Twelve Basque companies, including Spouted Bed Solutions (SBS), are collaborating on BIRPLAST, a strategic industrial research project funded by the HAZITEK 2022 programme—a business R&D support initiative of the Basque Government’s Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment.

BIRPLAST is focused on developing improved processes for obtaining circular raw materials from the thermochemical recycling of complex plastic waste.

Its goal is to develop technologies capable of producing lower-carbon fuels and products, while promoting plastic waste valorisation through circular economy approaches.

According to the latest data from Plastics Europe, 29.5 million tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste were collected in Europe (EU27+3) in 2020. Of this amount, 42% was used for energy recovery, 35% was recycled, and 23% went to landfills. Plastic recycling is a top priority within the European Green Deal, which aims to transition toward a green and circular European market. Achieving these objectives will require investment and innovation to develop new business models—among them, reaching a 55% plastic packaging recycling rate by 2030. Currently, only 10% of plastic used in European industry is recycled (about 5.5 million tonnes), showing significant room for improvement.

This waste stream is also a priority in the Basque Country’s Circular Economy Strategy 2030 and the new Basque Waste Prevention and Management Plan 2030, which aim to activate new value chains through recycling and waste recovery processes. The goal is to increase the use of recycled raw materials by 30% (currently, the Basque industry imports 77% of its raw materials), boost company revenues up to 10 billion euros through more circular products, create 3,000 new jobs, and reduce carbon emissions linked to consumption by 26%. In the Basque Country, approximately 640,000 tons of complex plastic waste are generated annually that could be used to produce new raw materials, but currently lack a material recovery route.

Project Objectives

The main objective of BIRPLAST is to generate a solid knowledge base for the development of improved thermochemical recycling processes for complex plastic waste, which is typically generated during the treatment of other waste streams—such as light packaging (LWP), end-of-life vehicles (ELV), and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Due to their complex composition and characteristics, these plastic streams are difficult to recycle with current technologies, resulting in significantly lower reuse rates compared to other materials like paper, glass, or metals. This represents a potential source of raw materials that current recycling processes cannot yet fully exploit.

BIRPLAST aims to transform these waste fractions into new plastics (Plastic2Plastic) and high-value chemical products (Plastic2Chemicals), ensuring that these materials remain within a circular system, replacing non-renewable raw materials in industry.

Key Research Areas in Thermochemical Recycling of Complex Plastics

BIRPLAST seeks to contribute to these strategic goals while generating competitive advantages for its consortium members through the following industrial research lines:

  • Enhancement of advanced pre-treatment and separation processes, incorporating drying technologies and combined optical and robotic systems supported by machine learning algorithms.
  • Improved thermochemical valorisation processes, based on pyrolysis, gasification, and solvolysis, including product quality control and development of advanced purification techniques.
  • Validation of circular raw materials obtained through these processes—such as polyols, oils, syngas, and polymers—for the production of new plastics and other high-value products.
  • Assessment of the technical, economic, and scalability potential of the proposed solutions.

The project includes industrial research into 25 new processes, 26 new products, and 12 developments with potential for patenting. The expected outcomes of the project are:

  • Recovery of €12.4 million/year in material resources from high-plastic-content waste.
  • Development of technological solutions to valorise up to 500,000 tonnes/year of complex plastic waste.
  • Improved efficiency in separation and sorting processes (targeting a 10% increase over current performance), optimised for pyrolysis and gasification.

The technologies developed in BIRPLAST will make it possible to produce lower-carbon products and support plastic waste valorisation through circular processes. This represents a major step toward integrating the waste-to-product value chain, contributing to both climate neutrality and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out in Agenda 2030.

Project Consortium

The consortium is led by SENER and composed of 12 partners: PETRONOR, TRADEBE, EIFORSA, GLOBAL FACTOR, FIDEGAS, ROBOKIDE, ROTOBASQUE, SBS, SADER, SENER, TRIENEKENS, and ZORROZA GESTIÓN. The project also receives support from three members of the Basque Science and Technology Network: GAIKER, TECNALIA, and ACLIMA (Basque Environment Cluster).