Upcycling Packaging: EU Research Driving Sustainability - upPE-T project

At present, more than 98% of plastics are produced from non-renewable sources. Some plastics are biobased, however not all are recyclable, reusable, or biodegradable. Polyethylene (PE) and Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are the leading plastics used in food packaging. The progressive substitution of consumer products derived from fossil fuels is crucial to decarbonise our society, especially in short shelf life packaging. In 2019, 19% of food & drink packaging plastic post-consumer waste was still sent to landfill and 39.5% was incinerated for energy recovery in Europe. A sustainable management of such plastic waste has become a very challenging problem for the recycling industry globally. Zero landfilling or incineration is needed to achieve the circular economy of plastics. The current alternatives of recycling however have important limitations – (i) mechanical recycling downgrades plastic properties, and (ii) chemical recycling for plastic depolymerisation requires high energy & long reaction times to be effective, consequently only 2% of plastic wastes are chemically recycled. upPE-T will solve these challenges through an innovative solution for the upcycling PE and PET post-consumer packaging wastes by transforming them into a range of biodegradable & recyclable bioplastics (PHBVs) for food & drink packaging manufacturing. The upPE-T project, a Research and Innovation Action (RIA), has received a grant of 7.826.685 € from the European Commission for the Topic ID: CE-BIOTEC-09-2020.