Research: TRANSFORM-CE

Research summary

• Project timescale: 2019 - 2023.

Single use plastic, such as packaging, drinks bottles, straws and utensils, contribute to the significant problem of plastic pollution in our environment.

Not only does this negatively impact ecosystems, mar landscapes and contaminate food-chains, it also represents a loss of valuable, non-renewable resources.

By adopting a circular economy approach, TRANSFORM-CE aims to capture and return single use plastic to the system before it becomes waste or pollution.

This €6.93million Interreg North West Europe-funded project focuses on transforming single use plastic waste into value-added products and using two innovative technologies:

• additive manufacturing (AM)
• intrusion-extrusion moulding (IEM)

Manchester Metropolitan University is the lead organisation, bringing together researchers from the faculty of Science and Engineering, and Business and Law. They are joined by partners from across the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands.

TRANSFORM-CE is supported by the Interreg North West Europe programme as part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). 

Research outputs

• Diversion of 308.2 tonnes of plastic waste from landfill and incineration over the course of the project

• Take up of IEM/AM technology by 20 NW Europe businesses to embed recycled municipal plastic into the design and manufacture of new and existing products

• Establishment of an Research and Development Centre in the UK and a Prototyping Unit in Belgium (AM)

• Establishment of a pilot plant, the ‘Green Plastic Factory’, in the Netherlands (IEM)

• Publication of a Circular Economy Plastic Roadmap

• A series of webinars and stakeholder workshops

• Production of education materials

• Academic papers, reports and other research outputs will be linked from here when they are published.