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Tackling the global plastic waste issue, by upcycling no value streams into 100% virgin material and enabling new plastic circular economy

Project description

Truly circular PET recycling

Around 72 million tonnes of polyethylene terephthalate or PET plastic polymers are being produced each year from petroleum refining, with 53 million tonnes incinerated, landfilled or dumped in the oceans causing massive ecological damage. Despite the push for greener solutions, PET plastics can only be reused, with only specific products being recyclable, leading to unnecessary pollution. The EU-funded cPET project will enable the implementation of the first truly circular approach to PET recycling. Specifically, the project will use its patented technology to break up any PET into its two main building blocks allowing for practical and cost-efficient reuse.

Objective

72 million tons of PET (the second most used plastic polymer) are produced each year from petroleum refining. The same year, 53 million tons of waste PET is landfilled, incinerated or floats into seas and oceans.
Gr3n proposes a completely new way to break this vicious circle and create plastic from waste.
The problem with PET is that it is currently “reused” and not “recycled”, as only transparent and pale bottles are mechanically treated to be partly added to virgin PET in the production of plastic bottles and trays. All other PET derived products, as waste polyester textiles and coloured plastics are almost worthless to the market and end up polluting the environment.
Our vision is to enable the first truly circular approach to PET recycling, empowered by our patented technology able to break any kind of PET into its two main building blocks, for creating new PET plastics infinitely and cost-effectively.
Through a 15,000 tons/year gr3n plant we do expect to collect, process and address the need of virgin plastics and polyester of a metropolitan area, thus triggering a true circular approach to plastic recycling. The cPET project is focused on validating the sustainability of creating a European distributed network of gr3n plants localized in each urban area, able to treat any PET-derived waste and produce new plastic for local consumption.
This SME Instrument innovation project aims to tear down all the technical, economic, regulatory and logistics/organizational risks to scale up the initial 1,000 tons/year demonstrator to a full-fledged industrial plant.
This will be achieved through a real demonstration is a small urban area, where a circular approach to PET recycling will be really tested, streamlining the logistics and measuring the economic, environmental and societal benefits before proceeding with a global commercialization strategy.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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.

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

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Coordinator

GR3N SAGL
Net EU contribution

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.

€ 50 000,00
Address
VIA MADERNO 24
6900 Lugano
Switzerland

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Ticino Ticino
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

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.

€ 71 429,00
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