industry: the Darnel success story

For years, the circular economy in the plastics industry has been treated as a materials problem and nothing more. Anyone who sees it that way is wrong. Real transformation happens when circularity is approached as what it actually is: a strategy of systemic efficiency and process optimisation.

After more than eight years of strategic partnership between Global Zero Waste and Darnel, under the operational leadership of Juan David Carrillo, we have been able to show that cutting waste is a driver of profitability and social value that reaches every dimension of the operation.

Through the implementation of our Cirways management system, the systemic approach let us go far beyond materials. In a market where energy and operating costs are increasingly punishing, we deployed permanent monitoring systems that prove a point I always make:

"When you achieve efficiencies in the way resources are handled, the impact is systemic: it reaches everything from energy and water flows to the reduction of time, movement and demand for materials. Because remember: time is the one thing that cannot be recycled."

The technical and regulatory milestone: breaking the 100% recycled myth

As a lawyer and a strategist, I know that technical innovation is worth nothing without legal viability and regulatory certainty. That is why the greatest source of pride in this partnership is having established Darnel as the undisputed benchmark in Colombia: the only company with INVIMA certification to produce food-contact packaging made from 100% post-consumer material.

This achievement was no stroke of luck; it is the result of years of joint investment in R&D, high-precision filtration systems and strict laboratory control. We got recovered plastic back onto the market with the same safety as virgin resin. That, in essence, is taking the “Cradle to Cradle” concept to mass scale.

The human factor: a laboratory of social transformation

No management system survives without culture. Today, this vision runs through a workforce of more than 3,000 people. The zero waste culture has left the production plants and moved straight into the homes of the people who work there.

One example of this teaching is the school ruler we designed out of eight foam plates and 20 recovered polystyrene cups: a measurable symbol that plastic, managed with the right technical rigour, is a valuable resource for the future and not a throwaway.

My call to action for senior management

The experience with the Darnel group shows that the plastics industry does not have to be the problem; it can lead the solution if it has the right technical support and a vision that connects local impact with global scalability.

If an industrial giant of this size was able to transform its operations and safeguard its regulatory future, what is holding your organisation back? Sustainability and the circular economy are no longer optional; they are the new standard of competitiveness.

At Global Zero Waste we do not design speeches, we build management systems that transform industries. I look forward to reading your comments.

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