Based on the objectives of the Circular Economy, Carbon Neutrality, and Sustainability, the mobilizing project “Better Plastics: Plastics in a Circular Economy” was presented at the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in Lisbon, where around 100 entities were present, among industrialists, retail companies, waste management and recovery companies, NGOs, confederations and sectoral associations, universities, scientific research centers, public bodies and policymakers.
BETTER PLASTICS is the mobilizing project of the Plastics Sector in Portugal, capable of leveraging the sector’s transition to a more circular and carbon-neutral economy. The project arose from an initiative by APIP – Associação Portuguesa da Indústria dos Plásticos, which enabled the private sector to be mobilized together with national authorities, universities, and citizens, thus contributing to achieving the objectives of the European Circular Economy of reducing carbon emissions. greenhouse gases, greater resource efficiency, and job creation.
“Better Plastics”, whose Lead Promoter is the company VIZELPAS and the Scientific Coordination of PIEP, the University of Minho’s Polymer Engineering Innovation Hub, aims to ensure the sustainability of the new value chain of the Plastics Sector in Portugal and aims to boost the development of new materials, products, technological processes, and services, through a research & development and innovation strategy, ensuring the circularity of plastics.
According to the Scientific Coordinator of the Project, Bruno Pereira da Silva, from PIEP, this project “constitutes a true ecosystem of innovation, with today more than 52 entities, including consortium companies, advisory board entities, and associated members, which is already to develop 17 products, 15 materials, and 5 technological systems, which will make it possible to leverage the sector’s transition to the circular economy.
The session also featured interventions by the Administrator of the National Innovation Agency (ANI), Eduardo Bacelar Pinto, the President of COMPETE 2020, Nuno Mangas, and the Secretary of State for Regional Development, Isabel Ferreira. They highlighted the importance of mobilizing agendas, as initiatives to support Research & Development and boost collaborative innovation, for the development of new products, processes, and services with high value for the economy, based on sustainability principles.
The Better Plastics mobilizing project has an investment of approximately 6.3 million euros, part of which is co-financed by COMPETE 2020, Lisbon 2020, Portugal 2020, and the European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund.