UKRI unveils winners of £3.2m plastics funding

Almost £3.2 million of government funding has been awarded to 17 projects that support the achievement of the UK Plastics Pact, as part of the UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge.

£3.2 million of funding has been announced for 17 different projects (Picture: Shutterstock)

Announced today (28 March), the funding awards are part of the initiative’s final competition titled ‘Future Plastic Packaging Solutions Round 2’.

This is set to support innovation projects ranging from encouraging consumers to move to refill and reuse to advanced recycling technologies and plastic pollution mapping.

The latest round forms part of a £60 million initiative which has spanned over five years and is funded by the government-backed UKRI. This makes it the largest government investment to date and will have funded 74 projects in total.

A full list of the 17 latest winners can be found at the bottom of the story, and were recognised in a ceremony in London earlier. The awarded projects fall into three categories: ‘Stimulating reuse and refill’, ‘alternative materials’ and ‘increased recycling and plastic pollution mapping’.

Representatives of recycling projects awarded funding, with chair Gavin Lewis on the far left (l-r): LitterLotto, Circular11, Recycleye, Blow Moulding Technologies and Stopford

Representatives of winning projects focused on alternative materials (l-r): Algreen, Xampla, MarinaTex, Sustainable Packaging Products, PlantSea and Plastic-i

Representatives from reuse and refill companies awarded funding (l-r): CLUBZERO, Let’s go Zero, Codikoat, Cauli, TOPUP TRUCK

‘Sustainable future’

Paul Davidson, challenge director for UKRI’s SSPP Challenge, said: “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.”

Winners

The full list of winners are as follows:

Algreen Ltd: bio-based multi-layer flexible pouch packaging
Blow Moulding Technologies Ltd: optimisation of plastic packaging through computer-aided design
Cauli Ltd: smart REusable cup dispensers and REturn kiosks
Circular11 Ltd: turning low-grade plastic waste into timber substitutes
CircuPlast: a green chemical recycling process for PET
CLUBZERØ (CupClub Ltd): reusable IoT-enabled takeaway food containers, process and infrastructure
Codipac: a hygienic, reusable food packaging solution
Let’s go Zero Ltd: circular supermarket
LitterLotto (partnered with RECOUP and Buckinghamshire Council):
MarinaTex Ltd: in-flight biopolymer-based flexible film consumer packaging
PlantSea Ltd: seaweed made capsules for fluids and powders to replace PVOH film
Plastic-i Ltd: enabling the solutions to marine plastic pollution from orbit
Recycleye Ltd: Artificial Intelligence-powered sorting for plastic packaging
Sustainable Packaging Products Ltd: recyclable paper-based biodegradable frozen food packaging
TOPUP TRUCK Ltd: refill shopping on the doorstep
Xampla Ltd: plant protein paperboard coatings

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