Archives for December 2025

The INTESCOP project will improve plastic waste sorting processes to get quality recovered fractions and boost the circularity of post-consumer plastics.

The GAIKER Technology Centre, a member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance (BRTA) is carrying out the project on circular economy applied to complex plastic waste based on smart identification with innovative spectroscopic analysis techniques, INTESCOP.

With the aim of developing new real-time identification technologies that enable highly efficient plastic waste sorting, according to its polymeric nature, this industrial research will offer a solution to the technological challenges of plastic waste sorting identified by the eco-industry.

INTESCOP will work for two years (2025-2027) to generate a technological knowledge base that will help to advance the design and development of new systems for the automatic sorting of complex plastic waste by combining AI with advanced spectroscopic analysis techniques: hyperspectral vision and terahertz spectroscopy.

GAIKER is an expert in recycling technologies and in the development and assessment of waste conditioning and recovery processes for subsequent use as secondary raw materials. This research will develop and assess, through laboratory pilot projects, AI-based models to be applied to the automatic identification and classification of multilayer and biodegradable plastics contained in the light packaging waste stream and technical plastics in the waste stream of electrical and electronic equipment, based on the analysis of their respective spectral fingerprints.

With INTESCOP, funded by Bizkaia Provincial Council within the 2025 Technology Transfer Programme, the plastic waste sorting processes implemented in the eco-industry of Bizkaia will be improved in order to obtain higher quality recovered fractions and increase the volume of post-consumer plastics that are reintroduced into the economic cycle as secondary raw materials.

Bizkaiko Foru Aldundiak finantzatu du proiektu hau, 2025eko Teknologia Transferentzia Programaren barruan / This project has been funded by Bizkaia Provincial Council within the Technology Transfer Programme 2025

CICLICOM is in the construction phase of a digital platform that will serve as a meeting point for the agents in the sector.

The innovation ecosystem for the circularity of composite materials and complex plastics, CICLICOM, led by the GAIKER Technology Centre, a member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance, BRTA, is advancing in its development and is currently in the construction phase of a digital platform that will serve as a meeting point for agents in the sector.

This platform will facilitate the matching and geolocation of supply and demand related to plastic waste and the technologies required for its treatment, by integrating the infrastructures, services and capacities of various organisations. The aim is to promote the creation of new business opportunities, technology transfer and cooperation between companies, technology centres and public and private entities. Furthermore, the process of launching an extension campaign is being initiated with the aim of bringing in new organisations that can provide additional capacities and services. This expansion seeks to enrich the development of technological solutions and generate new business opportunities.

More about CICLICOM
CICLICOM was launched in 2024 with the aim of integrating the key actors of the national production sector in the field of composite materials and complex plastics and in the areas related to technologies for the treatment, recycling and use of waste and products at the end of their life cycle. Through the creation of this ecosystem, the aim is to provide the business sector with access to state-of-the-art knowledge and technology, creating and providing an interconnected network of infrastructures and services. The aim is to offer companies an environment in which they can evaluate technologies before making major investments in their production processes, generating synergies between different agents in the ecosystem to improve efficiency in the management of plastic waste and develop technological solutions that lead to an effective circular economy of materials.

VALORIZA Environmental Services, the National Association of Plastic Recyclers (ANARPLA), the Basque Environment Cluster (ACLIMA) and the GAIKER, AIMPLAS and CIDAUT technology centres are working on this initiative, which is financed by the CDTI (Centre for Industrial Technological Development) within the Innovation Ecosystems Programme.

More information on how to join the collaborative space: https://ciclicom.com/#contacto

The BIRPLAST project devoted to obtaining circular raw materials from plastic waste by applying intelligent separation and chemical recycling technologies has come to an end

The BIRPLAST project, in which GAIKER, a member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance, BRTA, has participated, along with three other actors of the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation Network, has come to an end this year. This research, led by the Sener Engineering and Technology Group, has enabled ten companies to join forces to carry out R&D in new technologies for the separation and chemical recycling of plastic waste to ensure the production of high quality circular raw materials.

BIRPLAST was launched in 2022 with the aim of generating a knowledge base to develop improved recycling processes in the eco-industry for various complex plastic waste streams – streams generated mainly during the treatment of other waste, such as light packaging, end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) or waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) – as the current state of the art does not allow the full potential of these resources and raw materials to be harnessed.

The project has drawn to a close with significant results related to advanced separation. In the case of light packaging waste, an improved material sorting step has been defined to match the composition of plastic fractions of limited recyclability and rejection, supported by the application of spectroscopic and data analysis techniques based on machine learning. Work has also been carried out on the use of plastic waste with some traces of metal from car shredders by means of smart separation techniques.

New pyrolysis processes have been developed for the chemical recycling of waste. One treats mixed plastics in which the waxes generated are reprocessed to offer lighter and more valuable products while reducing their chlorine content. The other processes plastics with biomass and obtains oils with low halogen content. New solvolysis processes have also been developed to recycle polyesters and polyurethane foams from car shredding. Gasification processes have also been adapted to work with different types of waste and with different degrees of humidity, using fluidised bed and jet spouted bed reactors to obtain and purify synthesis gas. Finally, the treatment of water generated during the pyrolysis and gasification processes and the use of pyrolysis oils as wood protection actors have also been defined.

Furthermore, for each result, such as smart separation processes or monomers, chemicals or oils obtained by solvolysis or pyrolysis, production efficiency and the contribution to the circular economy has been measured and the environmental assessment has been completed to determine the improvement resulting from the generation of these circular raw materials compared to the existing management of plastic waste that is not used.

BIRPLAST, which has been successfully completed and has fulfilled the objectives set, is a strategic industrial research project that has received funding from the HAZITEK 2022 programme (Exp. ZE-2022/00022), a programme to support the business R&D of the Basque Government's Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment.