Periodic Reporting for period 3 - DECOAT (Recycling of coated and painted textile and plastic materials)
Reporting period: 2022-02-01 to 2023-07-31
“Plastics are fundamental to our everyday life. Yet they are one of the most wasteful examples of our existing linear, take-make-dispose economy. With 8 million tonnes of plastic entering the ocean each year, we urgently need to rethink the way we make, use, and reuse plastics. Catalysing change through collaboration in this global material flow will not only create a more effective plastics system, but will also demonstrate the potential for a wider shift from a linear to a circular economy - an economy in which plastics never become waste” quote from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
One ‘easy’ way to boost recycling is designing consumer goods out of one material, which facilitates recycling at end-of-life. This approach contributes to the shift from a linear to a circular economy. Unfortunately, it is not always technically feasible to produce goods out of one material, without compromising their desired functional performance. In many cases coatings, paints or laminates (referred to within this article as ‘coatings’) are indispensable to ensure good performance. Unfortunately, these coatings hinder recycling, or even render it completely impossible, leading to incineration or landfill as end-of-life option.
The DECOAT project tried to work out a new recycling principle that can contribute to the overall goal of recycling these coated materials, and so to the circular economy. The bulk material itself is often made of a monomaterial. So, if the coating can be removed from the bulk material, the latter can be further recycled.
DECOAT stands for ‘Recycling of coated and painted textile and plastic materials’ and is funded by the European Commission via the Horizon 2020 programme.
DECOAT focusses on ‘design for recycling’: by adding special newly developed additives between the bulk material and the coating, for example in a primer or in an adhesive layer, the coating can be removed on demand. These additives will respond to a specific trigger, which enables debonding. The trigger can be heat, steam, microwaves, … depending on the used additive.
Another approach used in the project is dissolution, and hence removal, of the coating by green solvents. In the solvent based process, developed by DECOAT partner Fraunhofer IVV, coatings are dissolved or delaminated, and impurities are filtered off, leaving a pure stream of polymers, which can be reprocessed. In this approach no debonding additives need to be added, which is the main difference with the approach explained above.
To envision a realistic recycling line, the disassembled material needs to follow the correct flow in the recycling plant, ending up in the correct triggering device. Besides the actual debonding additives, specific dyes will be investigated allowing optical sorting. This optical sorting step ensures that the materials are separated based on their debonding additives, or the absence of them. The coated parts are consequently directed to the correct processing device (solvent based, oven, microwave, steam generator etc.).
One ‘easy’ way to boost recycling is designing consumer goods out of one material, which facilitates recycling at end-of-life. This approach contributes to the shift from a linear to a circular economy. Unfortunately, it is not always technically feasible to produce goods out of one material, without compromising their desired functional performance. In many cases coatings, paints or laminates (referred to within this article as ‘coatings’) are indispensable to ensure good performance. Unfortunately, these coatings hinder recycling, or even render it completely impossible, leading to incineration or landfill as end-of-life option.
The DECOAT project tried to work out a new recycling principle that can contribute to the overall goal of recycling these coated materials, and so to the circular economy. The bulk material itself is often made of a monomaterial. So, if the coating can be removed from the bulk material, the latter can be further recycled.
DECOAT stands for ‘Recycling of coated and painted textile and plastic materials’ and is funded by the European Commission via the Horizon 2020 programme.
DECOAT focusses on ‘design for recycling’: by adding special newly developed additives between the bulk material and the coating, for example in a primer or in an adhesive layer, the coating can be removed on demand. These additives will respond to a specific trigger, which enables debonding. The trigger can be heat, steam, microwaves, … depending on the used additive.
Another approach used in the project is dissolution, and hence removal, of the coating by green solvents. In the solvent based process, developed by DECOAT partner Fraunhofer IVV, coatings are dissolved or delaminated, and impurities are filtered off, leaving a pure stream of polymers, which can be reprocessed. In this approach no debonding additives need to be added, which is the main difference with the approach explained above.
To envision a realistic recycling line, the disassembled material needs to follow the correct flow in the recycling plant, ending up in the correct triggering device. Besides the actual debonding additives, specific dyes will be investigated allowing optical sorting. This optical sorting step ensures that the materials are separated based on their debonding additives, or the absence of them. The coated parts are consequently directed to the correct processing device (solvent based, oven, microwave, steam generator etc.).
Several types of triggers have been synthesized, eg thermo-responsive core-shell structures, microwave susceptors and Super Absorbing Polymer or SAPs triggers. These additives have been integrated in plastics paints and textile coatings, and their debonding efficiency has been assessed by either heat, steam or microwave (depending on the type of additive). Further, the use of a debondable primer layer, activated by heat, has been assessed and shows great potential. The solvent based process could successfully remove coatings and paints from textile and plastics using green solvents.
A pilot line for sorting, based on detection of fluorescent dyes, has been built and validated, and pilot equipment for microwave irradiation was developed.
