PRS, an industrial repair system for large series of reusable plastic articles in a circular economy

ended

In Europe, there are 1.9 billion items of plastic Returnable Transport Packaging (RTP), which are plastic pallets and crates that are used across various sectors, including the automotive, beverage, logistic and pooling services. Also in Europe, the number of plastic street containers for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) exceeds twenty million. The average lifetime of these articles ranges from five to ten years. When they break, these items are discarded and replaced with new ones. Discarded items have three destinations: recycling, incineration or as landfill. The owners of these plastic elements barely consider the possibility of their repair. At Plastic Repair System, we have developed and patented an industrial technology for the repair of reusable plastic articles, which allows their use with total confidence and guarantees, while the cost of repair is less than one third of the new value of the same article. Repairs undertaken with PRS technology have been analysed by independent laboratories that have certified that PRS recovers 100% of the object's functionality and at least 98% of its original strength. Practical feasibility has been demonstrated in a Phase 1 SMEI project: as a starting point, we have successfully tested our technology with some product references for 6 multinational companies. PRS2011 is one of the few circular economy solutions in EU with a direct and immediate positive impact in the environment: RTPs reusing is much better and cheaper than recycling. The interest and novelty of this project has been recognized by the EU Commission: PRS awarded in the EU Business Awards Environment, Product&Services (14/11/18). We have received also interest from four European venture capital funds focused on innovative companies in the circular economy. Project Phase 2 will allow us to complete our technical solution and reach agreements with partners for international expansion.