Whether we like it or not, plastic packaging will be a part of our everyday lives for a long time to come. However, the enormous consumption devours raw materials and energy – and leaves behind huge mountains of waste.
The realCYCLE project aims to change that. Enabled by the Migros Pioneer Fund, it aims to understand and align the entire value chain of plastic packaging as a circular economy. A prerequisite for a functioning cycle is a coordinated interaction of all steps – from packaging design and production to the recycling industry and raw materials trading. To ensure this, realCYCLE brings all players in the value chain to the table and provides them with the necessary knowledge for circular collaboration.
In addition, realCYCLE initiates pilot projects that demonstrate what the recycling of plastic packaging could look like in a circular future, and defines quality standards for the processing of plastics in collaboration with industry partners.
Thanks to realCYCLE's holistic approach, old packaging will become new in the future. This conserves resources and reduces waste mountains.
From Linear to Circular Collaboration
The realCYCLE project accelerates the transition to a tangible, sustainable, and high-quality plastics circular economy in Switzerland, making the circular process simpler, more transparent, less polluting, and more marketable. The ultimate goal is to reduce the environmental impact of plastics and optimize the environmental benefits of the cycle.
Where plastic products and packaging are indispensable due to product protection requirements (durability, hygiene) or other needs that preclude avoidance, realCYCLE establishes the conditions for managing and maintaining them within a sustainable, high-quality, and low-pollutant cycle. This ensures they are genuinely recyclable or circular, moving beyond theoretical concepts.
realCYCLE – well-connected and embedded in a dynamic environment
realCYCLE – an innovative project by REDILO GmbH (since 2023: realcycle GmbH)
Key Topics
The realCYCLE project addresses four key topics.
Pilot Projects
Various pilot projects are being conceptualized and implemented together with stakeholders in the plastics value chain. In addition, the systemic requirements and framework conditions for scalability are being examined. Real possibilities are being identified to enable a comprehensive and sustainable plastics circular economy in Switzerland. You can access the five pilot projects via the links below.
Network
All companies and organizations, i.e. players in the plastics value chain, who are also committed to a sustainable and high-quality plastics circular economy and who would like to contribute to its implementation in practice, were able to participate in the project. Through the broad exchange of information between all interested parties (CYCLEtalks), the more in-depth collaboration in one of the focus groups or the active participation in a pilot project stakeholders were able to influence the development of corresponding framework conditions and the development of tools for practical implementation. This ensured that the actual functioning of a sustainable and high-quality plastics circular economy was tailored to your needs, the industry environment and also to an optimized environmental benefit.
By the end of the project in December 2022, 110 institutions, or 162 individuals, were registered with realCYCLE.