Reprocessing and recycling studies on the plastic substrates were carried out, assessing parameters like influence of residual coating, reprocessing cycles, debonding process etc. on the material properties. Multiple closed loop recycling loops have been carried out for both textile and plastic use cases.
The safety assessment of all developed triggers and recycling processes has been carried out, and LCA and LCC studies have been performed.
A publicly available ecodesign tool has been developed.
The dissemination and exploitation activities have included press releases issued at various points of the project, a website with information on the progress and activities, an explainer video as well other promotional videos, newsletters informing on progress and several workshops organised to inform industry and stakeholders such as the first public workshop at the ECOMONDO fair in Italy. Further, three webinars were organized (one on plastics recycling, one on textile and one on the industrial use-cases) and DECOAT was presented at several conferences, trade fairs and exhibitions.
A final event was organised at the European Coating Show in Nuremberg 2023, being a combination of a dedicated session for DECOAT to reach the scientific audience and a booth for the project at the exhibition to better reach the industry. A final webinar was held to also further highlight the industrial applications of the use-cases being studied during the project. The video of the final webinar is and will remain available online, along with other webinar videos from the project.
A pilot line for sorting, based on detection of fluorescent dyes, has been built and validated, and pilot equipment for microwave irradiation was developed.
Reprocessing and recycling studies on the plastic substrates were carried out, assessing parameters like influence of residual coating, reprocessing cycles, debonding process etc. on the material properties. Multiple closed loop recycling loops have been carried out for both textile and plastic use cases.
The safety assessment of all developed triggers and recycling processes has been carried out, and LCA and LCC studies have been performed.
A publicly available ecodesign tool has been developed.
The dissemination and exploitation activities have included press releases issued at various points of the project, a website with information on the progress and activities, an explainer video as well other promotional videos, newsletters informing on progress and several workshops organised to inform industry and stakeholders such as the first public workshop at the ECOMONDO fair in Italy. Further, three webinars were organized (one on plastics recycling, one on textile and one on the industrial use-cases) and DECOAT was presented at several conferences, trade fairs and exhibitions.
A final event was organised at the European Coating Show in Nuremberg 2023, being a combination of a dedicated session for DECOAT to reach the scientific audience and a booth for the project at the exhibition to better reach the industry. A final webinar was held to also further highlight the industrial applications of the use-cases being studied during the project. The video of the final webinar is and will remain available online, along with other webinar videos from the project.
In all existing recycling methods, coatings and paints are seen as impurities, hampering the recycling process. So, currently end-of-life coated textiles and painted plastics being incinerated or landfilled. A contribution to augment the recycling rates is to include these in the recycling processes.
DECOAT focusses on closing this gap in the recycling loop. After shredding and sorting the discarded good, a new step in the recycling process is introduced, allowing to remove the coatings/paints from the bulk material. Separation techniques, known to the recycling industry, will be used to separate the debonded coating/paint from the bulk material, allowing standard reprocessing of the bulk material e.g. via extrusion processes which are generating regained plastic pellets, which can be used to produce novel goods.
The project successfully demonstrated the viability of the developed decoating processes to divert more (coated) plastics away from landfill or incineration, and create a more closed circular loop. From a technical perspective the use-cases where all successfully demonstrated using one or both developed technologies, and the demonstrator sorting plant could reliably separate different triggerable materials. The recycling process for automotive internal car parts demonstrated being able to produce a higher quality and usable recyclate thanks to the decoating process. Challenges still remain in the economics and logistics for the industrial implementation. The official LCA and LCC results based on experimental data seem to indicate some challenges, but it is expected that these will be surmountable once the process is allowed to scale. Currently there is a barrier to scaling up due to the logistics and availability of the waste products to go into recycling, which can also be resolved with currently planned and evolving regulations and policies such as EPR schemes and mandatory recycled content targets such as proposed for the new ELV Directive.
DECOAT focusses on closing this gap in the recycling loop. After shredding and sorting the discarded good, a new step in the recycling process is introduced, allowing to remove the coatings/paints from the bulk material. Separation techniques, known to the recycling industry, will be used to separate the debonded coating/paint from the bulk material, allowing standard reprocessing of the bulk material e.g. via extrusion processes which are generating regained plastic pellets, which can be used to produce novel goods.
The project successfully demonstrated the viability of the developed decoating processes to divert more (coated) plastics away from landfill or incineration, and create a more closed circular loop. From a technical perspective the use-cases where all successfully demonstrated using one or both developed technologies, and the demonstrator sorting plant could reliably separate different triggerable materials. The recycling process for automotive internal car parts demonstrated being able to produce a higher quality and usable recyclate thanks to the decoating process. Challenges still remain in the economics and logistics for the industrial implementation. The official LCA and LCC results based on experimental data seem to indicate some challenges, but it is expected that these will be surmountable once the process is allowed to scale. Currently there is a barrier to scaling up due to the logistics and availability of the waste products to go into recycling, which can also be resolved with currently planned and evolving regulations and policies such as EPR schemes and mandatory recycled content targets such as proposed for the new ELV Directive.