Circular economy
This is how plastic should become sustainable
December 7, 2023, 10:26 a.m
New recycling methods turn the environmental killer plastic into a valuable material. For example, the goal of the SynCycle project is to recycle plastics infinitely using a chemical recycling process. Discarded plastic should be put back into the value chain and thus promote the transition to a circular economy.
Plastic waste threatens the livelihoods of many living beings on our planet. Each of us has images in our heads of littered beaches and fish dying from microplastics in the oceans. But what to do with all the plastic, this waste material that not only symbolizes our excessive consumer behavior?
An answer now comes from Austrian industry. In Carinthia, a company has developed a technology with which plastic can be chemically recycled and thus further processed.
recycling
It takes hundreds of years for plastic to rot. Therefore, plastics such as plastic have been recycled and reused for a long time. In Germany, citizens are an active part of this recycling concept. They separate waste and dispose of plastic and plastics in the yellow bin. This means that the plastics can first be processed using standard recycling processes and can then be reused. The deposit system for PET bottles works in a very similar way. The current recycling process works mechanically and helps to avoid waste. But there are limits to recycling. Heavily contaminated plastic and frequently recycled plastics are no longer recyclable at a certain point. The EU’s ambitious goal of making all plastic packaging fully recyclable by 2030 is difficult or impossible to achieve. Unfortunately, we cannot simply do without plastic as a raw material.
SynCycle and chemical recycling
The company Next Generation Elements GmbH from Carinthia in Austria has developed a technology that chemically recycles plastic. By founding the overarching “SynCycle” project, the company and other companies from the region are pursuing the goal of recycling plastic infinitely. The innovation consists of a chemical recycling process that reintegrates plastic that can no longer be used into the value chain. This particularly affects plastics that are too dirty or moist to be mechanically recycled.
In the so-called pyrolysis process, the plastic is processed into an oil, which can now be used as a raw material for the production of high-quality plastic. In the process developed by SynCycle, the plastic is heated at around 500 degrees until it turns into a gas and, after cooling, is further processed into oil. Despite the high energy expenditure, the new form of recycling is ultimately also worth it in terms of energy, explains qualified engineer Sven Wolf, CEO of Next Generation Elements GmbH: “Chemical recycling uses less energy than the production of the raw material.”
Even if waste materials continue to be created, the chemical process would in the long term bring the industry closer to the goal of creating an infinite recycling cycle in which less and possibly no new plastic would have to be produced at all. In the short term, SynCycle can already claim success: the plastic that would previously have ended up in an incineration plant, thereby emitting additional CO₂ and other pollutants, can thus be efficiently returned to a circular economy. It’s not for nothing that “Unwasting plastic” is the credo of the SynCycle project. Plastic should become a valuable raw material, be more sustainable as a product and not just remain waste.
Plastic cluster Carinthia
It is no coincidence that the technology was developed in Carinthia. At the industrial location in southern Austria, many companies and research institutions have committed themselves to green transformation and are constantly thinking about the “circular economy” for plastics. The so-called cluster culture is practiced in the economic network, in which we work together on sustainable technology solutions for the future. That’s why the location is also called “Green Tech Valley”.
SynCycle is another joint venture between regional industrial companies. The pilot plant developed for chemical recycling was built by the Carinthian company KRUWE GmbH together with partners from Upper Austria. The entire Carinthia region strives for climate neutrality and is considered a European pioneer in the fight against climate change and for environmental protection. Innovations from local companies and close cooperation between research and industry are intended to help.
A valuable raw material?
The findings and innovations in the “Circular Economy” can help to better protect the climate and environment in the future. The following applies: The most effective way to protect the environment is to avoid plastic waste and, ideally, not produce it at all. But mere avoidance strategies are only part of the solution. Basically condemning plastic doesn’t help.
You have to face the fact that plastic is in the world, says Next Generation Elements GmbH CEO Sven Wolf. It is now a matter of finding ways to use the available raw materials.
With its newly developed technology, the Carinthian company is helping to solve the question of how the flood of plastic can be better contained in the future. The process is still in its early stages. In order to be able to use the new approach on a large scale in other countries, European innovative strength is also required, said Wolf.