THE PROBLEM Since 1950s more than 8.3 billion tonnes of plastics have been produced worldwide (348 million in 2017 ). From this, almost 80% have been landfilled or leaked into the ocean increasing more and more the negative environmental impact (leachate and greenhouse gases). Currently, more than a quarter of the plastic production is packaging, growing 5% per year, which only 14% is recycled while the rest is incinerated (14%), leakage into the environment (32%) and landfilled (40%). Plastdeink has born to solve the main recycling problems that affects the EU since the last decades: - Multilayer plastic is not recyclable - Inked recycled plastic packaging goes to downcycling - Post-industrial plastic never end in the market THE SOLUTION Plastdeink is a unique technology able to delaminate and deink laminated and surface-printed film. CADEL DEINKING (a technology-based SME founded in 2014) has developed an innovative, environmentally friendly and low-cost process to delaminate & deink printed plastic scraps. Plastic (delaminated and deinked) obtained with this process has a similar quality to virgin plastic, what converts it in a high value product for several applications. The product obtained with Plastdeink is a 45% cheaper than virgin plastic. CADEL´s proposal has the objective to contribute to a real Circular Economy in the frame of EU plastic waste policy for mono and multi-material flexible packaging. BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY CADEL´s delaminated & deinked technology is an important breakthrough for the plastic industry. Plastdeink represents a business opportunity to our potential customers: the process removes inked, odours and delaminate in one step to reintroduce the plastic into high-added value applications. - Plastic converters will be able to use their own plastic scraps, instead of buying new virgin plastic (so much expensive) - Plastic recyclers will be able to produce high value-added plastic at a low production cost.

The specific remit of this project is to launch an innovative, environmentally friendly, low-cost process to deink surface-printed plastic film. This process is focused on removing ink thus allowing recycled printed plastic film to be used for the manufacture of added-value products. Two different deinking processes are currently being developed by our competitors. The first is based on reagents used in biotechnology (e.g. non-ionic, cationic and anionic surfactants). The second is based on solvents (e.g. ethanol). The cost (€950/tonne) is the main barrier of the biotechnology reagent process. The solvent-based process is more competitive at €550/tonne but there are several issues over plastic quality (bad odours and colours; low optical properties: DE>3), sustainability (high carbon footprint, 533 kg CO2eq/tonne) and hazards (it must be ATEX compliant due to the risk of explosion). Our process has a clear advantage in terms of price, quality and sustainability in comparison with traditional deinking processes. The combination of adapted sub-processes (milling, deinking, drying, extrusion and water treatment) allows high-quality deinked plastic to be obtained at a low cost. This plastic is aligned with requirements for high added-value applications such as packaging: absence of bad odours and colour, ink removal of 99.9%, modulus 434 Mpa, elongation at break: 596%, good optical properties: DE<3. Moreover, the whole process is designed from a positive environmental point of view: 35% lower carbon footprint (346 kg CO2eq/tonne); use of only environmentally-friendly and water-based surfactants (solvent-free); obtaining of 100% decontaminated water after the process, which can be reused as closed-loop; and the total elimination of dangerous sludge.

The MANDALA project presents a sustainable solution for the plastic packaging sector which tackles 3 pillars: eco-design, dual functionality & end-of-life; with the aim to find a final solution based on multilayer monomaterial packaging with functionalities compared to multimaterial ones and fully produced with biobased & recycled polymers in order to reach a full circularity of resources. MANDALA will develop new adhesives with dual functionality (easy to split and barrier properties) by incorporating thermoreversible covalent bonds and radiation absorbing nanoparticles, which at the same time will generate a tortuous path enhancing barrier properties that are critical for end-user. In addition, new polymer blends with increased biobased and recycled content of film layers will be developed. Their combination in a multilayer product will set the basis for new food (meat, ready-to-eat) and pharma (pill blister) packaging products. MANDALA project will demonstrate that the de-lamination technology can be up-scaled and applied to reach intermediate solutions for multilayer/multimaterial packaging (being biobased or not) progressively helping to become the end-of-life more sustainable by recovering all fractions and providing clean streams for their biodegradation or recycling. MANDALA project will directly contribute to achieve KPI 1, KPI 2, KPI 6, KPI 8 and demonstrate the solution decreasing the end-of-life costs and CO2 emissions in more than a 30%. It will develop innovations in 3 KETS. MANDALA consortium involves 12 partners (4RTD, 5SME, 1SME cluster and 2 Large Companies) accounting 2 BIC full members and 2 associated. The 42-months project will comprise a total estimated budget of 4,573,892,5€ and requested funding of 3,650,921,75€. There is a strong engagement of the industry with 922,970,75€ in-kinds (20,2%) and 4,869,731€ in additional activities during the project (machine acquisition) and 3,820,000€ envisaged to upgrade TRL after the end of the project.