CPNL invests in the development of plastic recycling at research institute NTCP

Sustainable solutions for improved plastic recycling receive a boost from the National Growth Fund programme Circular Plastics NL

Heerenveen, 11 April 2024

There is an urgent need for innovations in the development and recycling of plastic packaging and packaging waste to promote the transition to circularity instead of burning these valuable raw materials. Because of NTCP's knowledge position and the urgency of the subject, the government is investing 12 million euros from the National Growth Fund programme Circular Plastics NL (CPNL) in an expansion of NTCP's research facilities. Since its establishment in 2018, independent institute NTCP in Heerenveen has played an important role in developing, researching and applying innovations around the sorting and washing of plastic packaging waste to make it suitable for recycling. Over the past five years, the knowledge centre has grown into a European leader in this field with many (inter)national partners and customers from industry, government and research.

Collaboration with CPNL

The goal of the eight-year CPNL program is to make plastic fully circular and accelerate the transition. CPNL director Marc Spekreijse: "Solutions to increase the quality and quantity of recycling can be easily researched and developed in collaboration with industry, entrepreneurs and researchers with the open infrastructure at NTCP in order to recycle at a higher quality and more efficient level. By awarding this grant to NTCP, an important and necessary step is taken with investments to further develop the "characterization, sorting and washing" of plastic waste streams. This pre-processing is one of the bottlenecks in almost all value chains that we need to solve in order to accelerate the transition to more circularity."

Increasing earning power through innovative research into plastic recycling

In order to turn plastic waste into a new raw material, in addition to reducing the use of plastic and a well-organized collection system, reprocessing (sorting and washing) the waste is a crucial step. NTCP occupies a unique position because the applied research into plastic from household waste is carried out on a relevant scale with its own industrial installations. This allows new technologies and processes to be developed and tested in a realistic but controlled environment and accelerates actual implementation. This is desperately needed because the percentage of plastic that is recycled must increase and there are also many types of plastic products that are not yet recycled at all. NTCP works together with all parties in the chain, from producers who put packaging on the market to the sorters and recyclers (mechanical and chemical) who make the material available again as a raw material for use in new products. Through CPNL's contribution, the Netherlands is investing in a development that makes an important contribution to the solutions that lead to more circularity and thus to sustainable and structural economic growth.