Why material choice and design are crucial

Early decisions on polymer, material volume, additives and design determine whether a plastic product becomes a sustainable resource or an environmental problem. Smart choices reduce climate impact, ease recycling and create long-term value. Poor choices lead to contamination, lower recycling value and higher environmental and production costs. Circular flows always begin at the design stage.

At RISE, we bring together expertise in materials science, construction, circular design and ecodesign to help product designers and material specialists turn early design decisions into robust, sustainable and commercially viable plastic products.

Expertise in design and material selection for sustainable plastics

Turn recycled plastic into a viable business

Using recycled plastic is about more than simply finding a recycled material. To work in a product, the material needs to meet the right requirements for quality, properties, processing and cost.

RISE helps companies evaluate material flows, develop recycling processes and produce recycled materials that perform in real products and production processes.

We can help you answer questions such as:

• Which recycled material is suitable for our product and process?
• How are material properties affected as the recycled content increases?
• How can we ensure consistent and documented material quality?
• Which recycling technology is best suited to our material and intended end product?
• Which additives or process adaptations are needed?
• How can we test and verify the material before scaling up?
• How do we move from laboratory trials to industrial production?

Whether your goal is to increase the recycled content of a product, develop a new product or create a new circular material flow, we can help you move forward.

From plastic waste to new products

We have expertise across the entire plastics value chain – from materials and recycling to compounding, processing, testing and verification. We work with companies to:

1. Evaluate materials and flows: We analyse the composition, properties and quality of plastics and assess relevant recycling routes and potential applications.

2. Develop and optimise: We test recycling processes, formulations, additives and process parameters to improve material properties and performance.

3. Test and verify: We characterise and test recycled materials and products against relevant requirements and standards.

4. Scale up: With expertise in areas including compounding and injection moulding, we can help you move from material trials to products and industrial processes. The result is not just a tested material, but a better understanding of how it can perform in your process and product.

The right recycling technology for the right material

Different plastic materials and product flows require different recycling solutions. We help you identify and develop the right approach based on material, contaminants, volumes, quality requirements and intended end product.

Mechanical recycling

Development and evaluation of mechanical plastic recycling processes, from material flows to recycled raw materials and products.

Read more about mechanical recycling →

Chemical recycling

Development and evaluation of processes in which plastics are broken down into chemical building blocks that can be used to produce new materials.

Read more about chemical recycling →

Thermal recycling

We also investigate thermal processes for recovering value from materials that are not suitable for material recycling.

Read more about thermal recycling →

For companies across the plastics value chain

We work with companies in sectors including:

Construction and infrastructure · Automotive · Packaging · Medtech · Consumer products · Manufacturing · Plastic recycling · Waste management and recycling

Do you need to find a viable route from plastic waste or recycled raw materials to a new product? Talk to us.

Material and product development

Material and product development in plastics requires laboratory- or pilot-scale processing equipment to test new ideas without disrupting production or consuming large quantities of material. With extensive experience across a wide range of plastics and thermoplastic composites, and through close collaboration with our customers, we help turn ideas into practical solutions and tangible results.

Working at smaller scale offers significant advantages when developing or optimising materials and processes. Material formulations and processing parameters can be varied quickly and efficiently, making it possible to test more alternatives and shorten development cycles.

Methods

At our facility in Borås, our micro-compounder enables efficient small-batch mixing for trials requiring only limited quantities of material.

We also have a flexible Brabender Plasti-Corder® Labstation laboratory extruder, which enables small batches at rates from approximately 100 to 5,000 g/h. The equipment allows direct injection moulding of test specimens for further evaluation.

For pilot-scale compounding, our facility in Mölndal is equipped with a Coperion ZSK 26 twin-screw extruder, with 25 mm screws and an L/D ratio of 40. The extruder is equipped with a side feeder and vacuum pump, with a capacity of 0.5–25 kg/h. Materials can be air- or water-cooled before pelletising. Different types of feeders enable us to add and evaluate additives and develop composites.

Our injection moulding machine in Mölndal is an Engel ES 200/110 HV-L. We have moulds for producing standardised test specimens for mechanical testing, as well as plates for tests such as impact resistance and transparency.

We also have a spiral flow mould for measuring flow length, providing an indication of how a material behaves during injection moulding at a given pressure and temperature. Melt flow index is often determined separately in accordance with ISO 1133. Injection moulding of test specimens follows ISO 294, with specific processing pressures and temperatures selected according to the relevant standards for each plastic material.

We can extrude films and sheets up to 300 mm wide, with thicknesses ranging from 0.1 to 1 mm. The equipment has three extruders, enabling the production of films with up to three layers.

Test specimens can also be produced by hot pressing sheets up to 300 × 300 mm.

Delivery

We define the scope and deliverables together with each customer. Depending on the project, this may range from an optimised material formulation based on specified properties to an interactive development process where you can participate on site and determine which processing parameters should be tested next.

From the outset, you know what will be delivered and what you can expect from the development work.

The REPAINT project develops knowledge and practical solutions needed to enable post-consumer recycled plastics in painted parts. By bringing together expertise across the value chain, from recycling and material development to surface treatment, painting processes and automotive requirements, the project tackles key technical barriers to circular plastics in vehicles. The work also helps prepare the Swedish automotive industry for the upcoming EU End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation, which will increase requirements for recycled plastic content in automotive applications.

 REPAINT is coordinated by RISE, with Annika Boss as project manager. Industry partners include Volvo Cars, Volvo Trucks, Traton, Artifex Systems, Plasman Industri, Polykemi, Borealis and Kluthe Nordic.

The project consortium has chosen to focus on the plastics most commonly used in automotive, plastics that often are painted. These include polypropylene‑based plastics, as well as blends of PC/ABS (polycarbonate/acrylonitrile‑butadiene‑styrene). Recycled plastics, primarily post-consumer-recycled plastics from various sources, will be tested in the project. The aim is to optimize the properties of the plastic blends with respect to surface properties and painting. However, properties such as mechanical performance, dimensional stability, processability and durability are also of importance and will be investigated in order to meet the automotive industry's requirements for materials and components.

The project collaboration with key industry partnes has great potential to contribute to the transition required in the automotive sector to sustainable and circular plastic use, and to help meet forthcoming regulatory requirements from the EU Commission.

The increasing use of fossil‑based non‑woven products in healthcare entails significant climate and resilience challenges, with an annual consumption increase of 7–8%. The ReNoWo feasibility study identified major barriers to recycling – such as complex material mixtures and lack of infrastructure – while also showing clear climate benefits when switching to recycled or bio‑based materials. A system‑level approach combining mechanical and thermochemical recycling, improved collection, and new business models can reduce emissions and strengthen supply resilience for more than 2,000 tonnes of annual non‑woven waste.

The project aims to examine how collection of both non‑woven and single‑use plastic products can be organised within the regions and evaluate the potential of different recycling technologies, such as mechanical and thermochemical methods, specifically pyrolysis and steam cracking. The project will study how sorting of hospital waste can be designed centrally and what efficiency can be achieved. Trials to produce new non‑woven material from the collected waste will also be carried out. In addition, previous life‑cycle assessments (LCA) will be updated with new data and compare the climate impact of the various recycling technologies with today’s incineration‑based system.

The project involves actors across the entire value chain – from material producers to users and recyclers – which is essential for testing circular solutions.