Project description
Coding the future of plastic recycling
Plastic recycling still poses an environmental and economic challenge due to the inability of modern sorting technologies to deliver high-grade products. With this in mind, the EIC-funded ELISET project aims to change this scenario through a solution that tracks plastic products throughout their lifetime, from manufacturing to disposal. Using silicon quantum dots as invisible and environmentally friendly markers, ELISET allows plastics to be sorted quickly and with precision during production and disposal. The project categorises plastics not only based on their composition but also by grade and previous usage, allowing a purity rate of more than 99 %.
Objective
Plastic waste is a clear and present danger to life—polluting ecosystems, entering food chains, and draining value from our economy. Today’s sorting systems recover too little, too impure, and too expensively. Our project proposes a new end-to-end system that turns plastic waste into a reliable, low-cost secondary raw material by making every item machine-readable at birth and machine-separable at end-of-life.
We will develop lifetime-based coding using silicon quantum dots (SiQDs): invisible markers embedded at parts-per-million that are safe, tunable, and produced from abundant silicon. Unlike color-only tracers, our codes exploit emission lifetimes, unlocking a vast, robust coding space at ultra-low doses and enabling rapid time-gated detection on fast conveyor belts. Combined with the innovative industrial sorting platform being developed by our partner Polysecure, our approach will separate plastics not only by polymer but also by grade and prior use (e.g. food vs. non-food), creating pure, high-value streams ready for closed-loop recycling.
What we will do: (i) scale reproducible, high-brightness SiQD formulations and masterbatches/inks; (ii) engineer compact, low-cost lifetime readers; (iii) integrate markers into commercial materials without altering performance or appearance; (iv) pilot at industrial facilities to demonstrate >99% purity streams, cost reductions per ton, and strong LCA gains; and (v) verify compliance for sensitive applications, including food contact.
This is a highly ambitious project with transformative upside. If we succeed, the gains will be immense: cheaper, higher volumes of higher-quality recycled plastics for converters and brands to boost a 100% European-made circular economy; major CO2, pollution, and landfill reductions for society. Our vision is simple: code every product once, sort it right every time, and make plastic waste a valuable resource again.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences polymer sciences
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry metalloids
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2025-TRANSITIONOPEN
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
40127 Bologna
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.