Blockchain Traceability for HTRPs Recycling Value Chain

Waste is created at the point of consumption making waste highly decentralised; waste is generated and collected at multiple locations with high variances in quality and constituent ratios.

Being of marginal value it is subject to a lack of accountability, sustainable management (e.g. sourcing & disposal), and to criminality. These challenges contribute to the current shortcomings in the plastics recycling industry, which only achieves an estimated 51% recycling rate in the UK (WRAP, 2019).

Technology provider, Circulor, has developed a blockchain platform that enables businesses to monitor and track the provenance and quality of raw materials in their supply chains. It creates an immutable record of material chain of custody, including dynamic tracking and attribution of associated CO2 emissions. Using "edge technologies", machine learning, AI, and algorithms the system adds layers of automated verification which act to reduce fraud, improve compliance, and target intervention.

Chemical recycling company, Recycling Technologies \[RT\], has developed an innovative recycling process harnessing thermal cracking to re-process conventionally hard-to-recycle plastics (HTRPs) into Plaxx(r). Plaxx can be used as feedstock by petrochemical companies to produce virgin-quality plastics for packaging with recycled content.

RT's technology complements existing infrastructure in the UK by accepting HTRPs, diverting these from landfill or energy from waste (EfW) and enabling a circular economy for plastics by decoupling production from fossil fuels. It therefore bridges the gap between the waste and the petrochemical industries.

The project aims to prove the feasibility of a traceability framework that would transform the plastics manufacturing supply chain by improving control of, and accountability for , waste plastic, by increasing transparency and data quality in real time on value, quantity, location and quality of waste and its recyclates.

Being system and waste agnostic, the solution is applicable across multiple sectors and supports the proving of circularity, addressing dilution and attribution challenges.

A cross-partnership of value chain stakeholders will be providing the required data to build the framework and relevant feedback to understand how to optimise it. The system will bring about the benefits of linking inbound waste provenance with outbound quality and destination for each unit of Plaxx produced. Enhanced data visibility will provide stakeholders with an optimised supply and logistics value chain, contributing to increase recycling rates. Information and monitoring systems will play a pivotal role in divulging transparency and sustainability along the supply chain, boosting coordination and promoting circularity in the HTRPs recycling value chain.