“CAPitoli urbani” is a reasearch program that consists in the definition and optimization of circular production processes for the realization of projects that valorize inhomogeneous plastic waste (e.g. aluminum, tetrapak, paper, PP, HDPE)
Regional
Italy
Lombardy
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2023-01-05
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): CAP Holding SpA Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Desdemona Last name of representative: Oliva Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: R&D Director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Centro Ricerche Gruppo CAP Via Circonvallazione Est, Parco dell'Idroscalo Town: Segrate Postal code: 20054 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 02 8952 0520 E-mail:desdemona.oliva@gruppocap.it Website:https://www.gruppocap.it/it
Name of the organisation(s): Politecnico di Milano - Dipartimento di Design Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Barbara Last name of representative: Di Prete Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: Assistant Professor Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Giovanni Durando 10 Town: Milano Postal code: 20158 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 02 2399 5600 E-mail:barbara.diprete@polimi.it
CAPitoli urbani is a reasearch program consisting in the definition and optimization of circular production process for the valorisation of inhomogeneous plastic waste (including e.g., aluminum, tetrapak, paper, PP, HDPE). The project envisioned and tested a non-standardized and not yet codified process where the material (not divided and not pre-sorted) is mechanically processed into die-cast sheets in subtractive technology according to an innovative production process which required the testing of new specific machinery.
The project led to the creation of a demonstrative furniture collection, exhibition booths explaining the values of sustainability within international design and circular economy events, and participatory workshops with citizens.
CAPitoli urbani was promoted by an utility working in the field of integrated water service as an intent of social responsibility. The project has seen the participation of a wide network of actors involved directly and indirectly, ranging from one university (Politecnico di Milano, Department of Design), one private company within the food supply chain in the context of large-scale retail trade, one territorial cultural association (Republic of Design), one international art gallery (Rossana Orlandi) and one vertical Fablab on circular economy issues (Design Differente).
Gruppo CAP is involved in a series of activities in the field of the circular economy. This research program is part of a more complex project carried out in some wastewater treatment plants of Gruppo CAP, which includes an agreement for the use of dairy waste delivered by companies working in the food supply chain. In particular, this agrifood waste is used as feed in the anaerobic digestion process in addition to wastewater sludge, to increase the production of biogas.Moreover, the specific agri-food waste is characterized by the presence of plastic packaging (e.g. yogurt bottles, tetrapak, etc.) that is used as feed for the project.
circular economy
plastic recycling
innovative processes
sustainable materials
design for social responsability
In terms of sustainability, the aim of the project is to experiment with a model of complete circularity, by inserting into an already existing process started by Gruppo CAP, the research's committer, which carries out experiments aimed at radically changing the logic of production and consumption in order to initiate a truly sustainable development of the territory and the rational use of finite resources. With this in mind, the group started Industrial synergies with companies and operators in the food supply chain and large-scale retail trade with the intention of reducing food waste by producing biogas and biomethane from organic waste. The research project becomes part of this process to close the loop by exploiting plastic containers and other residual materials resulting from the disposal of food waste, which were precedently disposed of, with the aim of recycling them for the creation of new sustainable materials, with applications in the field of Design.
In terms of aesthetics, the goal of the research project was to create recycled plastic materials with high aesthetic, emotional and narrative properties. First, the research was conducted by experimenting with the aesthetic variations that can be generated from different waste composites, effectively resulting in different collections depending on the type of starting waste. The materials thus made are enhanced in the emotional and narrative dimension due to the presence of still recognizable parts of the starting waste, allowing the material to tell its past history; in the process used, in fact, the material is not divided and pre-selected, but includes inhomogeneous components (e.g., tetrapak, aluminum, paper, PP,HDPE). Such components, in the experiments conducted, can be integrated into the new material giving it special aesthetic characteristics without lowering its strength or affecting its mechanical behaviors. The end result has been the creation of multiple collections of fully recycled materials with visual properties similar to those of marble ( but with significantly lower costs) with multiple application possibilities in various areas of product design, interiors, and exhibition design.
From the point of view of inclusivity, this project will become part of the activities planned by “Repubblica del Design”, which will take advantage of these materials to implement the ongoing urban regeneration project (DaCosaNasceCosa) by planning to make highly inclusive street furniture to be donated to the area.
Additionally, the participatory actions already carried out (see next response) increase the inclusive value of the project.
From the perspective of citizen involvement, “CAPitoli urbani” already had three design-participatory spin-offs in the form of workshops aimed at different targets, managed and coordinated by “Repubblica del Design”
- "Da Cosa Nasce Cosa": an educational workshop held at the British school of Milan-Sir James Henderson (Feb. 3, 2022), which consisted in a simulation of a mini-plastic recycling factory to bring even the youngest children closer to circular economy issues.
- "La Fabbrica dei Giocattoli": a ludic-educational workshop held at “La Triennale di Milano” (June 4-5, 2022), consisting of a workshop-exhibition to discover and playfully test samples of Neo-materials aimed at elementary school children and their parents
- "Non Si Butta Via Niente": demonstration and interactive workshop held within the WIRED Festival (Oct. 7-8), consisting of a demonstration of the processes and machinery used for recycling heterogeneous plastic waste to a wide audience with divulgative purpose.
