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The Solids & Recycling-Technik Dortmund trade fairs kicked off two eventful days with a spectacular live explosion on 9 October 2024. Around 400 exhibitors, a good 35% more than last year, impressed visitors with their solutions and 4,150 trade visitors took the opportunity to talk to experts or follow the interesting supporting programme. The new exhibition area for process automation was just as popular as the separate start-up area with nine innovative young companies. The fresh side event, the ‘Bulk Masters’ hackathon, left a particularly deep impression.

At the end of Solids & Recycling-Technik Dortmund 2024, the participants can look back with satisfaction on a successful event. Compared to the previous year, the number of exhibitors had grown by a good third to a total of 400 and 4,150 trade visitors found their way to the trade fair duo. ‘We have been an integral part of Recycling-Technik Dortmund for years and have witnessed the impressive development of the trade fair. It has grown in size and importance and has therefore become an important platform for us,’ says Rainer Flaute, Head of Sales and Business Development at Westeria GmbH, summarising the success story. Tobias Meixner, Head of Sales & Marketing at Hosokawa Solids Solutions GmbH, agrees: ‘Solids Dortmund has been a long-standing fixture for us as an exhibitor. We have received numerous qualified enquiries from potential customers and have already planned to book again for 2026.’ With this year’s focus on digitalisation, artificial intelligence, sustainability and process automation, the organiser demonstrated an excellent feel for current trends.
Accordingly, many renowned companies were among the visitors, such as Evonik AG, Bayer AG, Remondis Recycling GmbH & Co. KG, Alba Group and August Storck KG. The start-up area with nine young companies was also well attended and dialogues often revolved around specific projects. ‘We are very satisfied with our participation as a start-up. We were able to hold many valuable discussions at our stand, conclude our first business deals and initiate others,’ confirms Florin Kolken, Managing Director of TEL GmbH.

Visitors praise supporting programme

The lecture panels were equally impressive. Here, high-calibre speakers provided momentum for the future of the bulk solids and recycling industry. This was also confirmed by Andreas Kuß, Project Manager Plant Construction and Environmental Protection, EGN Entsorgungsgesellschaft Niederrhein mbH ‘My visit to the trade fair was very successful. A day full of excellent discussions and very informative expert presentations’. For example, AI expert Christiane Reichwein gave an introduction to the possibilities of artificial intelligence and Jan Eilers, Senior Project Manager at Horváth & Partner GmbH, together with Principal Dr Markus Stoffel, showed how products and their entire life cycle can be designed sustainably. Several live explosions on the trade fair forecourt with professional cyclist Robert Förstemann and REMBE® GmbH Safety+Control also enriched the supporting programme.

Beaming winners of ‘Bulk Masters’ hackathon

The new side event, the ‘Bulk Masters’ hackathon, was particularly impressive. A total of 18 participants took on the challenges at the first ideas competition for the process industry. Together with Lenka Mildner, Ponnappa Cheranda and Anja Sommerfeld, David Bargiel hosted the event and moderated the presentations of the six teams on the hackathon stage. Under the motto ‘Food goes Powder’, challenge donor Zeppelin Systems GmbH was looking for an automated cleaning method for a mixing plant and received several proposed solutions. ‘The hackathon was a complete success for us. It was fascinating to see how the participants pursued innovative approaches that we hadn’t even thought of ourselves. The winners in particular surprised us with their creative idea for cleaning with dry ice,’ says a satisfied Helen Schneider, Project Engineer R&D Centre at Zeppelin. Michael Weigelt, Managing Director of ChallengeGeber TecPart e.V., is also convinced ‘The hackathon was an absolute success for us. We were able to take away much more from the event than we had expected’. The association is delighted with the ideas on how ‘young professionals’ can be inspired for the plastics industry. The beaming winning team received 10,000 euros in prize money, while second and third place were awarded 3,000 and 1,000 euros respectively.

To be continued
The next Solids & Recycling-Technik Dortmund with another ‘Bulk Masters’ hackathon will take place on 18 and 19 March 2026