From Waste to Product: New Circularity by Recovering Polypropylene from Mixed Commercial Waste

To meet the EU’s ambitious recycling targets, it is crucial to expand mechanical recycling to include currently underutilized waste streams, such as mixed commercial waste (MCW), which today achieves a recycling rate of only 3–5%. This study addresses the challenge of recovering polypropylene (PP) from MCW and demonstrates a viable process to do so. The goal was to develop and test industrial-scale process concepts to extract PP and transform it into high-quality recyclate. Two process concepts were developed and tested at industrial scale to extract PP as a pre-concentrate. The recovered material was further sorted, shredded, washed, and granulated, ultimately reaching End-of-Waste status. Material analysis confirmed that the resulting PP granulate meets all relevant quality standards. A total of 456.8 kg of this recyclate was processed into market-ready products. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first demonstration of plastic products made entirely from MCW. By covering the full value chain—from waste to final product—this study highlights a viable and scalable approach for integrating complex waste streams into high-quality material cycles, thereby contributing to circular economy strategies.