Lastly, an additional participation and dissemination action is planned for February 2023 at “BASE Milano” during "Milano Circolare 2023, The city that reduces, recovers, recycles"
In addition to the project partners (CAP and Politecnico di Milano, Department of Design), “CAPitoli urbani” benefitted from the participation of a wide network of actors involved directly and indirectly, such as: "Repubblica del Design," a territorial cultural association with a social vocation active mainly in the area of City Hall 9, and Rossana Orlandi, an art gallery that represents a landmark of contemporary design, with items designed by internationally renowned designers. The project also had as a production partner "Design Differente," a vertical Fablab in Milan focused on circular economy issues, already engaged in experimentation on plastic materials which contributed to the research by providing skills related to digital craftsmanship. On its side, Gruppo CAP has signed an agreement with Danone SpA for the use of dairy waste coming from the Danone productive activities, from which plastic material is recovered; starting from this partnership Gruppo CAP is evaluating agreements in the fields of agrifood waste disposal and valorisation which could also generate other flows of plastics to be involved in this project.
The project required the involvement of a variety of disciplines involved in both the process innovation phase and the project innovation phase.
In the area of process innovation, knowledge and skills in different areas were employed:
- Management and technical skills were applied in the identification and separation of waste material to use as feed for the subsequent production
-materials chemistry skills were applied in the initial stages of experimentation on the heterogeneous compound of materials, with a focus on its different internal melting temperatures and different aggregate behavior and performance.
- Mechanical and electronics skills were applied for the development of a new specific machinery for slab production (thermo press).
- Management engineering skills were applied in order to code a new production process, tested in different steps (from washing and grinding, to die casting, to cnc machining and finishing).
- Manual and digital craft skills were applied during prototype testing of the process and material.
- Design skills were applied for the creation of demonstration furniture collections and sustainable fittings.
- Marketing skills were applied for product analysis to identify market areas in which to place new products.
The added value of such an approach lies in the interdisciplinary nature found in the continuous contaminations between the theoretical and practical fields, which were thus able to enter into a process of continuous mutual stimulation and truly "circular."
The research led to two direct results and some outcomes in terms of physical artifacts (furniture product and exhibitions), and some participatory dissemination actions that implemented the impact.
Results:
- Construction and fine-tuning of an industrial thermal-press, not available on the market, allowing systematic evaluation of samples and optimization of slabs in terms of production.
- Production of a recycled material, result of a complete circular economy process, with stable technical characteristics and unprecedented aesthetic qualities. The material will have to undergo certification testing and patenting for eventual idustrial production.
Outcome:
- Collection of demonstrative furniture, both for indoor and for outdoor.
- Set-up components for two CAP exhibition booths within international fairs and events (e.g. Ecomondo)
Dissemination actions:
- Display of the furniture at the “Leonardo Da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology” in 2021, within “Gruppo CAP”'s booth, during Milan Design Week.
-Participation in the "ROPlasticPrize 2021" design competition, with the nomination of the "In-visible" drinking fountain prototype, during Milan Design Week.
-Exhibition of the installation components At the CAP action booth in the “ECOMONDO 2021” fair.
-Exhibition of the "In-visible" drinking fountain within the "ROGUiltlessPlastic" 2022, in the “Matteo Bandello” gardens in Milan, during Milan Design Week.
-Participatory workshops already mentioned above.
In terms of innovation, it should be emphasized the uniqueness of the outlined process and the resulting innovation; indeed, the process that is proposed is not a standard or already codified practice: plastics are normally recycled with a preliminary sequence of splitting/sorting, shredding and granulation (operations that have a not negligible economic cost and that often, if not performed accurately, negatively impact the final recycling and re-introduction of waste plastic material into the market). Instead, the intended process involves the material not being divided and pre-sorted, but including components that are inhomogeneous with respect to plastic (e.g., tetrapak, aluminum, paper, PP, HDPE). Such components, in the conducted experiments, can be integrated into the new material giving it special aesthetic characteristics without lowering its strength or affecting its mechanical behaviors, with new openings in terms of applications of recycled materials in the field of Design.
In terms of methodology, the first steps of the research heavily relied on a ‘learning by doing’ approach, with constant trial and error, that characterised the experimentation on the heterogeneous compound of materials, with a focus on its different internal melting temperatures and different aggregate behavior and performance. Once a basis for the behaviour of the compound was finally reached, field experimentation was also fundamental to approach a satisfiyng result in relation to the quality and aestetich properties of the finished material. Lastly, interdisciplinarity characterised the whole process from start to end, with skills from “design thinking” heavily affecting the machines and techiniques used in the production process, and knowledge from the production process affecting the nature of the products, exhibits and materials.
In terms of replicability, it should be noted that once industrially standardized and patented, the material produced as a result of the reasearch project may be marketable, and the whole process potentially replicable in different production contexts.
Furthermore, the potentially producible outputs (furniture, furniture components, fittings and building components) may cover different scales of intervention, with the technical limitation of being produced by subtractive processing from two-dimensional sheets, and the dimensional limits determined by the currently tested dimensions of machinery used for die-casting.
Finally, the know-how derived from this research may find similar applications on other composite wastes.
Among the global challenges that the project aims to address, it is possible to list:
-The promotion of environmental sustainability, pursued by initiating collaboration with local stakeholders, identifying synergies between different industrial and production areas toward complete circularity.
- The limitation of waste overproduction, pursued by experimenting with new recycling techniques for otherwise more difficult to recycle heterogeneous waste composites, with higher costs and lower sustainability rate.
-The creation of processes of complete circularity by identifying, within already sustainable processes, additional ways to recycle heterogeneous plastic waste compounds.
-Implementing the recycling supply chain of inhomogeneous plastic materials, simplifying processes and thus reducing their costs,
-raising awareness, pursued through synergy with local cultural associations to coordinate training and local involvement activities, such as training and educational workshops.
Finally, it should be noted that the entire process, although developed locally, is potentially replicable and scalable in different production and business contexts.
