"After a little more than 2 years the 4Zeroplast project has been successfully completed and validated in the 3 project partner countries: Portugal, Italy and Spain.The participating entities were: 3 associations from the plastics sector: AVEP (ES), PROPLAST (IT), Pool-Net (PT); 1 university: POLIMI (IT); 1 technology centre: CENTIMFE (PT) and 1 private company: NUNSYS (ES).In total 51 managers (17 per participating country) have validated it and it is now available for companies in the sector to download and use the APP for free and get their personalised report.What are you going to learn? - Training MaterialsA training program was developed, aimed at strengthening the skills of Managers in the Plastics Industry (SMEs) for them to be able to take on new business models and challenges launched by Industry 4.0 and to assist them in evaluating and planning the applicability of I4.0 in their business.The 4ZeroPlast training program will be facilitated through a guided learning APP supported on an e-learning platform. The training is based in MOOC - Massive Open Online Course and follows a collaborative learning approach supported in training itineraries adapted to the pace of each trainee. The structure of the MOOC consists of case studies, informative micro-pills, and various reference materials, facilitating the learning and integration of knowledge. The case studies consist of video contributions with interviews of experts from companies providing their testimonials strongly related to the application of Industry 4.0 to plastics. The micro-pills are short videos introducing sub-topics which are deemed as essential for the comprehension of the topic and for better understanding of reference materials. Reference materials are training materials such as papers, videos, documents, and infographics that the students can use to delve deeper into specific topics. The training materials are available in English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.The training lasts about 3 weeks and the course is divided into 3 modules, as follows: -M1: Impact of I.4.0 in Plastic SMEs-M2: Basis of I.4.0-M3: Strategy Innovation Management Each module is composed of 4 main topics structured in learning units with a duration of one week each.Participants will be able to validate their knowledge on specific topics through an inquiry while always being able to reinforce their learning on the e-Learning platform. After that, students should complete a diagnosis to understand the current situation of their company regarding digitalization. Once the training is finished trainees will obtain a personalized Report, supporting the definition of the strategy and applicability of I.4.0 within their company.WHERE? - e-learning platformThe training course for managers of the plastics industry is provided through an e-learning platform that uses Moodle as LMS (Learning Management System). It contains 1 Moodle course organized into 4 sections, the content of which is filtered by language. There are 4 languages available: English, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The language chosen by the user also affects the interface translation.The user ID required to access the platform can be obtained free of charge by registering on the 4zeroPlast APP; users may then access the “E-learning” section of interest. All operations are managed by the APP using a Single Sign On protocol,HOW? - the APP toolThe 4ZeroPlast project required a highly customized technical solution in order to provide a feasible and state of the art tool that would help CEOs and other C-suite staff in plastics companies to learn, evaluate their knowledge, and diagnose the state of their company regarding I.4.0.In this regard, it was clear to us that in order to make it a suitable solution we had to create a mobile APP that users were able to use ""on the go"", but also with a process that was as easy as possible to use, so non-technical users could easily navigate the process.Thus, we created a back-end infrastructure based on the programming language Python, with the framework Django. This is one of the most modern and flexible frameworks for backend development in current times. This back-end has an administration dashboard where admin users can edit the translations of the questions that appear on the mobile APPs, but mainly, it serves to follow-up on the user registrations and validation process, in order to analyze if users are getting into the APP and using it.This back-end has been put together with API's in order to provide the data to the APPs. These APPs were developed in a native way both for Android and IOS to guarantee full compatibility with the largest possible number of users and devices. The entire infrastructure is hosted in a Tier3+ Data Center in order to guarantee the greatest availability in time and security levels for the tool.Do you want to dive deep into Industry 4.0?Download the APP from the official stores: GOOGLE PLAY and APP STORE"

The objective of NEWPACK is to validate in industrial setting the production of at least two new bio-plastics based on PHB- PLA blends with improved sustainability performance, obtained by the addition of natural extracts with antioxidant/antibacterial properties and nanoadditives from cellulose and chitin. A new circular economy value chain will be generated from agro-food wastes that will be exploited for the production of PHB, while designing and validating the process up to pilot scale. Blending of PLA and PHB will be validated at pilot scale to achieve specific final product requirements based on targeted products. New bioplastic properties and functionalities will be achieved through incorporation of nanocellulose or nanochitin additives (to improve typical problems of processability and mechanical properties of PLA-PHB), antioxidant and antimicrobial additives. The ability to extend the functionalities will be validated in real industrial environments. NEWPACK activities are underpinned by the prior experience and results (already validated at TRL 3-4) of the partners in order to achieve advanced TRLs (5-6) for the developed technologies, including PHB production from agro-food waste; co-blending of PHB with PLA; nanocellulose extraction from wheat straw and incorporation into PHB-PLA blends and encapsulation of natural antioxidants/antimicrobials for addition to PHB-PLA. Great emphasis will be on assessing technical and economic feasibility of the processes; demonstrating the biodegradability of solutions; ensuring the compliance to the market and regulatory requirements; LCA evaluation; preparing for future scale-up of the processes to achieve a pre-industrial production and identification of stakeholders perceptions, attitudes and expectations towards bioplastics. The NEWPACK consortium has 12 partners with academic research organizations and small and large industries which cover the whole innovation, production and final use value chain.

The overall objective of the EcoPlast project is to develop comprehensive digital solutions to enhance circularity in the automotive plastic value chain. These solutions will help ensure high quality, non-toxicity and durability of secondary materials. Share of secondary materials will be increased in new products. Recovery, recycling and upcycling rates will be increased and uptake of secondary materials for high value applications will be proliferated. We will develop EcoPlast platform which will consist of secured and privacy protected collaborative space, ecoDesign tool assisting circular product design, LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) tool for increasing sustainability, CI (Circularity Index) calculator for measuring circularity, Digital Twins (DTs) for process optimisation for extrusion and injection moulding processes as well as upcycling and recycling processes. AI and robotics will be integrated for End-of-life Vehicle (ELV) management processes consisting detection, sorting, and dismantling. Blockchain based Digital Product Passport (DPP) will be employed for automotive plastic products’ traceability to increase trust among the value chain partners. DPP will also help achieving 100% sorting efficiency. A circular marketplace in the platform will help trading recycled and upcycled products. This will also help in reuse, repair, refurbish and remanufacture of dismantled automotive plastic parts. All these activities will help create new value chains around the automotive plastic sector. Automotive plastic parts will be manufactured in this project using recycled plastics, bio-composites and biobased plastics and will be demonstrated, tested, and validated along with the developed digital technologies in large-scale facilities. Novel recycling and upcycling technologies will also be demonstrated. Wider adaptation of EcoPlast solution will help address almost all the challenges automotive plastic value chain actors are currently facing.