Korteks PLASTICE Project Got Accepted to Horizon Program
The PLASTICE Project of Korteks, one of the leading companies in the Turkish yarn industry, has been accepted to the Horizon Program, where the European Union carries out research, development and innovation projects.
PLASTICE, Korteks’ first Horizon Europe Project, aims to contribute to the circular economy by recycling complex textile and plastic wastes, which are very difficult to separate, with environmentally friendly, innovative, efficient methods, using smart and digital technologies, and producing final products with low carbon footprints from recycled raw materials.
25 partner organizations from 7 different countries will work in cooperation for 4 years in the PLASTICE Project, which is entitled to receive 15,122,601 Euros of support from the European Union. Waste managers, recyclers, chemical and textile industries, technical and scientific authorities, the public, and the civil society are among the stakeholders of this project.
‘‘We will present one of the most innovative examples of the circular economy with the PLASTICE Project’’
Korteks General Manager Barış Mert stated that as a company that has adopted sustainability as a way of doing business, they focus on developing environmentally friendly projects, and continued, ‘‘Global warming, climate change, waste problems, difficulties in accessing clean water and food increase the sensitivity of the society on sustainability day by day. We, as Korteks, carry out many studies and produce new projects under our own roof for this problem. The PLASTICE project will be an important milestone for us in this sense.’’
‘Cotton’ and ‘PET’ blended products will be brought into the economy by chemical recycling
In the textile-related sections of the PLASTICE project, mostly ‘Cotton’ and ‘PET’ blended products will be collected and separated as textile waste. Cotton threads will be decomposed into cellulose/sugar, which is their building block, by an enzymatic process, and then this sugar will be converted into ethanol. Textiles that cannot be separated by this method will either be recycled directly or subjected to a washing process to separate the other contaminated products on it. PET polymer, on the other hand, will be decomposed into PTA and MEG, which are the building blocks, by chemical recycling and then converted into granule format by re-polymerization process.
Korteks will step in at this stage of the project and will first analyze the recycled PET granule by chemical methods and investigate its suitability for filament yarn spinning. It will produce POY and FDY filament yarn types in the melt spinning process from recycled granules with approved spectra, and then POY yarns will produce textured yarn qualities that are similar to natural fibers with the false twist technique. Korteks will perform physical and chemical analyzes of all the yarns it produces and create the spectra of the yarns.
Korteks aims to be a role model with its environmentally friendly projects
Expressing that they aim to make a difference and become a role model in the fields of sustainability and circular economy for a more livable world, Mert expressed that they are very happy to take part in such a project.
