Almost £3.2 million in funding has been announced by UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge for 17 projects.
UKRI says the SSPP Challenge represents the largest UK government investment in sustainable plastic packaging. The organisation continues that the funding awards will support a range of “innovation projects”, from encouraging consumers to move to refill and reuse to new edible and biodegradable bio-based materials, advanced recycling technologies and plastic pollution mapping.
The projects fall into three categories alternative materials, stimulating reuse and refill and increased recycling and plastic pollution mapping.
Five of the projects will assess the viability of a range of different plant-based biodegradable polymers to replace fossil fuel-based plastics.
SSPP is working to make plastic packaging fit for a sustainable future.
Five other funding winners will explore how to stimulate more reuse and refill and reduce single-use plastic packaging, both in our day-to-day grocery shopping and for food and drinks consumed on the go.
The remaining six projects focus on enhancing the UK’s plastics recycling and stimulating the use of recycled plastics.
Paul Davidson, Challenge Director for UKRI’s SSPP Challenge, commented: “SSPP is working to make plastic packaging fit for a sustainable future, supporting over 70 research and innovation projects focused on consumer plastic packaging.
“Taken together, these latest SSPP-funded projects offer up exciting opportunities to tackle plastic packaging waste holistically by reducing it at source, encouraging the rollout of reuse and refill business models, and driving more effective and sophisticated recycling and pollution monitoring and measuring.”