As the bioplastics market grows*, it is essential to address the issue of recycling biodegradable bioplastics and to study their most effective recycling pathways, to be able to manage bioplastic products at their end of life. Bioplastic waste does not yet constitute a relevant amount of the total plastic waste (being only 1% in weight)**.
An efficient waste management for bioplastics is key to the European Commission’s flagship policy goal of a resource-efficient Europe and a circular economy vision. According to the European Commission Waste Framework Directive***, waste should be managed according to a precise hierarchy indicating a priority order in the legislation and policy for waste prevention and management: prevention; preparing for re-use; recycling; other recovery, e.g. energy recovery; and disposal.
In the past years, several projects, BioSupPack is one of them, have been funded by the Horizon Programme for Research and Innovation and the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking to improve and upscale bioplastics’ recycling technologies. Recently, three new projects, MoeBIOS, ReBioCycle and PROSPER, have kicked off, to bring upscaling of recycling technologies for bioplastics even further.
This event connects experts working on novel or improved recycling technologies for bioplastics from academia and the private sector, offering expertise along the whole process of bioplastics waste management from the foundation (e.g., waste sorting and pretreatment, creation of value chains) to recycling technologies – mechanical, chemical and enzymatic/microbial recycling- to upscaling and the development of new applications, in particular packaging, textiles and agriculture.
The presentations at this event revolve around the following recycling technologies:
- Mechanical Recycling
Projects using this technology: ReBioCycle, MoeBIOS, PROSPER, BIOMAC.
- Chemical Recycling
Projects using this technology: BioSupPack, ReBioCycle, MoeBIOS, PROSPER.
- Enzymatic and Microbial Recycling
Projects using this technology: ReBioCycle, MoeBIOS, BioSupPack.
A short outline of the plans and activities of these projects is presented in the current document.
*www.european-bioplastics.org/bioplastics-market-development-update-2023-2/
*ReBioCycle factsheet https://zenodo.org/records/14038703
*https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/waste-and-recycling/waste-framework-directive_en#ref-2023-amendment-to-the-waste-framework-directive