Unique patented technology for recycling mixed plastic waste and other hard-to-recycle waste streams to REMATerialize them to valuable products

Description du projet

Un nouveau souffle pour les flux de déchets plastiques mélangés non-recyclables

La production en masse de matières plastiques a démarrée dans les années 1950 et a connu un essor rapide, générant des centaines de millions de tonnes métriques qui finissent dans des décharges et dans des incinérateurs chaque année. L’UE s’est fixé pour objectif de recycler jusqu’à 75 % de ces déchets plastiques d’ici 2023. Le projet REMAT, financé par l’UE, a déjà développé une technologie de recyclage capable de transformer les déchets plastiques mélangés, exclus de l’industrie du recyclage plastique, en produits écologiques tels que des demi-palettes Euro et des dalles de terrasse. La même technologie peut transformer les déchets de matériaux fibreux, provenant notamment des déchets de construction et de démolition, en composites. La prochaine étape consiste à développer la technologie pour traiter de nouveaux types de flux de déchets plastiques, et pour fabriquer des produits composites à la fois plus gros et plus complexes.

Objectif

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.