Navigation Tool Regarding Plastic Recycling
The European project TRANSFORM-CE, funded by Interreg North-West Europe, has presented a tool to transform single-use plastic into new products for a circular economy.
The Navigation Tool results from a three-year project, in which international partners from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom collaborated to recycle high-value and low-value household plastic waste streams. It gives information on the TRANSFORM-CE project’s findings, shares links to project reports and publications, gives the contact details of the project’s partners for questions or collaboration, explains the technologies, and suggests uses for recycled plastics. TRANSFORM-CE uses two technologies: additive manufacturing (AM) and intrusion-extrusion molding (IEM).
- AM shreds sorted plastic waste, which is then melted and extruded to produce long filaments. The filaments are then used in 3D printing to create objects layer by layer.
- In IEM, low-grade plastic waste is used to make lumps of plastic which are then melted and extruded into a hot plastic ‘clay’. That is then pressed into molds to create new products. In the TRANSFORM-CE project, the Green Plastic Factory in the Netherlands is responsible for the process.
As reported, TRANSFORM-CE offers a business support package for companies interested in using recycled materials. “The technologies can be used to design and produce new products and to create circular business models.”
The Navigation Tool can be found on the project homepage: 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/#tab-9
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2023, Page 9, Source: Interreg North-West Europe)
