İKMİB Joins Europe's Largest Civil R&D Project

R&D Project PolnySpire to Enable Plastic Recycling

The opening meeting of the PolnySpire Project, which is supported under Horizon 2020, Europe's largest civil R&D programme, and will run for 4 years, took place in Brussels. The project, which includes İKMİB from Turkey as well as KORDSA, has a total of 22 partners across Europe. The project aims to develop technology for chemical recovery of plastics. Within the scope of the project, chemical recovery of plastic monomers and fillers, development of alternative additives to improve the quality of recycled plastics, and valorization of plastic waste as a carbon source in the steel industry are targeted. İKMİB, which supports the PolynSpire R&D project, will contribute under the European Plastic Converters umbrella to market analyses of products emerging from the project, evaluation of these products under waste legislation, and promotion and dissemination activities of the project. In addition to İKMİB and KORDSA from Turkey, Arkema and Novamont from Europe will play a role in the pilot phase of the project. İKMİB, which is part of the project to provide know-how transfer regarding successful processes related to plastic recycling, aims to obtain information on Europe's waste map and latest technologies regarding waste treatment in Turkey, and to share this with member companies. Commenting on the importance of the project, İKMİB Chairman of the Board Adil Pelister said, "In Europe, the most important objective of circular economy strategy is to ensure more efficient recycling of plastics and to make resource use more effective. Within this objective, we will share innovative developments in plastic recycling with our sector through the project, which brings together leading representatives of the plastic industry across Europe. In this way, we aim to achieve more efficient use of resources and, consequently, a more environmentally friendly and competitive structure."