Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is a plastic material used in several sectors such as packaging or building. It is used in packaging, as a food tray, due to its hygiene, isolation, lightness and resistance. However, one of the most important issues is its recycling since EPS is a petroleum product and therefore not biodegradable.
COLRECEPS Project expects to reduce more than 50% of the EPS waste in landfills as well as to close its life cycle and to valorise it.
Nowdays in Spain, 80% of the EPS waste finishes up at landfills(about 32.000 tonnes/year), and the remaining 20% is incinerated. In order to valorise and close the cycle of life of these wastes so as to make a good use of them in industry, CARTIF, Turqueplast, Grupo El Árbol and Quercus IDI had started this project that will solve the environmental problem due to the accumulation of big amounts of EPS wastes in landfills.
The European Project LIFE COLRECEPS (LIFE12 ENV/ES/000754) has been approved in the 2012 LIFE Program Call. LIFE is the EU’s financial instrument supporting environmental and nature conservation projects throughout the EU.