Giving plastic waste a new life.
People all over the world are throwing out large quantities of plastic each year, representing a huge sustainability issue.
SWESTEP aims to address this by converting household plastic waste into sustainable oil and new plastic raw materials.
Over the past year, the Swedish green tech company has been working closely with EIT Climate-KIC and the City of Copenhagen to carry out a feasibility study on the conversion of plastic waste to new sustainable oil. Since being established in 2012, SWESTEP has been developing an industrial process capable of turning all hydrocarbon-based waste and residues, such as plastic, into renewable fractions. In practical terms, this means that any organic waste stream can be considered as a feedstock, and duly be transformed into a wide range of renewable fuels or useful sustainable liquids and materials to be used again.
In theory, this process could have huge implications for how we deal with plastics, as well as waste management in general, as it could lead to the establishment of major circular economy loops into a city’s ecosystem, provide new sources of renewable energy, and create new revenues and jobs—effectively converting what was previously considered waste into a resource. One key aspect of SWESTEP’s technology is that the feedstock doesn’t require separating prior to processing, meaning mixed waste streams are just as effectively processed as sorted ones. This contrasts wildly with the status quo, in which mixed waste streams require appropriately sorting before the separate elements can be recycled.
Creating industrial inputs from waste plastic for industries that typically require fossil-based fuels or petrochemicals for major parts of their operations doesn’t just represent a welcome remedy to the problem of municipal waste, it also embodies potential to reduce the consumption of fossil-fuels and thus, contributes to climate change mitigation.
'Waste management, and particularly plastic waste management, has represented a huge problem for the city for a long time. Plastic is now a large part of people’s daily lives, yet it represents a huge environmental problem with regards to both the consequences of its disposal and its carbon footprint.
'I am delighted with the results because we can now show that SWESTEP can use our process to recycle a mixed organic MSW feedstock that includes plastics. We already are planning for further tests on other special feedstocks to evaluate their economic potential.
SWESTEP will now proceed with additional documentation and analysis of the technology and the end products. Now, the goal is to find industrial partners and investors as well as involvement from the public and the government. SWESTEP is very optimistic about this and sees the solution as an important and low-cost contribution to the circular economy and environmental improvements.
Trash to Cash was a Pathfinder project funded by EIT Climate-KIC’s Innovation Pipeline. Aimed at EIT Climate-KIC partners, Pathfinder projects help innovators test, refine and confirm assumptions about their innovation ideas, so that they are suitably developed to be applied and implemented. They typically last between three to six months, and can receive funding from EIT Climate-KIC up to a maximum grant of EUR 50 000. If you would like to know more about Trash to Cash project, please contact Peter Vangsbo.