Page 63 - Plastics News October 2024
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BUSINESS NEWS
Centre. while also demonstrating that biodegradable
plastics are fully recyclable and up-cyclable. Fi-
At a demonstrative scale and in the real opera-
nally, an analysis of final quality of the material
tional environment for the effective and efficient
will be performed to confirm the quality of the
recycling of three types of bioplastics: PLA, PHA
recycled materials from a functional perspective.
and Composites, the project aims to demon-
strate the higher impact of obtaining the same Gerrit Gobius du Sart, Corporate Scientists of
or superior grade of recycled polymers in high- TotalEnergies Corbion, indicates that “The bio-
er-value applications. plastics industry has a responsibility to preserve
material value, in order to minimize our impact
Jan Pels CTO and Managing Director of Torwash,
on our environment. Valorising PLA waste as a
leader of the Dutch hub, indicates that currently
feedstock for either chemical or mechanical re-
“The current recycling technologies available for
cycling is an enormous opportunity.”
recycling biodegradable plastics are limited, but
with this project, we are going to make them The project will result in a Blueprint, which is a
widely available. Then nobody can claim that position paper on the state of the art of bioplas-
the switch to biodegradable plastics cannot be tics recycling, to provide direct contribution to
made because they cannot be recycled”. several European action plans and strategies,
such as the Bioeconomy Strategy, the Circular
Prof. Kevin O’ Connor, coordinator of the pro-
Economy Action Plan, and also the future Pack-
ject, expects that “ReBioCycle will scale up and
aging and Packaging Waste Regulation. Hasso
demonstrate biobased biodegradable plastics
von Pogrell, Managing Director of European
recycling technologies: Biobased biodegradable
Bioplastics indicates that “European Bioplastics
plastics can be kept in the material cycle for as
strongly believes that an actionable EU Bioec-
long as possible through innovative recycling
onomy Strategy should be a top priority to safe-
technologies thus demonstrating that end-of-life
guard the strength of our European industries.
biobased biodegradable plastics can be used in
This is only possible with a strong collaboration
the circular bioeconomy.”
between all stakeholders, more policy support,
ReBioCycle will verify the industrial grade speci- and technological advancement. This project
fications by biopolymer brand owners and via is an outstanding example of this collaboration
demonstration of real-world products: durable and will bring great advancement to the recy-
and multi-use packaging. A Life Cycle Assess- cling of bioplastics”.
ment analysis and tailored dissemination and
The ReBioCycle project has received 7.5 M
exploitation plans will facilitate key exploitable
EURO funding from the Circular Bio-based Joint
results’ uptake.
Undertaking (JU) and its members under the Eu-
ReBioCycle will effectively separate the three ropean Union’s Horizon Europe Research and
types of bioplastics by re-adapting and upscal-
Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement
ing sorting technologies. It will also propose a No. 101156032. The JU receives support from the
portfolio of bioplastics recycling technologies at
European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and
a relevant scale and demonstrate through data Innovation Programme and the Bio-based Indus-
streams the effectiveness of the proposed tech-
tries Consortium.
nologies, their economic viability, and their pos-
Source – Recycling Magazine
sible integration at an industrially relevant scale,
October 2024 PLASTICS NEWS 63
