Some years ago, I participated in the tour organized by Konrad Adenauer Foundation on Circular Economy in Plastics. We were six, four from Chile and two from India. A nice, friendly and compact group. Our coordinator Johannes was charming and a great organizer. The tour was designed extremely well.

We were in Brussels to meet senior officials from EC representing different DGs, and got an opportunity to understand the evolution of circular economy and the challenges that are faced. We then moved to Bonn and Koln to meet leading companies working on innovations in plastic and circular packaging. We also spent good time with Green Dot, Bonn Municipality, German Development Institute, CEPS (Think Tank) and AVG – one the largest waste processing company in Europe. Meetings with BIR and BVSE that represent waste recyclers associations gave us practical insights.

While the technical content of the tour was great, Johannes selected fantastic places to lunch and dine. A typical Bavarian pub, a cafe next to the Rhine and a family run boutique restaurant specializing in meat and mushroom dishes.

Conversations in these restaurants with our Chilean friends were perhaps as important as the technical discussions! Loved every bit – sampling the Bavarian beers and the German wines!