Researchers at the Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT, Westmeath / Ireland; www.ait.ie) and Sigma Clermont (Aubière / France; www.sigma-clermont.fr) recently started collaborating on two four-year projects that aim to separate, treat and repurpose multi-layered plastics.

Titled “BioICEP” and “Terminus”, the projects have been awarded EUR 11.6m by the EU’s “Horizon 2020” framework programme for research and innovation and the National Science Foundation of China (Beijing; www.nsfc.gov.cn).

The research projects focus on specific aspects of plastics’ life cycle. Terminus aims to develop a biotechnology that can separate layers in multi-layered plastics with enzymes that degrade layers of the adhesive. Using mechano-chemical and enzymatic technology, BioICEP then aims to break down these individual layers into their chemical constituents through depolymerisation.