Plastics are everywhere, and we could not maintain our lifestyles without them. They are essential to making our life safer, healthier, and more convenient. However, in today’s linear economy, many plastic-based products, like packaging, are single-use items.

To protect our planet, we need to move towards a circular economy of plastics.

When plastic products are discarded, their fate depends on the available end-of-life management systems. In Europe, typically plastic waste is either incinerated, landfilled or recycled. Successful recycling is dependent on the range and implementation of the collection of different types of plastic products, as well as the recycling systems available.

Recycling systems are typically local, so there are differences in what types of plastics get recycled. In worst cases, especially in places with no end-of-life management infrastructure, plastic waste can end up in the environment and further in rivers and oceans, where it cumulates causing different environmental issues.

Globally, plastics are mainly manufactured using fossil-based feedstock. The extraction of fossil-based resources poses environmental issues and when plastic waste is incinerated, carbon is released.

All these steps – extraction, production, and conversion of plastics as well as incineration cause greenhouse gas emissions, which intensify climate change. By implementing a circular economy of plastics, different negative environmental impacts can be avoided or mitigated.

For example, with recycling where plastic products are broken down into materials, we can avoid incineration and landfilling, but further, reduce the dependency on fossil-based resources. With reuse, where the product is circulated as a product, we can avoid different production steps as well.

There is no one solution that will fix all the challenges – we need a combination of different circular economy strategies. Especially for recycling, we need complimentary approaches to solve the issue of being able to recycle a wide range of different and ever-evolving plastic products.

To reach a circular economy of plastics, we need to begin at the design table.

• How much plastic is needed in the product or the packaging in the first place?
• How reusable or recyclable is the product?
• Does it contain complex material components, additives or layers that make reuse and recycling impossible?
• If so, how can we reduce their use?
• Could the plastic be sourced from recycled plastic or bio-based plastic?
• What are the boundaries that legislation sets for different circular options?

At VTT, we have deep expertise in material and product development and design that is carried out according to the strategies of the circular economy. We can help you develop a more sustainable product that improves your business results. We can also develop and implement circular economy business models.

At VTT, we have a long track-record in developing high-performance, safe and durable materials that can be based on alternative feedstocks like recyclates or bio-based plastics, and that are fit for circularity.

Regulation is introducing new mandates for utilising recycled content in different products. For example, by 2030, all plastic bottles in the EU should contain 30 % recycled plastics (PET).

Will there be high-quality food-grade approved recycled PET-plastics available for all? How could lower grade materials be upgraded to meet the requirements? Material degradation management is key to utilising higher rates of recyclates in high-value products.

What is the limit for recycled content and can we reach the set material and product requirements? These are typical starting questions for our successful projects, where we have developed added value materials from various plastic waste streams.

Bio-based plastics as well as other bio-based materials as alternative to plastics are evolving fast.

A lot of development is seen in producing high-performing bio-based alternatives that can have even superior properties when compared to fossil-based plastics.

VTT has great experience in replacing conventional plastics with bio-based plastics and materials from second and third-generation feedstock. VTT’s innovative alternatives to conventional plastics, made from cellulose or food and agricultural side streams, are high-performing, award-winning examples of our work.

Our leading researchers can help you find economic ways to increase the level of recycled and bio-based plastics in your products. This helps you improve your sustainability and conform to tightening regulation.

The operational environment is getting more challenging with tightening regulation. EPR schemes and higher collection and recycling targets for different plastic products are set. A Europe-wide initiative to circulate 10 million tonnes of plastic recyclates to the markets by 2025 still requires immense action.

Probably the most familiar example of plastic product recycling is plastic drink bottles that are separately collected, washed, and recycled back into food-contact use. Technical plastics from, for example, end-of-life vehicles and waste electronics and electrical equipment are also key material streams to circulate high-performing plastics. For different plastics and products, we need different recycling approaches.

Mechanical recycling should be favoured where possible as it has a much lower carbon footprint. However, not all plastic waste cannot be or should be recycled mechanically. In these cases, the plastics can be recycled via chemical and thermochemical means.

VTT has broad competencies in the field of pyrolysis and gasification, which enables the transformation of organic material into valuable chemicals. We have a wide range of equipment from lab to bench to pilot scale for state-of-the-art development of pyrolysis and gasification of plastic waste.