Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PRESTO (PLASTIC RECYCLING AND SORTING WITH TIME-GATED OPTICAL RECOGNITION)
Período documentado: 2023-07-01 hasta 2024-06-30
Efficient sorting of post-consumer polymeric waste is hindered by the presence of various polymers, which come in many technical grades and with numerous combinations of additives. This step, however, is crucial for achieving a true circular economy for plastic. If not sorted with high efficiency and purity, the only options for treating the waste are the production of low-value objects, incineration, landfill, and pollution. Currently, there is no systematic solution to this problem. This project, carried out by the SINBIOSYS spinoff company, targets the use of tracer-based sorting. It is based on invisible codes that can be embedded into any plastic item to recognize the material it is made of. The potential technical advantages of our approach include the possibility of sorting every plastic item with unprecedented purity and efficiency. Moreover, it can be implemented on commercial sorting machines through a fast and inexpensive retrofitting.
During this project, SINBIOSYS initiated discussions with industrial players to scout for possible case studies and identify pain points and needs that could be addressed. We contacted players across the entire food packaging value chain and other different verticals. Regarding the plastic value chain, we established contact and, in some cases, started collaborations with companies involved in virgin resin production and recycling, post-industrial and post-consumer waste management, food & beverage brand owners, sorting and recycling machinery producers, recycled material compounders, and management consortia. Within Womentech, we performed a full demonstration in an operational environment.
The main achievements during the project led to the understanding that luminescent nanomaterials are very promising candidates for use with tracer-based sorting technology. The identified nanomaterials are made of safe and abundant elements and are characterized by easy processability. These properties make the marker production scalable, which is one of the next goals we aim to target at the end of this project. A final marking cost of a maximum of €20 per ton of plastic is an impact that the industry is capable of absorbing, as emerged after collecting information from several experts in the fields of plastic and food packaging production. This cost is in line with our estimations. To ensure that production costs will drop with economies of scale, we updated our industrial plan for scaling up our business, considering all the critical aspects of our process. One of the most urgent aspects to tackle is assessing and obtaining certification for our materials as food contact materials. This must be addressed as soon as possible, as it is a major concern for potential end users.