There are many opportunities to recover plastic waste before it gets into the environment, but once dispursed it is very time consuming to collect. There’s little incentive to pick litter since it currently has a low value. That’s about to change.

It is also hard to identify the type of plastic once it breaks up into smaller pieces.

PET (Polyethylene Terephalate) is a thermoplastic used to make plastic bottles. It’s very easy to recycle but food grade recyclate is easily contaminated with non-food grade material, and then it can’t be used again for food packaging. Finding a use for co-mingled plastic waste would increase its value.

The PBR project aims to increase plastic circularity in 3 ways;

1. Repurpose intact bottles to grow microalgae.

2. Use non-food grade rPET in injection moulded parts.

3. Use single-use plastic in construction parts.

Please see the submenus on this page for more details.