Circular Plastics Network for Training

Project Information

C-PlaNeT

Grant agreement ID: 859885

DOI

10.3030/859885

Project closed

EC signature date 9 August 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 31 May 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 3 937 681,08

EU contribution

€ 3 937 681,08

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - C-PlaNeT (Circular Plastics Network for Training)

Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2024-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Bringing plastics into the circular economy is one of the great challenges of our age.

(1) Modern societies have to change the way they deal with plastics. The need to reduce the quantities of materials used has compelled the plastics industry to be continuously inventive and create multi-layer applications, modify polymer chemistries, and develop highly functional additives. Unfortunately, this tremendous diversity has a huge downside in the later stages of the product’s life cycle.

(2) Recycling plastics is a complex challenge. In Europe, the annual demand for plastics is around 50 million tonnes, of which 25.8 million tonnes end up as waste each year, of which less than 30% is collected for recycling and only 1% is reused as a secondary raw material in new high-end applications.

(3) Plastic waste creates huge environmental damage. Far too much waste plastic ends up in the environment. The general public is aware of this, as well as of the associated economic and environmental problems.

The primary objective of C-PlaNeT was to demonstrate that a sustainable future for plastics is possible when all the different actors in the value chain collaborate, interact, challenge and complement each other. The 15 Early Stage Researcher (ESR) topics were selected to provide a holistic and interdisciplinary scientific response to the current challenge of making plastics more circular. The 15 ESRs tackled the major research challenges in their tailored PhD research projects, going beyond the current state of the art, achieving the project’s objectives, and so closing the loop for plastics. Each of the ESRs have obtained promising results in their specific field of research during their PhD trajectory and cross-contamination of expertise was achieved through the Network-Wide Training events (NTEs). Of course, given that the transition for plastics to a circular economy is a very complex and multi-level process, many research questions still remain or even originated.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work package 1: Education through research

The 15 ESRs tackle major research challenges in their tailored PhD research projects, going beyond the current state of the art, achieving the five project’s objectives.

• OBJ 1. To decouple plastics from fossil resources

ESR 1: Priyanka Main assessed the mechanical recycling potential of the bioplastic PHB, instead of landfill or composting.
ESR 11: Amir Bashirgonbadi quantified the processability of PE-blends during film blowing and linked it to the rheology and macromolecular features of the polymer.
ESR 12: Ehsan Mahmoudi worked on the upgrade of the non-condensable gases towards propylene via cross-metathesis reaction, including catalyst synthesis, characterization and preliminary screening.
ESR 15: Christina Kibuta characterized in-depth a beach plastic feed and used innovative recycling technologies to clean the feed and use it as a source of secondary polymers.


• OBJ 2. To design for circularity, in terms of both materials and products

ESR 2: Dixit Gularia designed and developed a PE based mono material multilayer flexible packaging combining high functionality and recyclability.
ESR 3: Manon Lisiecki systematically evaluated a range of selected initiatives contributing to the implementation of circular economy.
ESR 4: Alejandro Fonseca studied the catalytic exchange reaction of phosphate esters with N-nucleophiles and tested several types of of phosphate esters to prepare phosphorous based flame retardants.


• OBJ 3. To involve the consumer as a stakeholder in a circular-economy future for plastics

ESR 5: Fernando Lit designed new business models for circular plastics to stimulate their market adoption through data collection and data analysis (coding).
ESR 6: Mubarik Rabiu conducted a qualitative interview study to reach an empirical understanding on consumer appropriation of two supply chain reversal strategies.
ESR 7: Namrata Mhaddolkar prepared a model to describe the relationship between drivers, waste producer behavior, waste collection and sorting system, and recyclability.


• OBJ 4. To develop efficient waste-to-resource technologies

ESR 8: Tiago Gomes characterized the causative odor-active constituents in post-consumer polypropylene bottles and identified the odorous molecules that are emitted.
ESR 9: Rita Kol performed the dissolution-precipitation technique on a real waste sample, with focus on the optimization of the solid-liquid separation process for the removal of colorants from plastic waste.
ESR 10: Bahman Goshayeshi modeled and simulated a reactor model with a focus on a plastic pyrolysis process capable of handling homogeneous reactions in each solid/liquid and gas phase, heterogeneous reactions between phases and evaporation of compounds.
ESR 11: Amir Bashirgonbadi quantified the processability of PE-blends during film blowing and linked it to the rheology and macromolecular features of the polymer.
ESR 12: Ehsan Mahmoudi worked on the upgrade of the non-condensable gases towards propylene via cross-metathesis reaction, including catalyst synthesis, characterization and preliminary screening.


• OBJ 5. To develop overarching strategies for circular plastics

ESR 13: Nur Gizem Yalcin analysed how the circular plastics economy is being developed in the EU and its member states, which interpretations of a circular plastics economy exists, whose definition dominates, why and how.
ESR 14: Heather Logan completed a literature review of mapping and life cycle assessments (LCA) published in peer reviewed journals to provide an overview of the quality of additive data inclusion in current modelling.


Work package 2: Education through international and cross-sectorial exchange

Each ESR conducted research in two different European countries (at least 6 months in each country), performing both an academic and a non-academic secondment. The non-academic sector is actively involved in the Network-Wide Training Event (NTEs) organized throughout the project duration.


Work package 3: Education through structured training courses

We have successfully launched the official Study Programme 'European Joint Doctoral Training Programme on Circular Plastics', which has already been successfully completed by several of the ESRs.


Work package 4: Education through participation in public outreach activities

Seven NTEs have successfully been organized. All publicly available results from the training events are disseminated via Zenodo and the C-PlaNeT website.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

C-PlaNeT is the first programme in the EU to offer multidisciplinary, intersectoral research on the plastics value chain in a circular economy. C-PlaNeT trained 15 ESRs for the circular economy of the future, who apart from their specific research subjects have achieved a broad scientific background knowledge, technical and non-technical skills and core sustainability values and attitudes. The C-PlaNeT network bridges the gap between physical sciences ((polymer) chemistry), engineering, environmental sciences and social sciences, which are disciplines that rarely interact. All the ESRs will have had advanced training in all of these fields through their participation in the training internships at the non-academic Partner Organisations and the network-wide training events organised by the academic and non-academic Beneficiaries.

Presentation of the Children's book during NTE 7 in Thessaloniki, Greece

First real-life group picture taken at NTE 4 in Copenhagen, Denmark

Logo of C-PlaNeT

15 ESR topics across the value chain of plastics