SORT-IT: Increase plastic food and drink packaging recycling rates for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Deposit Return Schemes (DRS)

食品和饮料（F&D）包装制造商努力确保足够的高质量负担得起的回收物，以满足回收内容的法定目标，大规模再利用计划在现有技术下是不可行的。未能减少环境影响的制造商将面临重大的经济处罚和买家的除名。由于食品安全和库存控制的需要，目前的F&D包装供应链从原料到零售商都有很好的连接和跟踪。然而，除了零售商之外，通过消费者、废物收集、回收和再循环的包装供应链非常有限。在分离可回收、不可回收、可堆肥和污染物方面存在许多挑战。SORT-IT可行性研究将分析和评估通过标签技术在食品和药品包装供应链中进行废物管理的数字化和智能自动化的可行性，以促进包装废物的跟踪和分类。我们的愿景是，在随后的工业研究之后，SORT-IT将通过实现向循环经济的过渡，大幅提高食品级塑料的回收率，并实现包装的再利用，来提高F&D包装制造供应链的环境和经济可持续性。·提高废物中高质量原料（包括食品级塑料）的回收率和产量。·重复使用。·品牌所有者跟踪生产者延伸责任（EPR）的包装和回收率·低成本存款返还计划（DRS）通过逆向自动售货机和材料回收设施（MRF）的标识与消费者账户挂钩。·通过透明的绿色认证，提高消费者对品牌的参与度。·减少进入垃圾填埋场或进入陆地或水生环境的塑料。这项研究将建立在制造低成本电子产品的独特技术基础上，产量非常大（每年数十亿美元）。通过PragmatIC，并与不断发展的协作自动化、工业4.0和机器学习技术相结合，使用唯一标识符标记和跟踪包装。这些标签将为单个物品提供RFID和NFC设备（包括智能手机）可读的唯一标识符;信息将通过支持互联网的系统交换到云存储，以促进供应链跟踪和消费者参与。这项可行性研究将由PragmatIC与谢菲尔德大学先进制造研究中心（AMRC-Cymru）合作，并由工业咨询委员会指导。PragmatIC是一家高增长的创新驱动型中小企业，总部位于剑桥，在达勒姆郡的塞奇菲尔德拥有10亿台生产设施。

Food and Drink (F&D) packaging manufacturers struggle to secure enough high-quality affordable recyclate to meet statutory targets for recycled content, and mass re-use schemes are not feasible with existing technologies. Manufacturers who fail to reduce environmental impact face major financial penalties and delisting by buyers. The current F&D packaging supply-chain is well connected and tracked from feedstock to retailer outlets due to the need for food safety and stock control. However, beyond the retailer, the packaging supply-chain through the consumer, waste collection, recovery and recycling is very limited. Many challenges exist in separating recyclable, non-recyclables, compostables, and contaminates in F&D waste streams.This SORT-IT feasibility-study would analyse and evaluate the feasibility of digitalisation and intelligent automation in the F&D packaging supply-chain for waste-management through tagging technology to facilitate the tracking and sorting of packaging waste. Our vision is that, following later industrial-research, SORT-IT would increase the environmental and economic sustainability of the F&D packaging manufacturing supply-chain, by enabling transition to a circular economy, dramatically increasing recycling rates for food-grade plastics, and enabling packaging re-use. Implementing tagging technology should enable: • Increased rate of recycling and output of high-quality feedstock (including food-grade plastic) from waste. • Re-use. • Brand-owners to track packaging and recycling rates for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) • Low-cost Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) linked to consumer accounts through reverse vending machines and identification at materials recovery facilities (MRFs). • Greater consumer engagement with brands through transparency of green credentials. • Reduction of plastics going to landfill or entering land or aquatic environments. The research would build on the unique technology for the manufacture of low-cost electronics in very high-volumes (billions p.a.) by PragmatIC and link with the growing technologies of collaborative automation, Industry 4.0 and machine learning to tag and track packaging with unique identifiers. The tags would provide individual items with unique identifiers readable by RFID and NFC equipment, including smartphones; information would be exchanged via internet-enabled systems to cloud storage to facilitate supply-chain tracking and consumer engagement. This feasibility-study would be led by PragmatIC working with Sheffield University's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC-Cymru) guided by an Industrial Advisory Board. PragmatIC is a high-growth innovation-driven SME, headquartered in Cambridge, with a billion-unit production facility in Sedgefield, County Durham.