ICLEI Members Utrecht (The Netherlands) and Alba Iulia (Romania) alongside Valencia (Spain) will test innovative solutions to the disposal of plastic waste, with the first pilot due to roll out in Valencia in April of this year.

The innovative solutions, which cover the various phases in the life of waste – from collection to transport, sorting to recycling, have been developed by EU Horizon 2020 funded project PlastiCircle.

PlastiCircle aims to promote the transition towards a circular economy, and to contribute to the European Union's waste management and recycling targets to 2030.

The innovative solutions are structured in four areas: collection, transport, sorting and recycling. In collection, the project is developing a smart container able to identify the user and compensate his or her performance in waste separation. In transport, the project is implementing new technologies to optimise the route taken by the driver, in addition to ‘truck traceability’ and external communication through a cloud platform.

In sorting, the project is working on new technologies able to sort even more typologies of plastics and do this with higher efficiencies.

Finally, collected and sorted plastics will be used for new applications which currently use other higher quality plastics. The innovation here is to use post-consumer plastics for the manufacturing of added-value products – from automotive parts to rubbish bags to urban furniture.

The complete approach on collection and transport will be tested in Valencia, Utrecht and Alba Iulia, with the project set to roll out in Valencia in April, Utrecht in August and Abla Iulia in December.

For more information and to learn more about PlastiCircle’s plans and objectives for 2019, click here