More than 25.8 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced per year in the EU; only 29.7 % of this is recycled. This represents a clear problem in the plastic market loop (with losses of € 10.56 billion). Moreover, this goes against the EU legislation on waste (high environmental impact; 23.8 Mt of CO2).

The four axes of the PlastiCircle projects can be expanded: collection (to increase quantity of packaging collected); transport (to reduce costs of recovered plastic); sorting (to increase quality of recovered plastic); and valorisation in value-added products (i.e. foam boards, automotive parts like engine covers/bumpers/dashboards, bituminous roofing membranes, garbage bags, asphalt sheets/roofing felts and urban furniture like fences/benches/protection walls). The territories involved are Valencia (Spain), Utrecht (the Netherlands), and Alba Iulia (Romania).

The implementation of the PlastiCircle approach in Europe has the potential to increase collected plastic in 861 250 t (reaching 14.14 Mt) and valorisation in 1.59 Mt. The valorisation of this new material represents a market value of € 2.86 billion to € 7.95 billion. Taking into account current figures of the plastic sector (turnover of € 350 billion, 62,000 companies, 1.45 million employees), this could imply the creation of 500 to 1,400 new companies and the generation of 11,900 to 33,000 new jobs in the medium to long term, if the PlastiCircle approach is extended to EU level.

The consortium is reinventing the plastic packaging treatment process to obtain higher recycling rates, higher quality and cheaper secondary raw materials, as well as better recovery and valorisation within the same value chain. The project worked on rethinking various phases in the life of waste – from collection to transport, sorting to recycling – and provided solutions to transform waste into valuable products. In particular, the consortium developed smart containers for separate waste collection, worked on improving transport routes, as well as on sorting and reprocessing technologies, eventually converting packaging waste into value-added products (such as foam boards, automotive parts, roofing membranes, garbage bags, asphalt, and urban furniture). The results of the project can be useful to cities/regions/territorial clusters that are seeking a Circular Systemic Solution to tackle similar problems.

The project produced several useful outputs:

1. (Descriptions of demos) 
 

    a. Valencia, Spain: When a local resident participated, they deposited their bags (with light packaging waste) in one of the 25 yellow containers in the neighbourhood. These containers had a smart device attached, designed to issue a label with a bar code that identifies the user. The user labelled the bag and then deposited it in the container. This allowed the sorters and recyclers to know how each citizen had separated their waste. Residents were rewarded for good recycling behaviour, collecting 'eco-points' that could be claimed or exchanged later for a variety of rewards.
 

    b. Utrecht, the Netherlands: In collaboration with local authorities, the PlastiCircle pilot was run in parallel with the city's own waste management projects. Utrecht and PlastiCircle posed important questions such as: how can consumers be challenged to separate plastic waste from residual waste more effectively? What type of collection is best for Utrecht? Centralised underground containers, door-to-door collection of mini containers, or something else?
During the pilot, Utrecht made use of door-to-door collection of mini containers (from some 2 000 households) and also of underground containers. Some 43 underground ‘smart’ containers were linked to the pilot, although Utrecht has almost 200 underground containers for plastics in the whole city. The pilot itself took place in the western sector of the city – one of five busy waste collection routes.
 

    c. Alba Iulia, Romania: From 1 July 2020 to 30 September 2020, local authorities and citizens had the opportunity to see PlastiCircle innovations in action: plastic packaging collection, waste transport (using an IoT cloud platform), and effective recycling.

Respecting the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and adapting the communication activities to the current reality, the city's Arnsberg-Goldis district was the hub of the pilot, engaging citizens for a pilot that aimed to integrate the lessons learnt from both Valencia and Utrecht.
 

2. The project developed a Replication H28Guide, which presents final results of pilots implemented in three European cities (Valencia, Spain; Utrecht, the Netherlands; and Alba Iulia, Romania), introduces lessons learnt, and gives recommendations to industries and cities (and regions/territorial clusters) that wish to develop and implement the PlastiCircle approach. Results on the integration report of the whole PlastiCircle approach is presented in this report.

3. Reports further describing relevant demonstrators and prototypes can be found here (some are forthcoming) and also on the project's website.

Programme(s):

• H2020-EU.3.5.: SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials (Main programme)
• H2020-EU.3.5.4.: Enabling the transition towards a green economy and society through eco-innovation

Topic(s):

• CIRC-01-2016-2017: Systemic, eco-innovative approaches for the circular economy: large-scale demonstration projects

€ 8 674 540.89 (EU contribution: € 7 774 016.75)

Instituto Tecnologico Del Embalaje, Transporte y Logistica

Contact the project: https://plasticircle.eu/home/

• Axion Recycling Ltd
• Centro Ricerche Fiat SCPA
• Gemeente Utrecht
• Fundacion De La Comunitat Valenciana Para La Promocion Estrategica El Desarrollo y La Innovacion Urbana
• Municipality Of Alba Iulia
• Mestna Obcina Velenje
• Sociedad Anonima Agricultores De Lavega De Valencia
• Polaris M Holding SRL
• Industrias Termoplasticas Valencianas S.A.
• Armacell Benelux SCS, Imperbel N.V.
• Consorzio Per La Promozione Della Cultura Plastica Proplast
• Hahn Plastics Ltd
• Ecoembalajes Espana
• S.A.
• Fundacio Knowledge Innovation Market Barcelona
• Plasticseurope Aisbl
• ICLEI European Secretariat GmbH (ICLEI Europasekretariat GmbH)
• Picvisa Machine Vision Systems SL
• SINTEF AS