The use of recycled plastic material (rPM) is far behind its potential. The project Di-Plast aims to increase the uptake of rPM by making use of software-based tools. Barriers that cause lower recyclate uptake are:

• unclear material quality,
• unstable supply,
• low transparency from material suppliers and
• variations in the processing of rPM.

Di-Plast develops and implements digital tools to increase information transparency in the value chain and to support converters in purchasing and processing rPM.

Companies wishing to increase the amount of recycled materials in their processes and improve the quality in process and product by using digital tools can now participate in one of the 4 pilots of the research project Di-Plast. The Di-Plast team offers its combined expertise in circular economy, plastic conversion processes and data science in order to co-develop digital solutions for an increased use of recyclates. The tailored digital solutions will be freely available to participants.

There are no costs for participating in the pilots. The application period runs until 15 December 2019.

Expected results:

• Delivering a digitally validated quality control system for rPM through end-to-end tracking of material flow, hence improving quality of recycled plastics and increasing their uptake in construction and packaging sectors.
• Operational target: uptake of additional 18.000 t of rPM by project activities until March 2022.
• Once the tools are developed successfully, they will be rolled out in the whole of Europe and rPM uptake will increase further.