Between 10th-11th July 2019, the DECOAT partners met for the second consortium meeting, kindly hosted at the IRIS Technology Group’s campus in Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain. IRIS Technology Group is an interdisciplinary company focused on bringing high-end technologies and solutions, making industries smart, more sustainable, and efficient.

The meeting was an opportunity for the partners to provide updates on their state-of-the-art research of recycling of coated and painted textile and plastic materials. A couple highlights were the LCA workshop conducted by ECOMATTERS and IRES and a presentation from Dr. Martin Schlummer of Frauenhofer on the overview of recycling.  The presentation enabled all consortium members to have a deeper understanding of the current state of recycling within the EU as well as the different approaches to plastic recycling.  Dr. Schlummer emphasized how DECOAT needs to be implemented in real waste management systems (collection and sorting).

Upon the conclusion of the meeting, IRIS demonstrated their new developments in sorting using optical sensors in the invisible near infrared ranges at their research facilities.  It is anticipated that the DECOAT team, alongside ISWA will be presenting their initial results at ECOMONDO in Rimini, Italy from November 5th-8th.  Attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about the project and discover some of the innovative recycling processes that will be implemented. This will proceed the third consortium meeting also expected to be held at the same venue.