NTCP’s Post

We were happy to host the sustainability team of Danone at our facilities in The Netherlands. We had an inspiring session on circularity of (plastic) packaging.

Her Royal Highness, Queen of the Netherlands, Máxima visited NTCP today! We were very honoured and pleased to welcome her in our facilities as part of her Friesland tour organised by Circulair Friesland to learn more about the circular economy, and at NTCP on circular plastics in particular. The interactive discussions and sincere curiosity of the Queen during the visit and demonstration of our unique facilities were very inspiring. In two roundtable discussions we explained how a local project turned into an international knowledge centre. The first roundtable gave the opportunity for regional and national stakeholders that have been involved at the start of NTCP to explain on one hand how a local initiative became reality and on the other hand what the importance of cooperation within the ecosystem around circular plastics is. Participants at this table represented Provincie Fryslân (Friso Douwstra) , Omrin (John Vernooij) and Verpact (Hester Klein Lankhorst). The second roundtable discussion was focussing on the current leading international position that NTCP has grown into in a short time. NTCP is an internationally recognised centre of excellence, largely due to its independent position in the complete plastic chain. Representatives of key stakeholders in this chain, Marie-Catherine C. of Danone and Gerben Meier of LyondellBasell, participated in this discussion and explained the Queen how the expertise and results of NTCP supports them to make the decisions regarding the design and recycling of packaging materials and the international relevance and importance of the institute within the value chain in general. Royal House of the Netherlands, Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat #queen #maxima #circularplastics #plasticrecycling

Do you want to get your PhD on circular (bio-based) plastics? If you are experimentally gifted and are driven by sustainability, join us in the PROSPER project https://lnkd.in/etdaGRHu . Check if you match the profile and directly apply here: https://lnkd.in/ekNgFMjp #circularplastics #biobasedplastics #recycling #circulareconomy #research #PhD #vacancy

MoQuP-R to explore quality monitoring along the plastic recycling chain The Dutch National Growth Fund programme Circular Plastics NL has granted a subsidy of 1.9 million euro to cofinance the 2.6 million euro research project Monitoring Quality in Plastic Recycling (MoQuP-R). The project consortium consists of the circular plastic research institute Nationaal Testcentrum Circulaire Plastics, Maastricht University, TNO, LyondellBasell, Danone, Graham Packaging International, and Verpact. The project will run for three years from September 2024. Plastic packaging recycling goals have not received focus on recyclate quality which is partly due to the way recycling rates have been calculated until 2022: any material stream coming out of a plastic sorting plant is considered recycled independent of the actual subsequent recycling process. This is now slowly changing with measuring the so-called washed and dried flake but is still far from complete and definitely not yet suitable for PCR quality prediction. In this project, we focus on the necessary quality monitoring tools and the application of existing models related to the prediction of recyclate quality in order to increase the use of PCR in packaging. An integral approach should allow adjustment along the circular value chain to improve PCR quality. More information on the project can be found at https://lnkd.in/eDUKm78J and will be presented at the CPNL Project Launch on 28 May: https://lnkd.in/e7Es2PAb. #circulareconomy #plastics #recycling #groeifonds

We are extremely proud to announce that we are entering the next development phase of NTCP. Based on our knowledge position and the urgency in the market, the Dutch government is investing 12 million Euros from the National Growth Fund programme Circular Plastics NL (CPNL) for expansion of NTCP's research facilities and capabilities. Our expansions involve new equipment for our current sorting and washing setups, like additional sorting technologies including AI and extra sorting loops. For the washing we foresee major improvements to be achieved in the search for the right cleaning methods in which energy consumption, the use of cleaning agents and the formation of microplastics must be minimized. Furthermore, we will install advanced equipment and new experimental test-beds that will be used to investigate and develop optimal characterization and treatment processes to support technology and process developments of the future. More information: ntcp.nl/nl/nieuws #circularplastics #CPNL #Innovation #sorting #recycling #research #development

In 2020 we started our journey towards better sorting of plastic packaging waste using artificial intelligence. In 2021, Nationaal Testcentrum Circulaire Plastics and Danone formed the Perfect Sorting consortium including 9 like-minded brand owners and 2 universities to accelerate this development. In the project we assessed critical sorting criteria, available chemometrics & AI technologies, sorting strategies, and potential value of the newly sorted material. Based on these findings, together with PolyPerception, we built and demonstrated an AI based sorting solution for food-contact materials. In the attached video you can follow our journey. Danone, Procter & Gamble, LVMH, Ferrero, Colgate-Palmolive, Mars, Nestlé, Michelin, PepsiCo, Ghent University, Radboud University, PolyPerception, Nationaal Testcentrum Circulaire Plastics #artificialintelligence #packaging #circularity

This week we reached a milestone in the Perfect Sorting project by demonstrating real-time classification of packaging waste using AI at the sorting plant of PreZero Nederland in Zwolle. This classification model has also been used at our facilities to perform sorting of different packaging waste streams into food-contact and other materials. The final goal is to sort packaging waste into more valuable streams for subsequent recycling, preferably into packaging. The last two years we have been working on this AI solution in a consortium with 9 brand owners, Ghent University, Radboud University, PolyPerception, and ourselves. We are now preparing for the next steps in the project. The last two days have been very inspiring and we are looking forward to these next steps. Danone, Procter & Gamble, LVMH, Ferrero, Colgate-Palmolive, Mars, Nestlé, Michelin, PepsiCo #artificialintelligence #packaging #circularity

Thanks for visiting us Scott Trenor , Curt Cozart of Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) and Augusto Bruno of RecyClass and the ineresting discussions!