Strategy for Plastics Innovation

About the Strategy for Plastics Innovation

The Strategy for Plastics Innovation (SPI) focuses on resources from across the U.S. Department of Energy to create a comprehensive program to accelerate innovations that will dramatically reduce plastic waste in oceans and landfills. This initiative will position the United States as a global leader in advanced plastics recycling technologies and in the manufacturing of new plastics that are recyclable by design.

SPI will draw on fundamental and applied research capabilities within national laboratories, universities, and industry.

SPI 2030 Vision, Mission, and Strategic Goals

The vision, mission, and strategic goals of the SPI are designed to position the United States as a leader in science and technology innovations needed to develop and manufacture new plastic technologies by 2030.

Strategic Goals

1. Deconstruction: Create new chemical, thermal, and biological/hybrid pathways to deconstruct plastics
   efficiently into useful chemical intermediates.
2. Upcycling: Advance the scientific and technological foundations that will underpin new technologies for
   upcycling chemical intermediates from plastic waste into high-value products.
3. Recyclable by Design: Design new and renewable plastics and bioplastics that have the properties of
   today’s plastics, are easily upcycled, and can be manufactured at scale domestically.
4. Scale and Deploy: Support an energy- and material-efficient domestic plastics supply chain by helping
   companies scale and deploy new technologies in domestic and global markets, while improving existing
   recycling technologies such as collection, sorting, and mechanical recycling.

SPI Objectives and Metrics

The SPI has developed quantitative objectives and metrics to measure progress toward its strategic goals. These metrics will help to ensure that funding opportunities associated with the SPI are cost effective and clearly emphasize GHG emissions reduction, energy efficiency, carbon efficiency, and material retention.

• Develop technologies to address end-of-life fate for >90% of plastic materials.
• Provide ≥50% energy savings relative to virgin material production.
• Achieve ≥75% carbon utilization from waste plastics to encourage material-efficient processes.
• Design recycling strategies that mitigate ≥50% GHG emissions relative to virgin resin or plastic intermediate production.
• Develop recyclable-by-design plastic solutions and recycling processes that are cost-competitive with incumbent plastic materials and processes.

SPI is a U.S. Department of Energy-wide effort between the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Science, Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, and Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. The effort is coordinated by EERE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office.