Nowadays, only 20% of the whole plastic production is recycled due to barriers such as the presence of complex fractions in the waste streams including contaminants or multilayer materials or the mix of plastics with other types of waste that cannot be sorted in a feasible way. This situation implies a high environmental impact when plastic waste is landfilled or incinerated, so new solutions other than mechanical recycling must be developed to significantly increase the amount of plastics being valorized into new feedstocks. PLASTICE was conceived to solve this need by developing a set of new valorization processes that are aligned with the most relevant roadmaps of chemical recycling technologies at European level. Therefore, main efforts will be devoted to the design, development and demonstration under real conditions together with EU waste managers of four valorization technologies: (i) MW-assisted pyrolysis; (ii) hydrothermal liquefaction; (iii) Combined gasification and chemical post-treatment and (iv) Cascade enzymatic hydrolysis. Moreover, PLASTICE overall approach will deploy innovative elements along the whole value chain with the objective of integrating green technologies for the new processes to become sustainable and closing the loop to deliver circular value chains around plastics (including textiles with plastic content). Therefore, PLASTICE works both upstream and downstream the valorization processes, integrating new sorting systems, quality upgrading technologies, digitalization tools and eco-design principles together with new business models linked to each step of the circular value chains. Following this approach, PLASTICE will impact on the amount of landfilled plastics and GHG emissions linked to process operation and fossil fuels-based feedstock. Its replication will be supported by contributing to the development of new standards and regulations, and by creating a community of followers supported by PLASTICE tools and consortium.

SEALIVE aims at demonstrating innovative circular strategies for bio-based plastics in land and sea applications. The project will be driven by economically and technically sustainable business models based on materials with advanced properties, design for circularity techniques and end-of-life solutions. It will establish a partnership of raw material providers, convertors, end users, recyclers, policy experts, certification organizations and NGOs to demonstrate solutions within a shared vision for circular plastic strategies. Solutions for reusable, recyclable and biodegradable bio-based plastics to prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds will be demonstrated in four pilot territories: Cyprus, Ireland, France and Denmark (or Non-European site). Innovative formulations based on PHAs, PLA and starch materials with advanced properties will be developed following recycling, biodegradability (marine and land) and composting standards. Design for circularity techniques (recyclable multi-layer single packaging materials, digital materials for traceability) and End-of-life solutions (high precision NIR-based mechanical recycling, controlled biodegradation/composting in natural and industrial conditions) will be upscaled at TRL6. Solutions will be applied to 8 end-applications with high potential for pollution reduction of soils and water media: rigid food containers, flexible packaging, agricultural films, fish crates, fishing nets and aquaculture mesh bags. Pre-normative research will be carried out to improve current standards for biodegradation, composting and recycling with regards to eco-toxicity, safety and influence of plastic ageing. Policy recommendations at EU and global level will be provided in order to build a common framework enabling pollution reduction of land and sea via sustainable bio-based plastics solutions.

Due to the rapid growth of population, municipal solid waste (MSW) has contributed significantly to the total amount of waste generated by our society. Today in Europe, each habitant generates, in average, 0.5 tonnes of MSW per year, increasing at an annual rate of 10%. Around 40-50% of it correspond to organic waste. This organic fraction mainly contains carbohydrates, proteins and lipids, which are all useful raw material that can be converted to valuable products. Its valorisation will help to solve environmental pollution but also contributes to the transition from a linear to a renewable circular economy. Digestion and composting have contributed to the reduction of the biodegradable fraction of MSW sent to landfill. The low economical value of compost and biogas is limiting the sustainable implementation of separate sourcing systems since increasing citizen environmental (waste) taxes is then need to tackle important logistic costs. New biobased products can help to improve waste treatment environmental and socio-economical sustainability. The aim of URBIOFIN project is to demonstrate the techno-economic and environmental viability of the conversion at semi-industrial scale (10 T/d) of the organic fraction of MSW (OFMSW) into: Chemical building blocks (bioethanol, volatile fatty acids, biogas), biopolymers (polyhydroyalkanoate and biocomposites) or additives (microalgae hydrolisated for biofertilisers). By using the biorefinery concept applied to MSW (urban biorefinery), URBIOFIN will exploit the OFMSW as feedstock to produce different valuable marketable products for different markets: agriculture, cosmetics. URBIOFIN will offer a new feasible and more sustainable scenario alternative to the current treatment of the OFMSW.

CIRCULAR BIOCARBON is a first-of-its-kind flagship biorefinery conceived to valorise organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) into value-added products: diamond-like-carbon coatings, green graphene, tailor-made bio-based fertilisers, or bio-plastic, as well as a variety of intermediate products. In order to maximise replicability and boost potential penetration in the market, the biorefinery will be operated for three years in Spain and Italy, and consistent business and exploitation strategies will be put in place. The CIRCULAR BIOCARBON biorefinery, organised through a pool of cascading technologies, start from anaerobic process steps (after proper pretreatment) of mixed urban waste streams, of which OFMSW is the main one, in order to treat all the biowaste produced by a medium-size city (at the end of the project, a commercial scale biorefinery will be fully operative). The fundamental objective of the CIRCULAR BIOCARBON project is to open up new business frameworks based on a new circular vision of waste treatment in a city towards a sustainable bioeconomy, to which actors leading the territorial waste management schemes and policies will be brought to maximize impact on the market, on policy makers and on society.

Approximately 70% of European plastic waste (18.5 mt/year) is not being recycled due to technical or economic reasons and are thus sent to landfill (27%) or incinerated (42%). This situation affects negatively the environment in terms of pollution and greenhouse gases emissions, as well as social perception regarding waste management, consumer’s products industry and policy makers. iCAREPLAST addresses the cost and energy-efficient recycling of a large fraction of today’s non-recyclable plastics and composites from urban waste. Heterogeneous plastic mixtures will be converted into valuable chemicals (alkylaromatic) via chemical routes comprising sequential catalytic and separation steps. This multistage process will also yield carbon char and a pure CO2 stream as products, whilst it will present improved economic sustainability, operational flexibility and lower CO2 footprint thanks to (i) the energetic valorisation of gas by-products through innovative oxycombustion units integrated with efficient heat recovery; and (ii) the use of AI predictive control and real time optimisation. iCAREPLAST aims to demonstrate (TRL-7) the whole technology for plastic waste valorisation in a pilot plant able to process >100 kg/h of plastic. Advanced upstream waste sorting, pre-treatment and pyrolysis is strongly backed by previous demonstration activities and knowhow of the consortium, with profound knowledge of waste management and recycling market. iCAREPLAST solution will enforce circular economy by substantially increasing the amount of recycled plastics to produce commodity products that can be used for virgin-quality polymers production or as raw materials for other processes in petrochemicals, fine chemicals, automotive and detergent/surfactants industries. As a result of its initial exploitation we will treat 250,000t of plastic waste which otherwise would have become landfill, converting it into 1,500t of alkylaromatics and 1,000t of aromatics.