Now in its second year, the Global Reuse Summit 2025 is a one-day event focused on shaping the future of reuse and refill systems for a more sustainable world. Hosted by City to Sea in partnership with Ecosurety, this B2B summit will bring together thought leaders, policymakers, and innovators to tackle the pressing challenge of how to reduce plastic pollution and build a circular economy.

This year’s theme is The New Reuse Economy, and the aim is to stimulate the critical conversations needed to power the transition and build confidence in the new reusable economy, with bold ideas, innovative solutions, and actionable strategies to make reuse the default.

In collaboration with Connected Innovation, Innovate UK is bringing businesses and researchers across a range of sectors, including local authorities, together to explore the development of transferable AI platforms that can support different sectors to solve broad issues, such as supply chain management, waste reduction and processing and decarbonisation.

The objectives of the event are to:

• Help businesses review their models and identify necessary changes to incorporate AI platform-oriented solutions e.g. changes in issues related to cost, risks, data, cyber and governance
• Capture and share best practices in the use of AI-platforms that can benefit other businesses

Develop a comprehensive report for Innovate UK and UKRI to influence future funding directions

UKRI’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, is bringing the plastic packaging supply chain together to celebrate the innovation and impact of the 80+ projects the Challenge has funded over the past five years.

From cutting edge recycling technologies to novel bio-derived packaging materials, and from major advances in reuse and refill to the latest in AI-powered sorting and more, these projects exemplify the power of innovation in shaping a more sustainable future for plastic packaging. The Challenge has also demonstrated the strong level of support for innovation across the entire plastic packaging supply chain, with over £240 million of additional private sector investment leveraged as a result of the SSPP funding.

With interactive, themed sessions, the event will explore how SSPP and its projects have been tackling barriers and providing innovative solutions in plastic packaging reduction, reuse and refill, and recycling. It will also provide an opportunity to discuss how these innovations and others can inform and support more progress on sustainability in the future.

The RECOUP Summit will be focused on new developments in technology that will help to drive future improvements in the plastics recycling and resource efficiency value chain. One of the underpinning themes will be how collaboration is a key factor in overcoming the different technology challenges and driving progress.

The Summit will consist of focused breakout sessions in the morning, with speakers including projects funded by UK Research & Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK. The topics are:

• Understanding the role of data in the circular economy: this session will examine the importance of data collection in advancing the circular economy, highlighting the function of accurate data in helping to deliver the changes that are needed.
• The role of technology in advancing recycling processes: this session will explore the effects of chemical recycling and other advancements in technology that are transforming the recycling industry.
• Food contact packaging: this session will explore possibilities and innovations in enhancing recycled content in high end applications.

These will be followed by lunch and networking in the afternoon.