The next four years, nearly 20 European organizations will study the technical, economic, regulatory and behavioral aspects of applying recycled plastics. The goal of this European INCREACE-project is to increase recycled plastics in electronic products. Partners for Innovation will take the lead in a part of this project to empower people and communities to drive demand and change end of life behavior.   

 In 2016, only 5.3 million tonnes of plastics went to EU recycling facilities as input material. After the recycling process, the output mass is generally 1-2 times lower. For this reason, the collection rate and the recycling yield have to improve significantly. Furthermore, the demand for recycled plastics needs a boost, especially in added value applications such as electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). Only 2% recyclates are applied in this industry.  To increase recycled plastics in electronic products, the European project ‘INCreasing REcycled content in Added value products for a resilient and digitized Circular Economy (INCREACE) has started recently. 

 Innovative and interdisciplinary 

 The consortium partners will develop new data-driven sorting solutions to prevent potentially hazardous substances to enter the recycled plastics system. They will combine complementary recycling technologies to increase the overall recycling yield. As traceability is essential, the project will rely on an innovative blockchain approach. The overall concept will be applied to five specific business cases that focus on challenging applications in the EEE sector. In addition to the technological and material aspects, INCREACE will analyze implications from an economic, regulatory and behavioral perspective. By this means, INCREACE will contribute to the EU Plastics Strategy, the first and second Circular Economy Action Plan and the Green Deal. 

 Circular society 

 One of the objectives of the project is to empower people and communities to play their role in the circular plastics transition. Indeed, society plays a crucial role in this transition at both the start of the product lifecycle through purchase and at the end of the useful life of a product through collection. Partners for Innovation will take the lead in this part of the project regarding a circular society.  

 The goal of this part of the project is two-fold: to foster sustainable purchasing decisions to reintroduce recycled EEE products in the market and to enhance society’s participation in the collection of used EEE products to be looped back into the market. People will be actively engaged throughout the process. We will first define the state-of-the-art of research on these topics and will identify knowledge gaps. Then, we will design valuable and effective experiences for and with end users. This will result in practical design implications to guide product service systems design and value propositions to support people and communities during the purchasing and divestment (end of useful life) phases. 

For more information about this project, visit the INCREACE website  or LinkedIn page or contact Flora Poppelaars. 

Horizon Europe 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101058487.