Reshaping plastics sustainability across transport, built environment and electrical goods sectors

Challenge

The manufacturing industry faces an urgent need to shift from linear production to circular economy models due to the growing impacts of climate change, escalating material consumption, and the environmental burden associated with waste generation. While packaging materials have received significant research effort, engineering plastics in manufactured components are often neglected due to their complexity in formulation and composition. Widely used in sectors such as automotive, construction, and white goods, these materials must meet demanding performance and cost requirements but are difficult to reuse or recycle due to their diversity, durability, and integration into complex multi-material products. Rapidly evolving legislation mandating greater reuse, recycling, and recycled content further increases pressure on manufacturers. Addressing these challenges requires systemic innovation across materials development, product design, digital tracking, and advanced end-of-life processing.

Solution

The EPSRC Manufacturing Research Hub in Sustainable Engineering Plastics (SEP Hub), in partnership with the University of Warwick and University College London, is a flagship £13.6 million investment reshaping plastics sustainability across transport, built environment and electrical goods sectors. The hub will aim to address these challenges by developing scalable, evidence-based solutions that enable the circular use of engineering plastics. Combining materials research, digital technologies, circular design, and advanced mechanical and chemical recycling, the Hub aims to unlock higher-value recovery of complex plastic components. Its work is guided by systems-level analysis, including material flow, life cycle, and techno-economic analysis, to deliver genuine environmental and economic benefits. With over 65 industry partners, the SEP Hub supports regulatory compliance and the transition to a resilient, low-carbon circular manufacturing economy through five themes: developing authentically sustainable circular materials, advancing digital technologies to enhance material recovery and recycling quality, optimising circular design strategies for reuse and recyclability, pioneering innovative mechanical recycling and chemical deconstruction methods, and promoting systems-level innovation.

Impact

Over the next 7 years, the SEP Hub aims to deliver real-world impacts by enabling manufacturers to transition from linear to circular models for engineering plastics, reducing carbon emissions, material waste, and reliance on virgin fossil resources. From developing scalable digital tracking tools to circular design strategies grounded in robust environmental and economic analysis, the project will help industry meet tightening regulatory requirements while maintaining performance and competitiveness. In doing so, it will strengthen UK manufacturing resilience, stimulate innovation across supply chains, and accelerate progress toward a low-carbon, resource-efficient circular economy.