Resourcing Plastics from the City | 2 Mers Seas Zeeën

PlastiCity

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Resourcing Plastics from the City

Priority Axis

Resource Efficient Economy

Specific objective

Circular Economy

Lead partner

Stad Gent

Start Date

01/01/2019

End Date

30/09/2022

Project budget

9 450 154

ERDF amount

5 501 451

ERDF rate

58%

    About

    Common challenge

    The 2S region is one of the most proliferative regions in the EU when it comes to generating plastic waste, but overall, plastic recycling rates are incredibly low (20-30%). Within the urban environment – often including cities near water bodies – a lot of plastic waste is available that would, in terms of quality, technically be eligible for recycling but is not effectively validated. These so-called ‘lost plastics’ can form a prominent role in the circular economy, providing actors and stakeholders with an economic opportunity to benefit by stepping away from traditional plastic disposal methods. These economic opportunities are not fully known/understood, collection logistics not fully developed, sorting facilities not well equipped or stakeholders not fully engaged. These are all barriers to realize the full potential of plastic in the circular economy and need to be overcome if the 2S region is to play a key role in delivering the EU strategy for plastics in the Circular Economy.

    Main Achievements

    Since the start of the project in January 2019, PlastiCity has completed 4 project outputs. The project published a report outlining the replicable strategy to develop case-specific solutions for the collection, sorting and reprocessing of currently wasted plastics in urban environments. The planned and executed plastic waste collection from local businesses, with the help of the project's investments in each region.

    The Hague invested in an innovative solution: an extra large cargobike, including a large container. Besides being a zero-emission last mile solution it also is a good promotion vehicle. With this bicycle, a first round of plastic collection was organised in the Hague. In Flanders, an electric vehicle was acquired by GRCT as part of the mobile unit to collect plastic waste from local businesses, including a bar code scanning system to track the origin of the plastic waste at company level. A first collection round was executed in the Herenthals region. DPL invested in an installation that addresses the issue of contaminated film. The investment can be used for testing and exploring new markets for the hubs in the different regions.

    In all regions, meanwhile, a strategy to enthuse local businesses to participate in PlastiCity was also being worked on. Interviews were conducted with local businesses to identify their attitudes towards plastic waste separation. Ghent University acquired two sea containers and developed a mobile unit for plastic characterization and pretreatment with those two containers. The necessary machines were purchased and installed in the containers and the containers are operational. The mobile unit is temporarily parked on university property until travel restrictions related to corona are lifted.

    Partnership

    Partners

    Universiteit Gent

    University of Portsmouth Higher Education Corporation

    Southend on Sea Borough Council

    Gemeente Den Haag

    Van Werven België bvba

    Team2

    Association pour la Recherche et le Développement des Méthodes et Processus Industriels

    Metabolic B.V.

    D.P.L. Group Plastic Recycling

    GRCT

    Theys Recyclage

    WeLOOP

    Outputs

    Output title
    Type
    Target
    URL / Download
    31/12/2022

    PlastiCity

    Theme: Innovation in citiesCircular economy
    Type: Method/service
    Target: Environmental agencies
    31/12/2022

    PlastiCity

    Theme: Innovation in citiesCircular economy
    Type: Pilot and demonstration action
    Target: Environmental agencies
    30/04/2020

    PlastiCity

    Theme: Innovation in citiesCircular economy
    Type: Strategy/action plan
    Target: Citizens
    30/04/2020

    PlastiCity

    Theme: Innovation in citiesCircular economy
    Type: Prototype
    Target: Environmental agencies