Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REMAT (A new patented technology to turn currently non-recyclable waste into recyclable composite products for a truly circular economy)

Teaser

For decades. nearly half our waste has been shipped overseas to be recycled. However, waste cannot be recycled in the mixed forms in which it is received. It must be separated into mono-streams of plastic, paper and aluminium. Even plastics must be separated according to...

Summary

For decades nearly half of our waste has been shipped overseas to be recycled. However, waste cannot be recycled in the mixed forms in which it is received. It must be separated into mono-streams of plastic, paper and aluminium. Even plastics must be separated according to different polymer types. A water bottle, its cap and the cap’s screw all must be separated and recycled individually, before they can be successfully turned into new products.
Sorting and separating the millions of tons of waste received every year into these mono-streams is a costly process and often requires intensive, manual labour and more often is simply not technically feasible. For this reason, the majority of waste to date continues to end up in landfills, pollute waterways and coastlines and causing health problems in local populations. In January, China, and other Asian countries following en suite, have decided that they have reached their tipping point and have begun sending shipping containers full of thousands of tons of trash back to the countries where it came from.
There are now billions of tons of waste piling up in recycling centres across Western nations that now need a place to go and Wimao has the answer. Wimao has invented a technology to turn plastic waste, even in mixed forms, into a wide array of versatile products again. We have set up a pilot REMAT facility that started production in January 2019 turning mixed plastic waste into, amongst others, into half-euro pallets and decking tiles.
The main objectives of this project are to prepare ourselves to treat more types of waste with our technology by designing a prototype version of the evolved technology. This plant will be 100% automated, have full quality control, be capable of treating 4X more waste, and be capable of turning new waste streams into new types of composite products.

Work performed

During the Feasibility Study the main results we have achieved include: a market study which allowed us to identify the largest end use segments (transportation, construction, consumer goods) for our composites as well as the countries with the greatest demand for our technology (Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland, Hong Kong, the U.S, Japan, Mexico, Vietnam, South Korea, Canada and Indonesia).
We have also identified the future development needs/the main adaptations needed to our line to be able to address these user segments, both the ability to process larger 3D products and better treatment of household plastic waste. We have also identified the adaptations needed to treat new types of waste and completely automate the process. In addition we identified the key commercial and technical risks to reach our goals, updated our business plan and put together a concrete Communication Plan with four key dissemination activities to undertake during the next stage.

Final results

By the end of the project we anticipate that Wimao will be positioned as a leader in in solving the global waste challenge by turning waste back into raw materials. Our technology will be ending thousands of tons of: virgin materials mined, waste landfilled, carbon dioxide emitted and optimizing millions of euros in new investment and creating hundreds of new jobs in the process.
We will also continue to innovate new adaptations of our technology to better process waste streams and process completely new types of waste streams to continue to contribute to the global waste challenge.

Website & more info

More info: https://wimao.fi/.