CIMPA joins the Innovation Forum 4Plastics

CIMPA joined the Innovation Forum 4Plastics, on 13 & 14 October 2022, hosted by ITRB group at TIRME Environmental Technology Park of Mallorca, Spain.

During this hybrid event, CIMPA was introduced to participants, together with other EU-funded projects on plastic recycling and re-use and local initiatives. Moreover, local authorities presented the waste management and recycling strategies and policies in the island of Mallorca, with a special focus on sustainable tourism.

Projects presentations and regulatory aspects

10 EU-funded projects were presented in three different sessions: Recycling and Upcycling Processes, Urban Packaging Waste and Upcycling Projects: PRIMUS, polynSPIRE, iCAREPLAST, CREATOR, REMADYL, PRecycling, TERMINUS & OVERLEAF.

Céline Chevallier, coordinator of CIMPA project at IPC, France, gave an overview of the H2020 CIMPA project and the main research activities to make multilayer plastics more circular. She introduced the CIMPA innovative solutions such as compositional sorting, mechanical & physical recycling and decontamination processes, among others.

During this event, Mattia Pellegrini, Head of Unit ENV B.3., from the European Commission, joined the event online and presented the EC approach to Plastic Recycling and Re-use, giving some information about the future Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (expected to be published on 30 November) or the End-of-Life Vehicles Directive, and how these new rules will boost the plastic recycling and the uptake of recycled materials.

On the second day, a session on regulatory issues took place. María Vera-Duran, project officer at EuRIC and CIMPA WP7 leader, made a presentation on the regulatory developments on packaging and key policy measures for circularity such as design-for-recycling, recycled content targets or EPR schemes.

Visit to TIRME facilities

Participants visited TIRME facilities on 14 October, where they could see the different specific treatment for each waste stream: sorting of packaging, biogas production from the fermentation of organic waste (methanization), compost production for agriculture and household and energy recovery.

The Light Packaging Selection Plant is designed to treat the light packaging generated on the island of Mallorca. The packaging which comes from the recyling containers (yellow containers), is both manually and mechanically separated and classified into different streams. After its separation, the selected materials are shipped to the mainland for recycling.

Waste management model implemented in Mallorca is based on a Zero-Waste–to–Landfill policy, with a recycling rate ~40%, and ~60% of waste incinerated with energy recovery.

Would you like to join this clustering initiative?

H2020 Innovation Forum is an on-going clustering initiative, bringing together H2020 projects with policy makers, end-users, industry representatives, investors, start-ups and SMEs. If you are participating in a EU-funded project dealing with plastics recycling or reuse, or just working towards a circular economy for plastics, do not hesitate to contact us and become part of this initiative!