Eco conversion of lower grade PET and mixed recalcitrant PET plastic waste into high performing biopolymers

Introduction

ECOPLASTIC is designed to provide a seamless route to resolving pervasive PET plastic pollution, converting it to Eco-plastic prototypes. Conversion of unrecyclable post-use PET into new, high-performance bioplastics embodies the regenerative zero waste approaches found in nature, where post-use materials become the ingredients for new products with unlimited cyclical use of materials.

Technological Paradigm Shift

It proposes a technological paradigm shift in recycling from the current zero to single-digit circuits of recycling loops to a regeneration process providing a significant scientific step forward towards true circularity. ECOPLASTIC converts lower grade PET and mixed recalcitrant PET plastic waste into high-performing biopolymers through the development of a suite of breakthrough modular technologies adaptable to the waste input.

Eco-Products

The project aims to funnel waste PET plastics into Eco-products that enter a perpetually bio-cyclable loop. The new Eco-plastics and products will provide drop-in alternatives for seamless adoption within industry and by consumers. We will demonstrate that the resulting processes are economically and environmentally sustainable for valorizing currently non-recyclable materials such as multilayer packages and flexible films.

Approaches to Optimise Material Circularity

The project will combine several approaches to optimize material circularity:

1. Depolymerization Process: A series of mechano-green, chemical, and biocatalytic technologies to depolymerize them into their constituent monomers, using novel biological filtration for the preparation of highly fermentable monomer and oligomer feedstock streams.

2. Biopolymer Production: Using microbiome processing to produce new biopolymers from monomer feedstocks, which are then processed into bioproduct prototypes that are not harmful to the environment.

3. Advanced Processing: Advanced processing will be used to enhance the properties of recovered biopolymers, and demonstration prototypes for applications including packaging will be produced.