UPCYCLE took part in the 13th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management (KOS 2026), held from 24 to 28 June in Kos, Greece. The event brought together researchers, industry, and policymakers working on practical pathways to improve waste management and circular materials.
A key moment of the conference was the joint session organised with the sister projects EOILÉ, BioPackMan, and GRECO, titled: “Scaling-up advanced biodegradable and recyclable polymers for sustainable packaging materials.”
The session focused on moving from promising material concepts to solutions that can operate at scale, bringing together complementary perspectives from these projects and showing how different technologies are advancing towards similar goals.
During the session, Passanun Lomwongsopon from Aalborg University presented UPCYCLE’s work under the title: “Upcycling of Polyolefin Wax into Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs).”
The presentation showed how a specific stream derived from plastic waste can be transformed into biodegradable bioplastics. These materials can support applications where conventional plastics remain difficult to replace, while helping reduce long-term environmental impact.
This approach is part of UPCYCLE’s broader work on creating new circular pathways for plastics, particularly for materials that are currently hard to process through existing systems.
Participation in KOS 2026 places UPCYCLE within ongoing efforts to develop scalable solutions for circular plastics, and highlights the importance of advancing these approaches towards application in real packaging systems.
