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UPLIFT

Upcycling Bio Plastics of food and drinks packaging

Project partners
Aalborg University | Forschungszentrum Jülich | Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology | Technical University of Denmark | Lund University | TECNARO GmbH | Bio-mi Ltd. | Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant | Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology | AIMPLAS | UCD Dublin | Bioplastech | SUSTAINABLE INNOVATIONS | Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen | Vestforbrænding
SDG

AIMPLAS is aligned in this project with the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Web del proyecto

Objectives

  • To combine bio-depolymerization of plastics and bio-based building blocks to obtain smarter and renewable plastic materials, which will enable the effective upcycling of plastic packaging waste streams.
  • To fully integrate the bio-chemical upcycling technologies within already existing and more mature recycling processes and fermentation processes. All these prototype materials and processes will be tested in a relevant operational scale close to expected performance.
  • Eco-design to increase recyclability of the new eco-polymersance.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 953073

Description

Recycling facilities are currently struggling when dealing with challenging plastic multi-layers, blends, and additives. Consequently, packaging plastics are mostly landfilled, incinerated or spilled into the environment.

The overall idea of UPLIFT (sUstainable PLastIcs for the Food and drink packaging industry) is to biologically depolymerize bio- and fossil-based plastic packaging waste and convert it into more renewable and easily upcyclable polymers, following a biorefinery approach.

UPLIFT will address the full plastic packaging value chain, from monomer production to packaging material manufacturing and back to end of life reusing and recycling options.

Packaging
Recycling
Circular economy
Food safety
Sustainable materials
European
02. Hambre cero
12. Producción y consumo responsables
13. Acción por el clima
Polymer synthesis
Recycling