Innovative Coatings and Adhesives for Recycling (I-CARE)

Polymers are all around us and although they are an integral part to the development of the global economy, many materials are only used once. Waste production in the UK is a significant issue with 80% of materials used in manufacturing products ending up as waste, landfill approaching capacity and a 40% increase in consumer waste projected between 2016 and 2020. Against a backdrop of sustainability and the need to reduce environmental impacts, recycling, re-use and remanufacture are becoming ever more important. This Fellowship will develop smart polymers that provide high performance and also enable recycling, which will be a unique approach in the UK to a circular economy. The goal of the programme is to work with academic and industrial partners to develop a key body of knowledge via high quality underpinning science and correlating the molecular architecture of the new materials with their basic physical properties and the application performance important to the end use, in addition to designing the relative compatibility between polymers to optimise their form and ultimate properties.

Industrial Partners and Supply-chain
As the Fellow has an extensive industrial background there are opportunities to capitalize on these networks by working with companies across the supply chain who will benefit from this research. Companies in the supply chain will cover polyurethane and acrylic coatings and adhesives, including manufacturers of raw materials, manufacturers of polymers and users of polymers. A significant outcome of the project will be the development of new smart polymers and a strengthening of the UK (and wider) supply chain by underpinning technical capability with the development of advanced materials for manufacture, which are sympathetic to the environment from a life cycle impact perspective and reductions in waste.

Environmental benefits
Waste production in the UK is a significant issue with 80% of materials used in manufacturing products ending up as waste, landfill is approaching capacity and a 40% increase in consumer waste is projected between 2016 and 2020. The development of smart polymers that provide high performance but also mitigate environmental impacts will play key role in contributing to UK society helping to achieve waste reductions and CO2 emission targets, which are also legislated at the European level (Waste Framework Directive and the EU Climate and Energy Package 2020).
As this programme includes a collaboration with the Jaguar Land Rover and their supply chain the research will contribute to their light-weighting agenda to increase fuel efficiency and to reduce CO2 emissions. Light-weighting is an effective way of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as it has significant potential to contribute towards meeting European targets to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020.