Upp! Circular Plastic Factory

The Dutch startup Upp! believes European technology can help bring an end to the plastic waste crisis. In their Circular Plastic Factories 5000 tons of plastic waste per year is saved from incineration, landfill, and oceans, avoiding 12500 tons of CO2 emissions per year. With it durable and recyclable building materials are made from local plastic waste are remanufactured for local use.

By 2021 the startup plans on having 10 Upp! Circular Plastic Factories, which would lead to 50.000 tons of plastic waste per year saved from incineration, landfill, and burning and 125.000 tons of CO2 emissions saved per year.

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"Upp! aims to save at least 250 million kilos of plastic waste per year from incineration, landfills, and oceans by 2025."

Developments in the Netherlands and Vietnam

In the Netherlands, the startup is developing a modular (and mobile) set-up of the Upp! Circular Plastic Factory together with Tebodin, Techport and SME’s in the Amsterdam region(machine builders, consulting engineers, waste-management co’s). The goal is to set up a demo-plant near Amsterdam in 2019. Furthermore, they are in negotiations with the City of Zwolle to develop an Upp! Circular Plastic Factory to process regionally collected household packaging materials into products to be used regionally. The focus is especially on the lower quality plastic mix for which there is no demand in the market, which could be used to make retaining walls, outdoor furniture, boardwalks from deck planks, infrastructure elements, etc.

In Vietnam, Upp! has signed a contract with the TTC Group to built a pilot Upp! Circular Plastic Factory on the island of Phu Quoc. The idea is to use plastic waste from beaches and landfills on the island to manufacture construction materials to be used at the construction of a resort TTC is developing. Together with Vinacolour, their Vietnamese technology partner in Hanoi, they will build the factory which should be operational by the end of 2019. Also in Hanoi, a test-production facility for tiles, roof tiles, and building blocks has been established in the aim of the partnership with Vinacolour. Upp! highlights that not only in Vietnam but also in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and India, there is a growing interest in their concept. European technology can indeed help to end the plastic waste crisis.