CIRCE exposes the progress of its research in the recycling of plastics in Brussels

The technology center presented its HARMONI, CIRC-PACK and polynSPIRE projects, which work in the field of circular economy

Fundación CIRCE has participated this June in two events in Brussels in which he has presented the progress made in his research in the field of sustainability and the circular economy in the plastics recycling sector.

The director of the Environment and Energy Group, Tatiana García, was responsible for presenting the projects coordinated by CIRCE, HARMONI, CIRC-PACK and polynSPIRE, in the event ‘Plastics Circularity – Synergies in H2020 Projects’ organized by the DEMETO project’ Modular, scalable and high-performance DE-polymerization by MicrowavE TechnolOgy ‘.

This event served as an international forum for the debate on the main barriers in Europe to achieve the objectives of plastic recycling set by the European Commission. In this way, the event managed to draw up a collaboration strategy between sister projects to maximize their impact.

The different presentations highlighted the need to work on existing legislation and, in particular, on the Waste Directive and the condition of end of waste, since the fact of transposition of it is different in each country makes implementation difficult of recycling strategies. It was also considered a priority to create quality standards and protocols to regulate and classify recycling processes and, in particular, chemical recycling, as well as products obtained in a harmonized way in Europe.

Increase collaboration between projects by creating common databases that allow establishing the most appropriate model for the management of different types of polymers, ensuring traceability of currents and materials to meet quality commitments and have reliable data to Recycling statistics and the importance of involving all agents in the value chain and, especially, of the final consumer were other relevant conclusions of the international event.

On the other hand, CIRCE also had the opportunity to participate in the first European Chemical Recycling conference, which was held a day later in Brussels, and at which around 150 representatives of key companies in the plastics sector met, Technology developers and public administrations. There, Tatiana García, on behalf of CIRCE, presented the polynSPIRE project as a key initiative to advance the chemical recycling of polyamides and polyurethanes.