Kick-off meeting of MIX-UP, a European project on Microorganism Communities for plastics bio-degradation

The MIX-UP project (MIXed plastics biodegradation and UPcycling using microbial communities), a new project from the EU Horizon 2020 program coordinated by Prof. Lars Blank from the Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH, Aachen, Germany), was launched from February 5^th to 7^th 2020 at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) office in Brussels (Belgium). Both the CSIC institutes Margarita Salas Center for Biological Research (Margarita Salas CIB) and National Center for Biotechnology (CNB) participate in this project which is granted with a total of € 5.5 million. Work on this project at the Margarita Salas CIB will be directed by Prof. Auxiliadora Prieto, Head of the Polymer Biotechnology Group. Prof. Victor de Lorenzo, Head of the Molecular Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, and Dr. Juan Nogales, Head of the Systems Biotechnology group, will direct the work at the CNB. The MIX-UP project is a collaboration between 5 academic and 5 industrial partners from 4 countries (Germany, France, Ireland, and Spain), and four academic partners from China, thus underlining the European-Chinese partnership in this H2020 collaborative research and innovation action.  

The continuing demand for plastic products, the lack of appropriate recycling and the ubiquitous pollution of the environment with plastic waste pose a global challenge. An ambitious vision and considerable efforts are required to change the traditional value chain of plastics to a sustainable one, based on biodegradable plastics.

In MIX-UP, plastic mixtures with five of the top six fossil-based recalcitrant plastics (PP, PE, PUR, PET, and PS), along with upcoming biodegradable plastics such as PLA and PHA, will be used as feedstock for microbial transformations, thereby generating a workflow that increases the recycling quota and adds value to poorly recycled plastic waste streams. Successive controlled enzymatic and microbial degradation of mechanically pre-treated plastics waste will be combined with subsequent microbial conversion to value-added chemicals and polymers by mixed cultures.

The Chinese-European MIX-UP project is led by a multidisciplinary and industry-driven consortium that addresses the market need for novel sustainable routes to valorize plastic waste streams. MIX-UP realizes a circular (bio)-economy and could be a viable alternative for mechanical and chemical recycling of plastics.

More information:

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/870294

Project website: https://www.mix-up.eu/

TW: @MixUp_H2020