Sustainable plastics recycling

We encounter plastics in many areas of our daily lives. In Germany alone, around 14 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year. Recycling these plastics after use is a challenge. Too much plastic waste is still lost to the cycle.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports the development of innovative approaches and technologies for high-quality plastics recycling through its funding measure "Resource-efficient Circular Economy - Plastic Recycling Technologies (KuRT)". The aim is to significantly increase the actual recycling and recycled content rates and the economic efficiency of plastics recycling through intelligent utilization concepts for plastics, improved logistics, collection and sorting as well as innovative recycling processes and the high-quality use of recycled plastics.

Together for greater resource efficiency

Over the next few years, six research teams will work together in "KuRT" to promote the economic and resource-efficient recycling of plastics and thus pave the way for the sustainable use of plastics. They will receive support from the team of the networking and transfer project "KuRT_Plus". "KuRT_Plus" promotes the dialogue between all project participants. The aim is to identify potential synergies at an early stage and to generate synergy effects in the projects. Among other things, cross-sectoral and cross-technology issues are to be defined and discussed in working groups.

In addition, "KuRT_Plus" supports the networking of the funded projects with experts from industry and science as well as with the interested public. The aim is to support the transfer of the project results into commercial practice. This is achieved, among other things, through cross-project public relations work and the provision of up-to-date information material. In addition, various target group-specific events are organized, such as status conferences, discussion forums, political dialogues, and a final transfer conference.

In addition, networking with related national, European, and international initiatives and the presentation of the funding measure at specialist events are planned. The aim is to inform all relevant stakeholders in the value chain and target groups representing businesses, politics, scientific organizations, as well as environmental and social interest groups about the developments in the funding measure, and to involve them into a dialogue with the research teams in the funding measure.

Partner for networking and exchange

DECHEMA is the competent network for chemical engineering and biotechnology in Germany. As a non-profit professional society, it represents these fields in science, industry, politics, and society and promotes the technical-scientific exchange of experts from different disciplines and organizations. “KuRT_Plus” profits from DECHEMA’s many years of experience in coordinating research and development projects as well as networking and transfer projects, supporting those projects with their networking and public relations work.