SYSCHEMIQ
The transition to a circular plastics economy.
The SYSCHEMIQ project is an important step towards circularity and lower CO2 emissions. What’s more, it closely aligns with POM Limburg’s objectives for a circular plastics sector. In this, the focus is on the closure of the cycle through chain cooperation.
The emphasis is partly on collecting, sorting, and recycling used plastic, and partly on designing plastic materials that are easier to recycle. As well as the technical aspects of the transition, the interests of residents, local and regional governments, and knowledge institutions are also incorporated.
The core group of the SYSCHEMIQ consortium consists of:
Some twenty partners from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland are also involved. These are all from the industrial sector, the business community, knowledge and educational institutions, as well as governments.
The project connects the participants’ data, knowledge and expertise. It is not just about testing technological innovations, but the partners will als develop and test the plastic collection, sorting, and recycling. There will also be monitoring of innovative governance models and regulations and legislation across the borders.
Recycling mixed plastics into usable new materials and raw materials is not easy. For this reason, the SYSCHEMIQ project also concentrates on quality requirements in order to determine the value of waste more unambiguously –
to collect and sort waste in a more clever way, pilots will be initiated as part of the project. Once governments are more committed, both locally and regionally, to better plastic sorting and recycling, it will be more appealing for the industry to invest in larger-scale recycling.
The aim of SYSCHEMIQ is to contribute to more recycling and reuse of plastics in new products.
Lia Voermans, Circularity director at Brightlands Chemelot Campus: “The importance of a project like SYSCHEMIQ is not just that it crosses borders, but also that all the links of the chain are seen as one. This means the designer, producer, consumer, industry, governments, and anyone involved in the recycling and reusing process related to a new product. Only this integral coherence of the entire value chain can deliver the desired acceleration in the transition.”
The international research and demonstration project SYSCHEMIQ will be given a financial impulse of 9.6 million euro from the Horizon Green Deal programme of the European Union. The project will run from 2022 to 2025.
