RSBCLUB Member - TECOS, the Slovenian Tool and Die Development Centre, has partnered with five companies from four EU countries for a EUR 1.8m project to make new materials out of plastic packaging waste and waste newspaper.
The goal is to transform the two sources of scrap material into new materials for high-tech production in the automotive, construction and packaging industries, project coordinator Vesna Žepič Bogataj said.
Apart from TECOS as the lead partner, the partnership also involves Adria Mobil and Omaplast from Slovenia, Aitiip from Spain, Ecopulp from Finland and the Polish ITB institute.
"The production line for the processing of new materials from recycled raw materials will be in Spain, prototypes of products for interior equipment of caravans will be made in Slovenia, demo products for the building sector will be manufactured in Poland and the line for manufacturing of industrial packaging from 100-percent recycled raw materials will be in Finland," Žepič Bogataj said.
The official, who heads TECOS's applied materials lab, added that the project pursued the circular economy goal to increase the rate of recycled waste products by 40% and cut carbon emissions by as much.
Most of the waste plastic packaging to be recycled in the project will come from communal waste and a part from industrial production.
The input materials will be provided by Omaplast, a Slovenian plastic waste processing company which operates a waste sorting unit in Trebnje that accepts only separated plastic waste.
The project is to create six new jobs by the time it runs out in 2021, plus another 24 in the three years after the project's completion.
After the project's completion, Omaplast will have the opportunity to expand its channels to sell recycled plastic granulates at local and regional levels, via supply chains of the consortium companies and associated partners.
As the end user of newly developed products, caravan maker Adria Mobil will have at its disposal green materials from fully recycled input materials.