Digital Circular Economy for the Plastics Industry

On 8 and 9 January 2019 the project partners of the Interreg NWE project "Di-Plast" met at the Wuppertal Institute. The aim of Di-Plast is to make it easier to incorporate recycled plastics into the production process by applying digital technologies. The background is that although there are nominally high recycling rates for plastics, the rate of reuse of these recycled materials is very low. "This is due to the fact that often indispensable information on the composition and purity of plastic recyclates is lacking. The packaging industry uses only 8 per cent recycled plastics, while the construction industry uses 18 per cent recycled plastics and the rest is so-called primary material," says Dr. Holger Berg, Project Co-ordinator in the Circular Economy Division at the Wuppertal Institute.

This is where the "Di-Plast" project comes in. Sensor technology, data analysis and process management will be used to create the information and processes that enable recycled plastics to be used safely. The project involves the Wuppertal Institute, the SKZ the Plastics Centre, the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS), the Université de Luxembourg, Polymer Science Park (PSP), Oost NL, Umwelttechnik Baden-Württemberg GmbH and many associated partners and companies from the plastics industry. The project is funded by the European Union under the Interreg NWE Programme.