Di-Plast - Digital Circular Economy for the Plastics Industry

Correlation between relevant raw material and properties and product / process requirements

One of the hindrances of using recyclate, according to the results of the Di-Plast survey and expert interviews, is the challenge in finding suitable recyclate grades for specific products. The correlation between product/process requirements is difficult to make, and in most cases field studies need to be carried out in order to validate the material selection. If converters would have a database where this aforementioned correlation is illustrated, it would be less complicated to find suitable recyclate grades. Furthermore, recompounders and material traders could use this tool in order to sell their material more efficiently.

Analysis and advice on quality control improvements during production phase

For stabilizing the process, deep data-based understanding of the process is necessary. By collecting and analysing the data, your company gets an understanding about the process interdependencies, making it possible to find process parameters that enable a stable process with high recyclate ratio and reduced scrap. Furthermore, a detailed data-based description yields a measure for proved quality of process and product, besides a detailed material fingerprint that allows selling the material for a certain purpose.

Collection, evaluation and continuous improvement of product and information flow

VSM will be used to visualize and improve the value streams within the pilot companies. By reducing the idle time, the process time and the lead time through optimized value streams, it is possible to forward the plastic material from one actor to the next one in a quicker way.

Provides forecast of future quantities and more stable supply of recyclates

Based on waste data from companies that are involved in the Di-Plast project, prediction of future waste amounts will be made  to enable a constant supply to recyclers. Several predictive models will be deployed and assessed on their prediction accuracy. The model with the highest prediction accuracy is best suited to indicate future waste quantities.

The Webinar was hosted on the 12th of December 2019 from 15:00 - 17:00 pm (CET) by our Dutch project partners Jurgen van den Hoogen & Stefan Bloemheuvel, who are affiliated with the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science. Please click here to watch the video. The video contains the following agenda:

00:00 - 08:15 General Information on the Project

08:15 - 37:51 Information on the tools

37:51 - 54:05 Question and Answers

Companies, which would like to increase the amount of recycled materials in their processes and improve the quality in process and product by using digital tools were invited to apply until the 15^th December 2019 to participate in the Di-Plast pilot. Within the pilots,  companies can directly influence the development of the tools and ensure that the functions of the tools are tailored to their needs.

With our survey we got first insights into the challenges when using recyclate.

The next step are expert interviews in order to get a deeper understanding of the challenges when using recyclate. If you have specific challenges in your value chain while using recyclate, you might be an interesting partner for such an interview. Don't hesitate to contact one of the partners on the landing page that fits best for your convenience. Tell us which tools would help you to improve the uptake of recyclate.

Di-Plast needs participation of related partners from the plastics value chain. Stakeholders from along the value chain are important for the results (and success) of the project. In each phase of the Project inputs from stakeholders influence the progress of Di-Plast and also results from the project can be used by stakeholders in order to improve their use of recycled plastics material.

The next opportunity to be part of it will be our survey regarding the requirements of enterprises that handle plastics material. 

The Survey will start in March 2019, so stay in contact or better: if you are interested send an E-Mail to one of the Partners on the startpage.

And there will come many more opportunities to participate for Partner from the NorthWestEurope Area. Feel free to ask.