Reïnkarneer
The transition to a circular economy stands or falls with reliable, applicable information about materials. The Reïnkarneer project focuses on developing a common language for recycled content. The project starts with plastics, but explicitly looks beyond that.
Recycled materials are playing an increasingly important role in industry, but their use is lagging behind ambitions. This is not due to a lack of motivation, but to a structural problem: insufficiently clear information.
Companies face a variety of challenges:
- geopolitical tension that put pressure on resources
- dumping of cheap virgin plastics on the European market
- blending requirements coming from legislation
- a growing demand for reliable, verifiable data on recycled content
Without a common understanding about characterisation and naming for recycled content, reuse remains complex, risky and often economically unviable to scale.
Objective
Reïnkarneer aims to make recycled content easier, more reliable and more competitively applicable. We do this by working on:
- a standardised characterisation of recycled materials
- a uniform naming or coding system that provides immediate insight into applications
- recording this information in digital product passports.
These product passports serve as a dynamic information carrier in which the properties, origin and possible applications of the material are recorded transparently.
From plastics to other material groups
Although the project starts with recycled plastics, its ambition is broader. Reïnkarneer focuses on volume growth of recycled content in:
- plastics
- metals
- minerals
- biogenics
By creating one recognisable system, the conditions arise to scale recycled content across industries. This makes it much easier for producers, recyclers and designers to apply recycled materials more often and in larger volumes.
Practical, data-driven and supported by AI
Reïnkarneer will run from 2025 to 2027. During these two years, we will combine different approaches:
- in-depth literature review
- extensive material analyses
- use of AI and data analysis
- and above all: practical use cases
It is precisely this practical approach that is crucial. By working with recognisable examples, companies and knowledge institutions can not only understand what the new language is, but also immediately see how they can apply it in their own processes.
Collaboration as key to success
Reïnkarneer is a collaborative project in which the business community, knowledge institutes and government bodies reinforce each other. The official kick-off took place this week together with Stimulus, marking the formal launch of the project.
