EcoPlast project has recently completed its first six months and held its first General Assembly at Istanbul, Türkiye. Being the Coordinator of the project, we are reflecting on the major activities, challenges, and next steps of the project. In this context, we spoke with the Project Lead and Technovative Solutions Limited’s Senior Electrical Engineer, Mohammad Anis Uz Zaman. The following blog is prepared based on our conversation.
Upholding the motto of empowering circular operations in the automotive plastics value chain, EcoPlast started its journey in June 2025. The 36-month project has already completed its first six months on a high note. The success of an entire project largely depends on the strength of its opening phase. On that account, it is time to look back at the initial phase of the EcoPlast project.
During this period, the consortium has revisited the project plan. The initial roadmap has been elaborated, finalised, and formalised. The process flow has been designed and well documented, and responsible organisations for each task have been identified. The Cost Modelling Framework (CMF), Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA), and Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) of the project have also been discussed and documented at this stage.
The Big Jump
The major achievement of this duration is the completion of six specific tasks. These tasks were planned to be delivered within the first six months, and they have been done with success. Let’s have a look at those deliverables.
- Determining the methodology of recycled content calculation is one of the major tasks in this project. Currently, there is no European directive or guideline on automotive plastic recycling with which the methodology can be aligned. Therefore, recommendations for the automotive plastic sector have been prepared after carefully studying other relevant directives and will be sent to policymakers.
- The EcoPlast project will demonstrate a total of 9 real use cases. Each use case is planned to be demonstrated on an industrial scale. The responsible partners designed the detailed workflow to achieve this objective and identified the necessary inputs, limitations, and challenges.
- Listing the attributes of the Digital Product Passport (DPP), such as the origin of the part and virginity status, is important. The identification process has been completed within this timeframe. For implementation, the project needs to collect at least 100 different plastic parts from vehicles. The process is ongoing, with 30 parts already onboarded from multiple OEMs.
- One of the major milestones successfully achieved within the first six months is defining all the KPIs. The project has 32 KPIs, against which the consortium has set measurement criteria and identified limitations, risks, and challenges. The responsible partners also suggested potential and effective mitigation measures.
- In compliance with the GDPR, an initial data management plan has been prepared. The plan will be followed as a blueprint to determine data collection, storage, and dissemination. As the plan is in an early stage, it will be further refined soon.
- The EcoPlast project is expected to generate a significant volume of knowledge for the industry and ecosystem. A dissemination, communication, and exploitation plan has been designed and developed to amplify project results. The plan will be further structured in the coming months.
External Communication
The EcoPlast project is open to collaborating with stakeholders, including projects, organisations, and associations within the circular economy ecosystem. Recently, as a part of the project’s continuous outreach and collaboration activities, a bilateral meeting was held between the EcoPlast project and the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA) R&I Expert Group.
Consortium Meeting
From February 3 to 5, 2026, EcoPlast’s first consortium meeting was held in Istanbul, Türkiye. The meeting was considered a recap meeting of the first phase, and strong focus was placed on the technical challenges that the consortium members have faced. Everybody was open to sharing their experiences and limitations, and a vivid discussion took place to identify potential solutions. Workshops on DPP, Digital Twin, AI tools, and use case readiness level enriched the participants and boosted confidence in implementing the project successfully.
The meeting was not limited to in-room discussions; participants also experienced two facilities as part of the meeting. One was the setup for solution-based purification developed by Sabanci University and Kordsa. The developers explained the process, potential challenges, and solutions during the visit. Participants also visited the recycling site of Beker Recycle, where Ford recycles its vehicles. The visit provided insights into how Ford and Beker are materialising the ‘R’ strategy and helped partners decide how to integrate EcoPlast’s advanced sorting technologies (DPP and AI-aided sorting technology) with Beker’s existing technology.
Major Challenges
So far, the tasks have been progressing without major difficulties. However, two significant challenges have arisen, one related to developing AI tools and digital twins, and the other concerning the sourcing and collection of data.
To tackle these challenges effectively, Technovative Solutions Ltd (TVS), the coordinator of the project, is introducing a set of realistic solutions, which are now being applied.
Role of TVS as the Coordinator of the Project to mitigate Challenges
As the project coordinator, TVS has already designed an effective approach to identify, solve, and monitor issues that might arise. The whole project management chain has been defined comprehensively. Moreover, work package leaders, task leaders, technology partners, and communication partners are identified and clearly defined. If any issue arises at the task level, the coordinator can quickly spot the challenge and address it with the help of the corresponding organisations. Additionally, monthly consortium meetings, individual work package meetings, and the provision for submitting monthly reports are effective measures to ensure smooth project management.
Task leaders are now sketching and finalising subtasks, corresponding timelines, and dependencies with other partners under the supervision of the coordinator. Furthermore, as the next General Assembly of the project will take place in September 2026, visibility is planned to increase among the knowledge, user, and policymaking communities. For impactful branding, TVS is exploring appropriate avenues, such as participation in events, social media presence, and social awareness campaigns.
About EcoPlast
The EcoPlast (Empowering Circular Operations Across the Automotive Plastics Value Chain) project aims to develop advanced digital solutions that promote circularity in the automotive plastic value chain. Its primary goal is to improve the quality, safety, and durability of secondary materials while increasing their use in new products. The project focuses on significantly enhancing recovery, recycling, and upcycling rates and encouraging the adoption of secondary materials in high-value applications.
This project has received funding from the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON) Research & Innovation Actions under grant agreement No 101182147.
