Design and development of recycled alternative to fossil-based plastic: towards a sustainable industry

While plastic pollution in the oceans has become an urgent concern, the impact on climate change of the extensive use of plastic has not gathered as much attention.

Plastic contributes to the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at every stage of its lifecycle, from its production, refining, processing to produce final products, use to its end of life.

The global life cycle GHG emissions of fossil-based plastics were 1.7 Gt of CO2 equivalent in 2015 and would reach 6.5 Gt CO2 equivalent by 2050 if the current plastic demand trend were to continue.

However, many efforts are currently made to reduce the use of non-renewable materials and to encourage the use of recycled and renewable materials.

Several years of top research at KTH Royal Institute of Technology has led to a unique and patented technology to produce sustainable micro-cellulose powder which FineCell is working to commercialize.

This material has the potential to reduce and/or replace the use of fossil-based ingredients in composites, cosmetics, 3D printing and construction industries.

The goal of this project is to design and develop a recyclable composite based on recycled plastic and FineCell’s cellulose by addressing product’s end-of-life at the very beginning stage and to validate an industrial solution for composite based on recycled plastics.