IUCRC Phase I Western Michigan University (Partner Site): Center for Plastic, Paper, and Hybrid-Packaging End-of-Life Solutions (C3PS)

About This Grant

The Center for Plastic, Paper, and Hybrid-Packaging End-of-Life Solutions (C3PS) will address serious environmental concerns related to the fate of packaging materials like plastics and plastic-paper hybrids at their end-of-life (EoL). Packaging is necessary for protecting a product’s integrity, safety, and quality during transportation, storage, and use. It also produces about 57 million tons per year of plastics, paper, and plastic-paper hybrids in the US alone creating an global, urgent need for a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic, including its production, design, and end-of-life disposal. Such considerations are the essential elements of C3PS. C3PS will re-designing packaging materials for improved recovery and recyclability, biodegradability and compostability and waste reduction throughout their lifecycle. The center will also ensure that new and re-designed plastic, paper and hybrid-packaging materials can be integrated with EoL disposal systems. These efforts will help to establish the United States as a global leader in sustainable packaging through zero-waste, circular, and low-carbon systems. The Center will generate fundamental knowledge by generating new data, processes, and materials to promote upstream and downstream innovations for a zero-waste packaging ecosystem through strong collaboration between academic researchers and industry partners. C3PS is dedicated to developing a diverse skilled workforce through education and hands-on training, thus equipping the next generation of professionals and technical leaders to spearhead advancements in sustainable, environmentally responsible packaging. Through these activities, C3PS supports the mission of NSF to promote the progress of science and advance national health, welfare, and prosperity C3PS goal is to advance the science and engineering of materials that can be reused or recycled in a way that avoids waste or produce waste that are present no health and environmental impact. This involves creating a packaging economy that is circular, namely one that reduces waste and keeps materials in use for as long as possible with zero waste streams all of which are benign. The Center’s research is structured around two primary areas of focus. The first seek to create zero-waste, safe plastic packaging solutions via the design of recyclable and biodegradable plastics, and improved, cost-effective plastic recycling technologies. The second focus area emphasizes the development of safe, recyclable, and biodegradable paper and paper-plastic hybrid materials for packaging, new recycling methods for emerging paper-plastic hybrid products, developing recyclable paper additives, and valuable products from recycled paper. C3PS will foster collaboration across the entire packaging value chain from raw materials to new products and manufacturing approaches, to ensure that industry adopts new sustainable solutions on a large scale. To drive innovations, C3PS will bring together experts in packaging, materials science, predictive modeling, biodegradation, manufacturing, recycling, regulatory science, and social sciences. C3PS will help to spur sustainable innovations minimizing packaging waste and fostering a circular economy for packaging materials. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.