WHITECYCLE
Upscaling of innovative processes for the recycling of PET from complex wastes.
This project is funded by Horizon Europe
Project Period: 01.07.2022 - 30.06.2026
Project ID number: 101059639
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is widely used in plastics and textiles leading to over 20 Mt/y of complex waste worldwide for which no closed-loop recycling is viable today. Most complex waste is landfilled or incinerated. There is an urgent need to develop a circular solution to convert complex PET wastes from plastics and textiles back into high-added value products.
WHITECYCLE aims to demonstrate two new processes combining strong scientific and industrial know-how:
- innovative identification, sorting and separation technologies that will dramatically increase the PET content of complex waste streams to 80%, and
- a disruptive enzymatic recycling process that is expected to yield pure PET monomers sustainably even for impure waste streams. Process design kits, LCA and production cost estimates will be provided to PET manufacturers and waste management companies for rapid deployment and assure social acceptance.
First projections show that WHITECYCLE’s recycled PET will be competitive with virgin PET. The project will conduct a full circle loop from real complex waste feedstock to representative product of the 3 use-cases at TRL 5. Then, a strong upscale study will allow the process steps to reach TRL 6 to 8. By 2030, WHITECYCLE will enable the annual recycling of more than 2 Mt of PET, which corresponds to the amount of additional recycled PET needed to meet the EU’s 2030 targets. This will reduce emissions by around 2.06 Mt CO2eq and avoid the landfilling of more than 1.8 Mt of PET.