A team of 5 students and ‘playing coach’ Wilma Dierkes participated in the Arlanxeo Challenge from April 8 – 10. This competition was organized by a team of Arlanxeo experts at the occasion of the market introduction of one of their polymers, EPDM, half a century ago. The task for 4 teams from Dutch and German universities and institutes (RUG, UM, DIK and UT) was to think ‘out of the box’ to increase the sustainability of EPDM in the fields of polymer production, compounding, application, and recycling.