Strategic Advisor at OPEN Foundation (WeCycle)
René Eijsbouts is a strategic advisor at OPEN Foundation, with extensive expertise in plastic recycling and sustainability. With a Master’s in Industrial Engineering from the Technical University of Eindhoven, René has a distinguished career in waste management, logistics, and the circular economy. He has worked internationally in countries such as Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kazakhstan, and Romania.
Currently, René’s focus is on managing end-of-life electronics, with a strong emphasis on plastics and critical raw materials. His work includes contributing to solutions to reuse plastics with flame retardants from electronics, retrieving critical raw materials, and enhancing battery collection and recycling. He also addresses recycling challenges of emerging products like vapes and is leading the tendering process for the futureproof recycling of solar panels.
The road ahead is not always clear, but if a ‘solution’ really is the correct one, it’s often surprisingly simple. Keeping it simple is more difficult than making it complex.