C1-02 Development of a recycled plastics databank to improve the circularity

Principal Investigator

TAKATA Masaki(Tohoku University)

Research overview

To return waste plastics to materials with physical properties similar to those of virgin plastics, it is first necessary to clarify the physical properties and structure of recycled plastics in their current state.
Accumulation of property and structure data is essential to promote the sustainable use of recycled plastics (quality assurance and improvement of recyclability) based on scientific analysis.
The objective of our research group is to analyze and improve the quality of recycled materials by integrating physical properties/structural measurement, computation, and data-driven science, and to establish a databank center that accumulates analytical data necessary for improving recyclability. The following contents are being researched and developed.

• Quality analysis of recycled polypropylene (PP) is conducted by evaluating physical properties and measuring structure, and quality improvement is carried out based on the results.
• Various data on virgin PP, current recycled PP, and improved recycled PP will be accumulated, and the correlation between physical properties and structure will be analyzed using data-driven science.
• To build a data bank of recycled PP by accumulating physical properties and structural data in association with data on recycled material fabrication requirements related to the Digital Product Passport (PLA-NETJ).