12 August 2021
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2 min read
Credit: Recycling Technologies
Backed by Innovate UK, the blockchain innovation aims to provide fully traceable and accurately-labelled record of recycled material
Sustainable supply chain software firm Circulor has unveiled its latest blockchain-enabled innovation, which is aimed at improving the traceability of hard-to-recycle-plastics, it announced this week.
Dubbed Trackcycle, the software has been developed through a partnership between Circulor, French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies, and chemical plastics recycling specialist Recycling Technologies, with additional backing from the government's innovation agency Innovate UK.
The developers plan to embed blockchain technology - often used in the transfer of cryptocurrencies - into the advanced recycling value chain, in a bid to provide a fully traceable and accurately-labelled record of recycled materials, all the way from waste sourcing up to the use of recycled polymers in new production streams, they explained.
By using the innovation, stakeholders in the polymers industry can benefit from greater visibility over the provenance and quality of the materials entering and exiting their facilities, Circulor said.
It comes ahead of new rules coming into force from next year in the UK, which will mean plastic packaging must contain at least 30 per cent recycled plastic material or it will face a tax, while the European Union is also set to introduce a new packaging levy.
These incoming regulations underscore the need for more for accurate information on plastic recycling and its use in new materials, according to Circulor.
Douglas Johnson-Poensgen, CEO of Circulor, said the firm was on a mission to "make the world's most complex industrial supply chains more transparent in order to prevent the exploitation of our planet".
"We all contribute to plastic waste on a daily basis and Circulor's traceability platform will play an important role in introducing visibility where it is currently lacking," he added.
As part of the Trackcycle project, both TotalEnergies and Recycling Technologies plan to leverage their industrial and R&D expertise in a bid to improve the traceability of feedstocks from post-consumer plastic wastes used in the production of recycled polymers. The consortium then also aims to work closely with several plastic waste suppliers, including an unnamed multinational consumer goods firm, it said.
Valérie Goff, senior vice president for polymers at TotalEnergies, described the collaboration with Circulor and Recycling Technologies as an "excellent example of innovation to develop more traceable recycled polymers".
"It reinforces our commitment to move advanced recycling forward and contributes to our ambition of producing 30 per cent recycled and renewable polymers by 2030," she said.
