Technological Children’s and Leisure Institute (AIJU) and Valencia Polytechnic University (UPV), An innovative recycling system from multilayer PET containers for further use in the shoe, toy and construction industries.NO. RECImPET project It will enable the recovery of more than 800,000 tonnes of waste per year from multilayer PET in Europethe resulting reduction of carbon footprint and minimizing the environmental impact on our way of life.
In this sense, it should be noted that in order to introduce the project and its benefits, an explanatory video about this process is currently being produced that will finally give permission. get a new recycled plastic at a more competitive cost than any other alternative currently available on the market.
Funded by the Valencia Innovation Agency, the project is Revestech, which researches, designs and manufactures waterproofing solutions; and Iber Resinas, dedicated to the recycling, commercialization and recycling of post-consumer material.
As Asunción Martínez, the project’s principal investigator at AIJU, explains, “In addition to diversifying and recovering the raw material from the existing waste stream, one of the main advantages of this project is, Based on a previous patent, the recycling system is not expensive or environmentally harmful as it does not require stratification.. In addition, the resulting raw material does not compete with multi-layer PET, but with other polyolefins that are most in demand in the market.”
Verification of repeatability in the industry
In the validation of the reproducibility of the obtained raw material in the shoe, toy and construction industry, the mechanical and thermal properties that these materials add to the produced product are analyzed. In addition, AIJU takes into account the application of other factors such as chemical composition and compliance with the toy safety standard, the production processes in which the products will be produced (injection, extrusion, molding, laminate…), aesthetic additives. what will be decisive is the product, the end product, the economic feasibility of scaling up and the application of materials in the production chain.
In this sense, it has been a fundamental element in the execution of the project. Agree with collaborating companies the requirements of materials applicable to their productsdevelops their business capabilities by assessing that they meet their durability and safety requirements and offering them a tailored solution to increase the sustainability of their products.
As Asunción Martínez puts it, “this research helps manufacturers adopt recycled materials that hitherto had no way out, with physical, chemical and mechanical properties suitable for the manufacture of their products, without sacrificing production, quality or price”.
“By contributing to the adoption of these new, more sustainable materials by manufacturers, we jointly support the creation of a more sustainable future for all of Europe,” he adds.
57% of plastic waste from packaging in Europe is incinerated, collected in landfills or buried. Among them, multilayer PET containers represent one of the main waste streams between solid food containers terminating in the yellow container.
The composition of multilayer PET makes its mechanical recycling difficult. However, turning this waste into raw materials is necessary for the sustainability of the planet and to achieve the targets set by the European Commission in terms of circular economy.
But, For Spanish manufacturers, adopting new recycled materials in their production processes requires verifying the quality of recyclables and having accurate raw material availability estimates..
However, measuring recycled content is complex and requires tracing the product back to the source of manufacture and establishing control of the recycled content, its composition, mechanical properties and, as indicated, the relevant substances, so actions such as the following need to be developed. as this project that promotes the use of sustainable alternative raw materials and their integration into products.
According to Aida Grau, head of R&D at Revestech, “We have a responsibility to deliver increasingly sustainable solutions, both in terms of processes and materials.. Collaboration with AIJU allows us to work on one of our biggest challenges; here, starting from environmentally friendly materials such as recycled materials, we obtain a material with thermoplastic properties, enable it to be processed and provide the necessary technical characteristics of the finished product. “.
Borja Sanz, director of Iber Resinas SL, said: “This project allows us to explore new challenges regarding waste, which is currently not recyclable and has a second useful life and opportunity to contribute with the RECImPET project. The Circular Economy is very relevant in these times”.