15 Oct 2025
Just like in a video game, certain strategies unlock new possibilities. Unlimited recycling could be the key to turning our waste into resources and protecting the planet.
Recently, we’ve heard a lot about recycling, but in reality, very little plastic is actually recycled. Worldwide, only 9% of plastic is processed for reuse. The rest ends up in landfills, is incinerated, or is simply uncollected, which pollutes the environment. In Europe, the numbers are better: around 40% of plastic packaging is recycled, but the goal is to reach 55% by 2030.
In other words, despite all the efforts about recycling, there is still a long way ahead before saying we are able to protect our planet!
My name is Elena, and I am a PhD student in mechanical engineering at Icam Ouest, in Nantes. For the past three years, I’ve been working on the Recyplast-Demo project, funded by the Pays de la Loire Region and the FEDER (European Regional Development Fund), and entitled “Recycling of thermoplastic materials: Development of a self-adaptive process to the recycled materials.” This project aims to improve plastic recycling. As a researcher, I spend my time inventing, testing, and trying to improve technical solutions. The goal is to help the industry move forward. As a team of researchers, we ask ourselves a lot of complex questions… and that’s how science progresses!
Recycled plastic varies depending on the batch and source, often containing mixtures and impurities. These fluctuations make it necessary to adjust process parameters and require an operator to ensure the quality of the final product. My objective is to create a system capable of automatically adapting to variations in type, quality, or composition of plastics, in order to recycle them more easily and efficiently—thanks to a machine that can characterize in real time the properties of heterogeneous recycled plastic and adjust to changes at the input stage to guarantee the quality of the output parts.
Recycling gives waste a second life. For plastic, the main steps are:
- Collection: gathering and sorting waste.
- Cleaning and sorting: separating different plastics and removing impurities.
- Transformation: for example, through extrusion.
- Reuse: recycled plastic is used to manufacture new products.
Extrusion is a widely used method for recycling plastic. After sorting, the plastic is shredded into small pieces, then heated until it melts in a machine called an extruder. The molten material can then be reformed into filaments, pellets, or sheets, ready to become new objects such as bottles, toys, or industrial parts. Thanks to extrusion, used plastic can have a second life, and it’s an effective way to recycle large amounts of material.
Extrusion mainly works with thermoplastics, which melt when heated and harden when cooled. The most well-known are PET (like water bottles), PE (plastic bags, milk bottles), and PP (ketchup bottles, plastic toys).
As for me, I focus on PP, which is widely used and very present in plastic waste.
Some plastics, such as thermosets, found for example in wind turbine blades or boat hulls, cannot be remelted after use. They require other methods, such as reshaping under pressure and heat without degrading their mechanical properties. My colleague is working on this project—if you’re interested, you can find his work here: Giving a new life to aged composites.
The installation of the device on the extrusion line is currently underway at Icam Ouest in Nantes. It will make it possible to concretely demonstrate the project’s results starting in 2026.
Want to learn more? Check out all the information on the project’s official page, and discover interviews with the main actors.
Elena T. FARAH
