Novel Recycling Approaches for Plastic Containing Products

Despite its wide area of applications, very short life of polypropylene (PP) containing products together with very low recycling rates make PP a massive contributor to the contamination of the environment. The fact that the degradation of a plastic material in the environment may take at least decades is a critical issue, which requires novel, effective recycling processes. In ISOPREP project, which is funded by Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme with 10 partners from 5 EU countries, a solvent-based recycling process, consisting of the optimization of leaching, filtration, purification, dissolution, precipitation and solvent recovery stages, has been ongoing since 2018 for the recycling of end-of-life polypropylene products. Students taking roles in this project will acquire broad knowledge and hands-on skills on the recycling of polymers, separation and purification techniques and characterization of polymers with a focus on the effect of the applied recycling process on the mechanical properties of polypropylene.