Spanish ABS manufacturer Elix Polymers (Tarragona; www.elix-polymers.com) has announced it is taking part in the “Plast2bCleaned” project (www.plast2bcleaned.eu), an initiative that aims to develop a viable recycling process for plastics used in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The project, which began in June 2019, will last for four years and has received funds amounting to just over EUR 4m from the European Commission, through the “H2020” programme.

The first phase seeks to establish the pre-treatment, analysis and separation of plastic components, while the second step aims to develop a process for dissolving plastic components and recovering the polymer and other parts for recycling. In a further step, the project will conduct an environmental and economic assessment to demonstrate the sustainable and economic viability of the technology before publishing the results.

Elix is the only ABS producer from Europe that is participating in the initiative. Other organisations include Electrolux (Stockholm / Sweden; www.electroluxgroup.com), Juchheim (Bernkastel Kues / Germany; www.juchheim-gmbh.com), Campine (Beerse / Belgium; www.campine.com), Israel Chemicals (ICL, Tel Aviv / Israel; www.icl-group.com), Fraunhofer (Munich / Germany; www.fraunhofer.de), TNO (The Hague / The Netherlands; www.tno.nl), Gaiker (Zamudio / Spain; www.gaiker.es), Coolrec (Willebroek / Belgium; www.coolrec.com) and Sustainable Innovations Europe (Madrid / Spain; www.sustainableinnovations.eu).