After nearly five years of efforts, the EU-funded project PLAST2bCLEANED (PLASTtics to be CLEANED) is set to showcase its results at the International Electronics Recycling Congress (IERC 2024), the leading event in the Circular Economy Electronics.
On January 19th, 2024, PLAST2bCLEANED will present the workshop titled “The PLAST2bCLEANED process for recycling of WEEE Plastics” at IERC. The event will be held at the Hotel Sheraton in Salzburg (Austria) where project partners will provide information about the project’s achievements, offering detailed insights, recommendations, and lessons learned regarding environmentally safe recycling process for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) plastics in a technically feasible and economically viable manner.
PLAST2bCLEANED has achieved a significant milestone by successfully developing to Technology Readiness Level 5 (TRL5) meaning that the key enabling technology was validated in an industrially relevant environment. The project’s primary focus has been on recovering the most common polymers, ABS and HiPS, from WEEE as well as removing and recovering bromine flame retardants and antimony trioxide.
The partners will present PLAST2bCLEANED’s results and learnings and investigate how these results can be further exploited or developed. In addition to presenting and discussing the technical project results, the next steps, removing obstacles and stimulating measures to enhance plastic circularity will be presented as well.
Key representatives in the circular plastics and projects partners, including Judith Kessens, Senior Project Manager Circular Plastics, and Esther van den Beuken, Principal Consultant Circular Plastics, both from TNO, will moderate the workshop.
Among the notable accomplishments of the PLAST2bCLEANED project is the successful production of ABS from WEEE using an energy-saving process, indicating an economical viable avenue. Among the notable accomplishments of the PLAST2bCLEANED project is the creation of 23 door frames using resin formulation developed by ELIX Polymers, incorporating an impressive 30% eco-friendly recycled ABS.
Remarkably, this was achieved without any significant change to the operating parameters, demonstrating the project’s ability to integrate sustainable materials without compromising processing conditions. Additionally, the team successfully produced samples reducing the temperature of the melt, indicating a potential avenue for energy-saving in manufacturing processes, although the impact on aesthetics needs to be further investigated.
Participants at the workshop will have a unique opportunity to actively engage in discussions about the implementation of next steps. A panel discussion will focus on removing obstacles and stimulating measures to enhance the circularity of plastics.
Workshop registration
Are you interested? Please join us and register click here: https://events.icm.ch/event/e8f21bce-1276-4bc1-b6dc-4a9bc4625104/websitePage:bef9465b-aea2-4cb4-8d12-9e33ead01ef6
(Click on “international delegate” or “swiss delegate” to register)
For further information, please contact: info@plast2bcleaned.eu
Rocío Garcialonso, Communications Manager
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