CIMPA is an EU-funded project with the goal of creating an economy that prevents multilayer plastic films from ever becoming waste. The goal is to develop a recycling value chain for post-industrial and post-consumer multilayer film (used in food and agriculture) to retain between 12% and 72% of its value. Up to 2.34 Mt of recycled materials will be saved per year and reintroduced into production to replace virgin materials.

Ultimately, the objective is to produce recycled materials that meet the necessary standards for use in both agricultural applications and packaging designed to come into contact with food.

 The European Commission is the funding body.

Our aim to provide biocompostable solutions of the highest quality in processes takes another step forward with the completion of the EXTRUBIO2 project “INCREASING PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY WITH NEW EXTRUDERS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BIOPLASTICS”, thanks to support from the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) at the Ministry of Industry, Economy and Competitiveness, and co-financed by the European Union (ERDF Funds).

This initiative began in November 2019, when the company’s staff set the objective of increasing the production capacity of the existing facility by acquiring new equipment.

After 18 months of work at the Molina de Segura plant, and with a CDTI contribution of €1,147,500, the company has rose to the technological challenge it sought.

The REBIO project is co-financed by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness under the “Challenges-Collaboration” programme, and co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The aim is to promote technological development, innovation and quality research.

Biodegradable plastics should be collected in the organic fraction, but this type of process is not currently being managed properly. It is in this context that the REBIO project arose. It aims to work on the creation and design of a technological solution for recycling biodegradable plastics.

After three years of studies, research and testing, the REBIO project comes to a close with the design and manufacture of products made from recycled biodegradable plastics, as work has been carried out on a pre-consumer and a post-consumer fraction. These products include biodegradable plastic bags with recycled bioplastic content of up to 30%, with no detriment to mechanical properties (AIMPLAS and EVERSIA), clips for agricultural crops with recycled bioplastic content of 15% (INSERPLASA), as well as a stationery clip prototype made of 100% recycled bioplastic (GAIKER).

In October 2017, Eversia completed the project “Substitution of two single-layer extruders and one cutter for a three-layer extruder and one cutter”, part of the energy saving and efficiency support line for SMEs and large companies in the industrial sector, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and managed by IDAE under the National Energy Efficiency Fund. Total investment was €1,321,600, and was supported with aid of €91,854.27.

In accordance with Spanish royal decree, the company wishes to reduce emission levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to below 100mg/Nm3 per focus. The highest emissions are concentrated in the printing room, where the solvent-based inks that are used emit mainly isopropyl alcohol and methoxypropanol. These solvent-based inks provide very high production yields and excellent quality. The actions carried out to reduce VOC emissions were: Implementing a COV catcher, introducing water-based inks, studying the phenomenon of “orange peel” in blowing, increasing the yield and quality of printing.

Development of a biodegradable complex with gas barrier properties. One of the drawbacks of biodegradable materials is the barrier to their gases, which is why this project aims to develop biodegradable structures to increase the shelf life of foods packaged in biodegradable structures.