Today, many industrial products made of plastic are burnt or deposited after use because they either are not designed for recycling or because the available recycling technologies cannot handle the products. Several of the largest Danish companies in the value chain prefer a change, and they would like recycling to increase by at least 20 percent before 2025.
The Danish Technological Institute (DTI) has united the companies in a joint project called Circular Industrial Plastics.
The Circular Industrial Plastics project lays the foundation for a platform that matches materials and recovery technologies. This will give Danish companies easy access to co-operation and knowledge about specific solutions that can be implemented at once – but also to knowledge about innovation in the future. In brief, the project will be a catalyst for the transition from linear to circular production and use of plastics, said Dr Lars Haahr Jepsen from DTI.
Access to circular plastic knowledge and tech
The first step in the project will be to survey and investigate the plastic materials that are currently used in the companies and then create an infrastructure for further treatment and recovery.
At the completion of the project, the objective will be to demonstrate full-scale solutions for selected products within the categories of medical, technical, and consumer plastics, and to demonstrate the interaction of new recovery technologies in the circular flow.
Furthermore, the ambition is to give Danish companies access to new knowledge and technologies for establishing circular flows within plastics.
By joining forces, we expect to significantly increase knowledge and improve technologies for the recycling of plastics. This project will address the issue of plastic waste that our society is struggling with by speeding up the transition to a circular economy, said Kim Grøn Knudsen, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Topsoe, one of the companies participating in the project.
The project is supported by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency and is a so-called flagship project where solutions will be tested and demonstrated on a full scale to inspire Danish trade and industry.
Participants in the Circular Industrial Plastics project
Industrial plastics consumers
Novo Nordisk A/S, Danfoss A/S, Coloplast A/S, Grundfos A/S, F&H A/S, and Coop Danmark A/S.
Reprocessing, infrastructure, and recovery
Trebo ApS, Zirq Medical A/S, Makeen Power A/S, Crossbridge Energy A/S, Topsoe A/S, Marius Pedersen A/S, Geminor ApS, and BASF A/S.
Knowledge partners
Aarhus University, DTU, Technical University of Denmark, and Danish Technological Institute (project manager).
