Korteks, one of the world's largest yarn manufacturers, has been approved for the European Horizon Program with the Plastice Project. Plastice, Korteks' first Horizon Europe Project, aims to contribute to the circular economy by recycling complex textile and plastic wastes, which are very difficult to separate, and with environmentally friendly, innovative, efficient methods by using smart and digital technologies, and by producing end products with low carbon footprints from recycled raw materials.
In the Plastice Project, which was entitled to receive 15 Million Euro support from the European Union; 25 partner organizations from 7 different countries will work in cooperation for 4 years. Waste managers, recyclers, chemical and textile industries, technical and scientific authorities, the public, civil society and the whole are amongst the stakeholders of the project.
“We will present one of the Most Innovative Exemplifiers of the Circular Economy with the Plastice Project”
Stating that as a company that has adopted sustainability as a way of doing business, they focus on developing environmentally friendly projects, Korteks General Manager Barış Mert said, “Global warming, climate change, waste problems, problems in accessing clean water and supplies are increasing the sensitivity of the society on sustainability day by day. For this reason, we see that in the last period, both governments and international institutions and companies have all started to take urgent actions and create new projects especially to deal with the waste. We, as Korteks, carry out a number of studies and come up with new projects under our own roof to address this problem. In this sense, the PLASTICE project will be an important milestone for us.”
Stating that the Plastice project was designed to solve the problems experienced in the recycling of waste in the world, Mert said, “The amount of recycled products in the world is still low. We can say that the main reason for this is the technical and economic difficulties in processing complex plastics-components -mixed plastics and other unsorted waste mixtures. However, the chemical recycling method we will use in this project can solve the issue in a complementary way about the recycling of wastes in an unsustainable ways in landfills. “The Plastice project is of great importance in terms of its potential to pave way to new chemical recycling systems at the European level to solve this problem.”
'Cotton' and 'PET' Blended Products will be brought into the Economy through Chemical Recycling
In the textile-related sections of the Plastice project, mostly 'Cotton' and 'PET' mixed products will be collected and separated as textile waste. Cotton threads will be decomposed into cellulose/sugar, which is the building block, by enzymatic process, and then this sugar will be converted into ethanol. Textiles that cannot be separated by this method will either have to be recycled directly or subjected to a washing process to separate the other contaminated products on it. PET polymer, on the other hand, will be decomposed into PTA and MEG, which are the building blocks, by chemical recycling and then converted into granule format by repolymerization process.
Korteks will take part in in at this stage of the project and will first analyze the recycled recycle PET granule by chemical methods and investigate its suitability for filament yarn spinning. It will produce POY and FDY filament yarn types in the melt spinning process from recycled recycle granules whose spectra have been approved, and then it will produce Textured yarn qualities similar to natural fibers from POY yarns with false twist technique. Korteks will perform physical and chemical analyzes of all the yarns it produces and will form the spectra of the yarns.
Korteks aims to be a Role Model with its Environmentally Friendly Projects
Expressing that they aim to make a difference and become a role model in the fields of sustainability and circular economy for a more livable world, Mert expressed that they are very happy to take part in such a project. Mert said, “With the understanding of "responsible investment holding" that our group has adopted in line with the renewed Smart Life 2030 strategy, which responds to the stakeholder-based transformation in the world; As Korteks, we focus on sustainability and act by taking into account our environmental and social impact in all our business processes. At the factory, we carry out all stages of our production processes, including raw materials, processes and products, with a sustainability focus. As a result, we can offer smart, innovative and sustainable products to the market. Along with all this, we continue to develop projects that will contribute to the circular economy. The Plastice project is one of them. We will continue to take part in such projects in order to produce better projects and to contribute to the construction of a more livable world. In this sense, it is very valuable for us to see that we are being supported and that our work is taken attention, and as a result, we have received support from the Horizon Europe program.''
