TRACE - Technology enabled Reusable Assets for a Circular Economy

PragmatIC-Semiconductor has developed a unique technology platform for ultra-low-cost flexible electronics that could connect trillions of objects. The technology makes it viable to add RFID to low-value high-volume product packaging, to identify and trace objects throughout the whole lifecycle.

**Our vision** for project TRACE (Technology-enabled Reusable Assets for a Circular Economy), is to apply ultra-low-cost RFID technology to trace reusable food-grade plastic packaging, encouraging reuse and enabling highly-scalable infrastructure.

This large-scale solution has the potential to make packaging re-use the norm - consumers would no longer see the plastic as something to use once and destroy but as a valuable asset to re-use many times.

TRACE addresses the challenges that currently prevent large-scale re-use:

* Understanding consumer perception and how best to encourage adoption
* Developing robust and optimised re-usable packaging designs
* Enabling item-level traceability throughout the packaging lifecycle
* Ensuring packaging remains safe and fit for purpose
* Developing and demonstrating an end-to-end model for collection, sorting and washing infrastructure
* Quantifying the overall environmental impact of moving from single-use to re-usable packaging

The core technology innovation is the use of PragmatIC's ultra-low-cost RFID tags to enable a packaging re-use model. These tags provide machine-readable unique codes that allow automated identification and tracking of individual items throughout multiple re-use cycles. Rich data generated can support consumer adoption and infrastructure implementation for optimal environmental impact. For example; the movement of assets within the system, number of cycles, packaging provenance and legislative reporting.

This project will tackle several significant technical challenges including:

* Establish **minimum viable packaging** for food-grade re-use
* **Embed tags** within the plastic to ensure durability throughout the packaging life-cycle
* Demonstrate an **automated sorting**-**system** at TRL7\.

The project will assess the **net** **environmental impact** of the entire solution and demonstrate the system in end-to-end **trials**, including assessment of client satisfaction throughout the supply-chain, analysis of consumer response, and assessment of costs and benefits.

Although reusable packaging is our initial target, many components within the project can be extended to improve recovery and upcycling of single-use packaging. TRACE is led by PragmatIC-Semiconductor. Partners includes Ken Mills Engineering (leading manufacturer of MRF systems), RECOUP, Topolytics (experts in waste-mapping), and Sheffield University's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC-Cymru) and the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures.