A European project that aims to chemically recycle PET using microwave technology kicked off on 1 September in Brussels / Belgium. The project, named "Demeto" (www.demeto.eu), is being funded under the EU’s "Horizon 2020" research and innovation programme. Swiss company gr3n (Lugano; www.gr3n-recycling.com) has developed the technology, which centres on the depolymerisation of plastic, going back to ethylene glycol (EG) and PTA and allowing them to be fully reintroduced in the production of virgin-grade rPET. "Demeto proposes the industrialisation and demonstration at full-scale of a new industrial process which allows to chemically recycle PET bottles, food containers and even textiles in a highly profitable and environmentally sustainable way," explained Maurizio Crippa, CEO of gr3n.

Franco Cavadini, chief technology officer at Synesis (Lomazzo / Italy; www.synesis-consortium.eu), a consortium dedicated to industrial research and technology transfer activities and a Demeto member, added that once successfully implemented, the technology would have a potentially "enormous" impact on the environment and society and close the recycling loop for PET.

Processi Innovativi, a subsidiary of Kinetics Technology (Rome / Italy; www.kt-met.com) providing industrial process services, is co-operating with gr3n to commercialise the technology. Gr3n will manufacture the reactive units and supply them to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor Processi Innovativi, which will build the full-scale depolymerisation plants. The initial focus will be on coloured PET bottle waste.

The Demeto consortium said the technology could treat about 1.4m t/y of PET packaging waste, paving the way for a disruptive, large-scale circular economy for plastic products. Plans envisage that about 100 gr3n plants would be needed to treat coloured PET packaging waste in the EU. To recycle coloured PET on a global scale, a further 200 plants would be required as well as another 400 or more plants to treat other collected PET waste.