Under the auspices of the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM, Berlin; www.izm.fraunhofer.de), a research project has been launched to further increase the share of recycled plastics in the electrical engineering and electronics (E&E) industry. Currently, around 80,000 t/y of recyclates are used in new appliances in EU, while the theoretical market potential in the trading block is around 2.1 mn t, according to Fraunhofer IZM.

The 17 partners in the Increace project, which include universities, processors such as Vorwerk, Philips, and Cabka, and refinery operator Neste (Espoo, Finland; www.neste.com), want to develop new, data-based sorting systems to prevent potentially hazardous substances such as lead, chlorine, or cadmium from entering E&E recycling loops. The project, which is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe Cluster 4 programme, is to focus on medical applications, food contact use, electrostatic discharge (ESD), and UL94 flammability standards.

The project is set to run until mid-2026, and in the coming months the partners plan to define technical requirements and necessary volumes, list stakeholders and value chains for the individual case studies, and then identify suitable recycling technologies for each product line. Mechanical, chemical, and solvent-based processes are to be used.

As part of the EU Circular Economy Action Plan, the 2018 Plastics Strategy seeks to increase the share of recyclates in new products. The target is for an annual goal of 10 mn t of recycled plastics to enter the European market in new products by 2025, which compares to less than 4 mn t in 2016.

According to Fraunhofer IZM, 45% of recyclates in the EU are used in construction, 24% in packaging, and 13% in agriculture (13%), with only 2% currently ending up in E&E products.