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On June 14, the ICL group (leader in bromine recovery), visited the facilities of Coolrec, a leading recycling company, to discuss the progress and prospects of the PLAST2bCLEANED project.

The PLAST2bCLEANED project aims to address a human and environmentally safe recycling process for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) plastics in a technically feasible and economically viable manner.

During the visit, the teams held discussions and exchanged valuable knowledge and experience. The focus of the discussions was the project’s progress in transforming contaminated Electrical and Electronic Equipment waste (WEEE) into high-quality recycled materials suitable for various applications.

On the 1^st  of June, an online webinar took place on Boosting Plastics Recycling organized by the EU projects PRIMUS and CREATOR.

The online webinar consisted of legacy flame retardants in recycled plastics, how they end up in recycled plastics, and the associated risks, regulations, standards, and changes in recent years, as well as testing, analysis, and best practices for manufacturers and recyclers.

The event was attended by experts in the field, including partners that are part of the PLAST2BCLENAED project consortium, such as Lein Tange, Sustainability Director of ICL group, and Tom Caris, Business Development Manager of Coolrec. Part of the PLAST2bCLEANED project process is based on the Separation of additives to concentrate bromine flame retardants and antimony trioxide fractions for recycling and reduced risk of retaining hazardous substances in recycled materials.

On May 15, the ICL group (leader in bromine recovery) visited TNO’s facilities to conduct a review meeting on the PLAST2bCLEANED project and the progress that has been made along the way.

One of the three closing loops created in PLAST2bCLEANED, the bromine, was one of the primary topics covered at the meeting. In addition, ICL provides advice on the usage of brominated flame retardants and the technology to ultimately recover the bromine throughout the project, and TNO is in charge of coordinating these measures.

On May 4, PLAS2bCLEANED attended the SETAC Europe 33^rd Annual Meeting, during which multiple topics of environmental analysis and problem solving were discussed in Dublin (Ireland).

During the conference, Dr. Ana Salles from Fraunhofer ICT, presented a poster entitled Human toxicity assessment during the recycling process in the PLAST2bCLEANED project.

If you did not have the opportunity to attend the event, you can consult the content of Ana’s poster here.

On May 11, at the Plastics Recycling Show Europe in Amsterdam, Renewi’s subsidiary Coolrec and the largest manufacturer of home appliances in the world, Electrolux, both participants in the plast2bcleaned project, won first prize for the introduction of a refrigerator whose interior is made from 70% recycled plastics from old refrigerators.

The Plastics Recycling Awards Europe (PRSE) commemorate, and honor accomplishments made across the board in the European plastic recycling sector. In addition, the awards provide information on recent advances, use of recyclable materials, inventive product design and production.

On May 10and 11, PLAST2bCLEANED attended The Plastics Recycling Show Europe 2023 (PRSE), a conference, exhibition, and awards ceremony for recycling plastics in continental Europe,  hosted at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre.

During the conference, Ana Rita Neiva, Plastics Recycling Engineer at Coolrec, responsible for the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment recycling within the project, participated in the PRSE exhibition to highlight its technologies and advancements, including PLAST2bCLEANAED, at a booth in this show.

On April 28, a new online session of “Technological pills” organised by Aclima, the Basque Environment Cluster, in conjunction with BRTA, the Basque Research & Technology Alliance was held and hosted by Sixto Arnaiz, Head of the Recycling and Circular Economy Area at GAIKER.

The cycle of “Technology Pills 2023” is being put on to encourage creativity through quick sessions. The talk primarily focused on the “New Developments in the Automatic Identification and Separation of Waste.” discussed the significant contributions of technology in waste management, and the latest developments in the field of automatic waste identification and separation.

Moreover, the season also focused on GAIKER’s role in the PLAST2bCLEANED project, where the center plays a key role through the application of state-of-the-art technologies like RAMAN spectroscopy, which facilitates techniques for the recycling of black polymers, the most difficult ones to deal with nowadays.

Technology Pills 2023 edition gathered, experts from the industry who came together to share their knowledge and insights on various topics, especially focused in the filed of automatic waste identification and separation.

On May 10, PLAST2bCLEANED attended the Going Green – CARE INNOVATION 2023conference and exhibition on Electronics and Environment held at The International CARE Electronics Office where the latest advancements in circular economy, environmental design, clean manufacturing, resource efficiency, climate change, and new eco-efficient technologies were showcased, in Vienna (Austria).

During the conference, Ainara Pocheville, Iratxe Uría and Oscar Salas, from GAIKER, gave the presentation entitled Advanced sorting classification models based on Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics to improve Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) plastics recycling.

GAIKER’s presentation is available here.

On April 25, TNO visited Fraunhofer facilities to discuss the progress obtained at the plant. The visit was aimed at exploring advancements in the PLAST2bCLEANED Project.

During the visit, TNO representatives were given a tour of the Fraunhofer installations, including the laboratories and research centers. The researchers from Fraunhofer provided detailed insights into the latest developments in their respective fields, highlighting the most recent technologies and innovations and what has been achieved so far.

For TNO, it was a great opportunity to learn about the progress in the recovery unit of PLAST2bCLEANED, among other tasks, and explore potential collaborations with Fraunhofer in the coming future.

Are you interested in knowing more about our latest achievements, events we attended and other exciting news? Then, check out our latest Newsletter. We have compiled all the information about the milestones we have achieved, the events we attended and much more.

With this Newsletter, you can stay up-to-date with all our activities. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to get the latest updates!