Post-Consumer High-tech Recycled Polymers for a Circular Economy (PolyCE)
What is it about?
PolyCE is a European project working around the WEEE (waste of electric and electronic equipment) value chain. Various activities address the WEEE value chain in order to reduce waste generation and enhance the sustainable resource management through use of recycled materials instead of their virgin counterparts. While the system for metals recycling is already well established, the rising volumes of waste plastics point to stalemates in the current plastics economy, which hamper its shift to a more circular model. Although there are individual efforts to improve the collection and recycling of WEEE plastics, the plastics value chain is still too fragmented and WEEE recycled plastics seem unattractive material for the end-user. To shift towards circular economy a systematic transformation is required, involving all actors in the value chain and encompassing the entire lifecycle of plastic materials.
Objective of the research
PolyCE will demonstrate the feasibility of circular plastics supply and value chain. In parallel, the technical and economic feasibility as well as environmental benefits of using recycled plastics will be validated in several electronics demonstrators. In addition, PolyCE will provide guidelines for designing new electronics products with recycled plastics. In this project several industrial partners are working together with academic partners. This PhD will guide the industrial partners in the development of their demonstrators assisting in designing with plastics, mould making, flow simulations, strength simulations. Parallel to this it will also assist in the development of the guidelines for designing new electronics with recycled plastics.
