TRANSFORM-CE
TRANSFORM-CE: Disrupting linear recyclingSingle use plastics cause enormous pollution in our environment. They leak into our oceans ending up as micro plastics affecting our ecosystems. Single use plastics are created from virgin plastic feedstock, used once and then sent to landfill. The circular economy wants plastics to be returned into products, thereby avoiding plastics waste. This pioneering project will turn plastic waste into more valuable 3D printing feedstock.
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Background
North West Europe generates the biggest source of single use plastic but the uptake for recycled content in new plastic products is low. For example in 2016, plastic production in the European Union was 60 metric tonnes, of which only eight metric tonnes was collected for recycling. The plastic industry in Europe relies upon imported virgin plastic but supply from recycled single use plastics could meet this demand. The plastic export ban to China in 2018 meant demand for recycled plastic dropped. In response, high levels of single use plastics are sent to landfill. There is urgency for North West Europe to develop its own plastic recycling economy to reduce reliance on import markets, to repurpose and revalue existing single use plastics and to create demand for recycled products which will in turn divert valuable plastic away from landfill. TRANSFORM-CE will use municipal plastic waste, from consumers placing their waste plastic into mixed recycling bins, which is then segregated and processed.
From linear to circularCurrent plastics recycling processes follow an essentially linear rather than a circular model, which will always limit their potential. Currently plastic products are manufactured from scratch, fulfil a single use and are then at best recycled into a different, poorer quality, product before ultimately becoming waste. The plastics that are recycled are the more highly valued drinks or cleaning bottles as opposed to lower valued, thinner packaging films.
Manufacturing is changing
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is the making of a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model, typically by laying down many thin layers of a material in succession. The precision with which objects are 3D-printed means there is very little if any waste or discarded material in the manufacturing process.
In what will be a massive diversion and upcycling of waste plastic, it will then be converted into more useful and technically advanced 3D printing feedstock.
While some reports of turning waste plastics into 3D printing filaments exist, the breakthrough approach that TRANSFORM-CE brings to this process is not only to turn waste plastic into feedstock for 3D printing, but also to collect and re-use the waste product after it has been 3D printed.
The material goes through this circuwww.nweurope.eu/projects/project-search/transform-ce-transforming-single-use-plastic-waste-into-additive-manufacturing-and-intrusion-extrusion-moulding-feedstocks-and-creating-a-new-circular-economy-model-for-nwe/lar process time after time, without losing any quality. Also key to the project is the inclusion of lower grade, flimsy plastics such as films and trays used to package food products.
Enabling uptake from industry
There is interest and desire from industry to make this happen and close the recycling loop. TRANSFORM-CE will work with companies to redesign products to accept new feedstock and provide feedstock free of charge, thereby overcoming any barriers to use. The project will support and encourage businesses to take up this circular recycling process and successfully use and re-use waste material, without any barriers or restriction. Business models will be developed to facilitate the uptake and use across different sectors and manufacturers.
TRANSFORM-CE’s measure of success will be companies successfully using 3D printing feedstock over and over again, in a true circular process, invigorating market uptake of recycled plastic into new products.
Pilot plans
Pilot investments will provide scalability of technology to stimulate new secondary material markets across North West Europe for re-manufacturing, demonstrating that municipal waste plastic can be re-purposed and revalued. The impact is an estimated diversion of 2,580 tonnes plastic over three years. The pilots will provide dual options for diversion ensuring that manufactured product uptake is possible across a range of simple and complex product designs. Additive Manufacturing provides an opportunity for integration into complex products whilst intrusion-extrusion moulding provides a pathway for simpler, single unit designs. Long-term uptake through scaling up of the technology with industry investment has the potential to divert 55 million tonnes in ten years.
For more information please visit the project site
North West Europe generates the biggest source of single use plastic but the uptake for recycled content in new plastic products is low. For example in 2016, plastic production in the European Union was 60 metric tonnes, of which only eight metric tonnes was collected for recycling. The plastic industry in Europe relies upon imported virgin plastic but supply from recycled single use plastics could meet this demand. The plastic export ban to China in 2018 meant demand for recycled plastic dropped. In response, high levels of single use plastics are sent to landfill. There is urgency for North West Europe to develop its own plastic recycling economy to reduce reliance on import markets, to repurpose and revalue existing single use plastics and to create demand for recycled products which will in turn divert valuable plastic away from landfill. TRANSFORM-CE will use municipal plastic waste, from consumers placing their waste plastic into mixed recycling bins, which is then segregated and processed.
From linear to circularCurrent plastics recycling processes follow an essentially linear rather than a circular model, which will always limit their potential. Currently plastic products are manufactured from scratch, fulfil a single use and are then at best recycled into a different, poorer quality, product before ultimately becoming waste. The plastics that are recycled are the more highly valued drinks or cleaning bottles as opposed to lower valued, thinner packaging films.
- TRANSFORM-CE marks a sea-change in the way plastics are recycled. The process will no longer be linear and limited to select higher value plastics. It will instead be truly circular, with plastics of all value looped into an infinite cycle of reuse and recycle.
- TRANSFORM-CE will return recycled plastics to the same or better quality products than they were originally. In this case more valuable and useful 3D printing feedstock.
Manufacturing is changing
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is the making of a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model, typically by laying down many thin layers of a material in succession. The precision with which objects are 3D-printed means there is very little if any waste or discarded material in the manufacturing process.
In what will be a massive diversion and upcycling of waste plastic, it will then be converted into more useful and technically advanced 3D printing feedstock.
While some reports of turning waste plastics into 3D printing filaments exist, the breakthrough approach that TRANSFORM-CE brings to this process is not only to turn waste plastic into feedstock for 3D printing, but also to collect and re-use the waste product after it has been 3D printed.
The material goes through this circuwww.nweurope.eu/projects/project-search/transform-ce-transforming-single-use-plastic-waste-into-additive-manufacturing-and-intrusion-extrusion-moulding-feedstocks-and-creating-a-new-circular-economy-model-for-nwe/lar process time after time, without losing any quality. Also key to the project is the inclusion of lower grade, flimsy plastics such as films and trays used to package food products.
Enabling uptake from industry
There is interest and desire from industry to make this happen and close the recycling loop. TRANSFORM-CE will work with companies to redesign products to accept new feedstock and provide feedstock free of charge, thereby overcoming any barriers to use. The project will support and encourage businesses to take up this circular recycling process and successfully use and re-use waste material, without any barriers or restriction. Business models will be developed to facilitate the uptake and use across different sectors and manufacturers.
TRANSFORM-CE’s measure of success will be companies successfully using 3D printing feedstock over and over again, in a true circular process, invigorating market uptake of recycled plastic into new products.
Pilot plans
Pilot investments will provide scalability of technology to stimulate new secondary material markets across North West Europe for re-manufacturing, demonstrating that municipal waste plastic can be re-purposed and revalued. The impact is an estimated diversion of 2,580 tonnes plastic over three years. The pilots will provide dual options for diversion ensuring that manufactured product uptake is possible across a range of simple and complex product designs. Additive Manufacturing provides an opportunity for integration into complex products whilst intrusion-extrusion moulding provides a pathway for simpler, single unit designs. Long-term uptake through scaling up of the technology with industry investment has the potential to divert 55 million tonnes in ten years.
For more information please visit the project site
