Project description
Giving new life to non-recyclable mixed plastic waste streams
The mass production of plastics that started back in the 1950s has increased rapidly, resulting in hundreds of millions of metric tonnes ending up in landfills and incinerators each year. The EU has set a target to recycle up to 75 % of this plastic waste by 2023. The EU-funded REMAT project has already developed recycling technology that can turn mixed plastic waste, which is not wanted by the plastic recycling industry, into ecological products such as half Euro pallets and decking tiles. The same technology can turn waste fiber materials, for example from construction and demolition waste, into composites. The next step is to develop the technology to process new types of plastic waste streams and to manufacture larger and more complex composite products.
Objective
WIMAO is flipping the “take, make and dispose of” model on its head with REMAT: a breakthrough process to repurpose 230 millions of tons of plastic waste that are being sent to landfills and incinerators every year. Furthermore, countries where we have been previously been exporting the majority our waste have put a ban on the import of foreign waste which means than billions of tons of waste have nowhere to go and threaten EU’s ambitious targets to recycle up to 75% of waste by 2023.
Our patented recycling technology gives second life to these plastic waste streams in the form of new composite products that have the same properties as the billions of cubic meters of products manufactured every year from virgin raw materials. WIMAO is uniquely positioned to create a new standard operating mode for the recycling industry because we have the only technology versatile enough to handle the volumes of waste that Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) collect exactly as they receive it, without the need to separate waste streams, effectively surmounting the key barrier for recycling.
We already have developed a proof of concept REMAT plant that started production in January 2019 turning mixed plastic waste that is not wanted by the plastic recycling industry and wood waste into composite decking tiles and half euro pallets. Now we are preparing to develop the next generation of our technology to 1) consistently process new types of plastic waste streams 2) manufacture larger and more complex composite products and 3) create automated process controls to accommodate fluctuations in waste materials. This will set the stage for licensing our technology where we expect to have 26 plants and modules diverting 168,000 tons of waste per year from landfills and generating €48.75M in turnover for Wimao by 2024.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2b - SME Instrument (grant only and blended finance)Coordinator
54190 KONNUNSUO
Finland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.