Circulins - circular handling of plastic waste by the insects

The global plastic industry is today almost completely linear, as less than 10% of plastics are globally recycled, which results in an ever-growing volume of incinerated or disposed polymeric materials. This makes a strong contribution to the plastic industry’s significant negative environmental impact, and transition to a circular and resource-efficient plastic industry becomes mandatory.

Circulins is an applied research project that investigates new solutions to take care of plastic waste in a resource-efficient way, by focusing exclusively on unrecyclable plastic waste. The concept is based on one specific insect, Galleria mellonella, and the technology allowing it to convert plastics into proteins, lipids and bio-fertilizers. More specifically, Circulins focuses on the transformation of larvae of G. mellonella and on the characterization of the obtained products, in order to obtain high quality and nutritious products for feed and organic farming applications.