The 2020 Ecosurety Exploration Fund winners revealed

BOSS 2D

Accelerating flexible plastic film recycling

Ecosurety Exploration Funding will enable Newcastle-based Impact Recycling to scale up its BOSS 2D technology (Baffled Oscillation Separation System) for post-consumer plastic packaging.

BOSS 2D is a new, disruptive technology that does not exist in the market which will establish the first commercial scale automated process, capable of recycling up to two tonnes an hour of post-consumer plastic film packaging to produce a high purity PE and PP film, allowing it to be used directly in consumer products.

David Walsh, CEO of Impact Recycling commented ”We are delighted to receive grant funding from the Ecosurety Exploration Fund for the development of the BOSS 2D technology. Recycling post-consumer waste film plastic is one of the biggest challenges our industry faces and now with this funding from Ecosurety we can accelerate the roll out of the BOSS 2D technology to provide a scalable automated solution.“

CellMine

Closing the loop on lithium-ion batteries

Sales of lithium ion batteries are projected to grow to $1tn by 2024, largely driven by governments driving legislation on electric vehicles. However, current supplies of rare earth materials used in their manufacture are inadequate to meet our long-term needs and existing recycling technologies are inefficient and environmentally hazardous.

Ecosurety Exploration Funding for Impact Solutions to advance the CellMine project will enable a new low-energy, low cost recycling process to be explored. The process can be used to selectively recover rare earth metals used in lithium ion batteries (such as lithium, cobalt and manganese) in an environmentally friendly way, thereby helping to close the loop on the lithium ion battery lifecycle.

Tom Rose, Innovation Director at Impact Solutions commented “Lithium ion battery technology is the keystone in moving our society to a greener more sustainable future. But to make good on this promise we need to develop effective and economical ways to recycle these batteries at end-of-life and make sure the precious, limited resources used within them are not lost."

"CellMine hopes to tackle this challenge by developing a recovery method for these metals allowing them to be reused in new batteries again and again. This funding will be instrumental in allowing Impact to demonstrate the principles needed to take this technology from the benchtop to future commercialisation.”

Maximising recycling in purpose-built flats

Maximising recycling in purpose-built flats

Despite the fact that purpose-built flats make up 37% of London’s residential accommodation, capture of dry mixed recycling is poor. Ecosurety Exploration Fund money will enable the London Waste & Recycling Board to trial a series of new interventions and facilities across four estates in the capital with a view to increasing the quantity and quality of dry mixed recycling, textiles and e-waste, as well as other materials which have high embedded carbon values such as food. Findings from this research will then be shared widely so that they can implement the most impactful changes.

Gemma Scott, Local Authority Support Manager (Flats), LWARB commented “We’ve had some real success already in addressing low recycling levels on London’s estates, but we know we need to do much more as the number of flats in the capital continues to grow exponentially. Purpose-built flats and estates are a particular challenge, where recycling performance is well below what we need if we’re going to achieve recycling targets and tackle the climate emergency."

"We’re delighted to have been awarded this funding, which will provide extra facilities and support for residents to recycle their e-waste, textiles, food and packaging to help address the problem.”

A vital springboard for projects

Some of the Ecosurety Exploration Fund judges commented:

If you would like to know more about any of the funded projects, please contact our team.