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高质量、负担得起的可回收材料，以达到回收内容的法定目标，而大规模的再利用计划在现有技术下是不可行的。未能减少对环境影响的制造商将面临巨额罚款，并被买家摘牌。由于食品安全和库存控制的需要，目前的食品和食品包装供应链从原料到零售商都有很好的连接和跟踪。然而，在零售商之外，包装供应链中通过消费者的废弃物收集、回收和再循环是非常有限的。在食品和食品废物流中，可回收物、不可回收物、可堆肥物和污染物的分离存在许多挑战。这项SORT-IT可行性研究将分析和评估数字化和智能自动化在食品和食品包装供应链中的可行性，通过标签技术进行废物管理，以促进包装废物的跟踪和分类。我们的愿景是，在后来的工业研究之后，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，从而提高食品和开发包装制造供应链的环境和经济可持续性。实施标签技术将使：•提高废物的回收率和高质量原料（包括食品级塑料）的产量。•重用。•品牌所有者跟踪包装和生产者延伸责任（EPR）的回收率•通过反向自动售货机和材料回收设施（mrf）的识别，与消费者账户挂钩的低成本押金返还计划（DRS）。•通过绿色认证的透明度，提高消费者与品牌的互动。减少进入垃圾填埋场或进入陆地或水生环境的塑料。该研究将建立在PragmatIC大批量（每年数十亿美元）制造低成本电子产品的独特技术基础上，并与协作自动化、工业4.0和机器学习等不断发展的技术相联系，以标记和跟踪具有唯一标识符的包装。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，在工业咨询委员会的指导下进行。PragmatIC是一家高增长的创新驱动型中小企业，总部位于剑桥，在达勒姆郡塞奇菲尔德拥有10亿单位的生产设施。

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.