PROJECT DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND

Plastic packaging accounts for most of European plastic demand, but the uptake of recycled material within this sector is relatively low. Almost all plastic packaging material is collected for waste treatment, and the barrier seems to be the recycling process.

While waste streams from post-industrial sources are relatively clean, and recycled material from these sources tends to go into higher value-added applications, plastic film feedstocks from post-consumer sources are characterised by high levels of contamination. Plastic film feedstocks typically include a mix of film types such as low-density polyethylene (LDPE), linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP) and multilayers of plastics.

Separating the different materials and any lingering odour are among the challenges of dealing with materials of this nature. This leads to downcycling of recycled plastics into refuse bags, where odour and presence of contaminants is less relevant. The current European state-of-the-art is insufficient to solve this problem.

OBJECTIVES

The LIFE REPLAR project will demonstrate the feasibility of a novel, innovative recycling plant that enables Limerick Polymers Production (LPP) to produce a high-quality LDPE granulate from comingled, post-consumer waste streams. This recycling process not only enables LPP to produce high-quality output products from heavily contaminated input feedstocks, but this is also achieved with a very low water and energy footprint when compared to the current state-of-the-art.

The specific objectives of the project are to:

• demonstrate the techno-economic feasibility of a post-consumer plastic recycling plant that has both a low electricity consumption (0.76 megawatt-hour (MWh)/tonne) as well as a low water footprint (1-2m3/hour, which will be supplied by rainwater)
• implement a novel business model enabling tier-2 quality application in new plastic products
• support the development, implementation and enforcement of relevant EU legislation and policy through increasing the availability of recycled plastic packaging material
• share project results with relevant stakeholders and provide a blueprint for new plastic film recycling plants
• serve as a catalyst for the European plastic film recycling sector and provide a significant contribution to European Circular Economy targets

RESULTS

The expected results of the LIFE REPLAR project are:

• establishment of a plastic film recycling plant with an annual production capacity of 11 000 tonnes of high-quality recycled LDPE pellets
• a flexible and highly efficient 1.14MWh combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) system that can be easily replicated by any future film recycling plant
• use of by-product heat to reduce electrical load by almost 50% (0.76 MWh/tonne output, compared to the baseline of 1.49 MWh/tonne output)
• use of by-product heat to heat the air in thermal dryers, to chill water for extruder using hot water absorption chiller and to achieve self-sufficient water supply for the hot washing process
• reduction in the overall total primary energy requirement by 18% (2.3 MWh/tonne output, compared to the baseline of 2.8 MWh/tonne output) in addition to the electricity savings
• prevention of discharge of microplastics and wastewater into the sewage and public water system by using an efficient water system with circular design that uses rainwater instead of groundwater or potable water, and subsequently using wastewater by means of an evaporator
• removal of at least 80% of the odours from input materials by a highly efficient and innovative hot washing line tailored to plastic film materials
• avoidance of greenhouse gases emission compared to the baseline of 1.36 tonnes CO2 equivalent/tonne of recycled LDPE pellets

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ADDRESSED

THEMES