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Plastics Recycling from and for home appliances, toys and textile

Project description

Innovative solution measuring recycled plastics in products

The EU’s Plastics Strategy highlights the need for accurate measurement and reporting of recycled content in products. However, measuring recycled content is a complex task. To address this, the EU-funded PRecycling project aims to create a user-friendly methodology for sorting, sampling, tracing and recycling plastic waste streams. This includes detecting and separating legacy additives, as well as standard analysis procedures for plastic waste and recyclates. The project will also develop smart tracing through digital systems to ensure the safety and quality of reused materials. PRecycling will conduct a life cycle and cost analysis to assess the environmental and financial viability of their solutions. It will demonstrate the methodology by producing home appliance components, toys/learning resources, and 100 % recycled textiles.

Objective

As it is addressed by the European Plastics Strategy (European Green Deal & Circular Economy Action Plan 2.0) new methods to reliably calculate, verify and report the recycled content in products need to be developed, boosting the increase of recycled content in everyday products against the use of virgin materials. However, measuring the recycled content is complex, requiring product tracing to the production source. PRecycling aims to develop an easy-to-use methodology for sorting, sampling, tracing and recycling plastic waste streams, including detection and separation of legacy additives, along with standard analysis procedures for both plastic waste materials and recyclates (secondary raw materials) in order to produce consistently high quality, safe-to-use recyclates based on their degradation degree and added-value products with predicted lifetime. Smart tracing via digital systems will be developed in parallel, to ensure the quality and safety of reused materials, targeting a sustainable, transparent and functional Circular Economy Model for the recycling market. The environmental and financial viability of PRecycling solutions will be assessed throughout life cycle and cost analysis in order to reach competitive prices of recycled products. The above will be demonstrated, producing (I) home appliances components, (II) toys/learning resources, and (III) 100% recycled textile, starting from the same sector recyclates and different European regions. However, the proposed methodology in PRecycling could be adapted by many other sectors, i.e. packaging, vehicles, and electric/electronic equipment, triggering significant societal impact apart from commercial and industrial interest. Demonstration activities will serve as part of a community awareness initiative, showing that 'from waste to product' transformation is scalable, replicable, traceable, commercially viable and most importantly, safe to use, both within the same and new supply chain products.

Coordinator

ETHNICON METSOVION POLYTECHNION
Net EU contribution
€ 980 750,00
Address
HEROON POLYTECHNIOU 9 ZOGRAPHOU CAMPUS
157 80 ATHINA
Greece

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Region
Αττική Aττική Κεντρικός Τομέας Αθηνών
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 980 750,00

Participants (16)