As part of con­tin­u­ous invest­ment, GCR Group has announced the recent open­ing of a ded­i­cat­ed R&D cen­ter in La Bis­bal del Penedés, Tar­rag­o­na, Spain. This ‘Inno­va­tion Hub’ is intend­ed to build on 20 years of expe­ri­ence in mate­ri­als tech­nol­o­gy and devel­op short-term and long-term poly­mer-based solu­tions that min­imise envi­ron­men­tal impact. The over­all com­pa­ny invest­ment is expect­ed to reach Euros 100 mil­lion by 2025. Com­bined with the new state-of-the-art 200,000 tonnes recy­cling plant open­ing in 2023, these invest­ments reflect a long-term vision cre­at­ed when the com­pa­ny was found­ed in 2001; ’Inno­vat­ing our Sus­tain­able Tomorrow.’

While mate­ri­als based on vir­gin poly­mer resins have well-defined and con­sis­tent prop­er­ties, work­ing with recy­cled mate­ri­als or find­ing ways to reduce car­bon foot­print presents new chal­lenges that require exper­i­men­ta­tion to solve. Often cus­tom solu­tions need to be cre­at­ed con­sid­er­ing the waste stream and the appli­ca­tion. This is why GCR believes col­lab­o­ra­tive part­ner­ships in ‘co-cre­ation’ projects with­in the val­ue chain are vital. The new 2000 square meter Inno­va­tion Hub con­cen­trates the tech­ni­cal exper­tise of GCR’s tal­ent­ed team. It includes all the equip­ment nec­es­sary for incu­ba­tion and proof of con­cept from devel­op­ment to pilot plant and final production.

Exist­ing col­lab­o­ra­tions involve tech­ni­cal insti­tu­tions, equip­ment sup­pli­ers, raw mate­r­i­al and waste-stream sup­pli­ers, plas­tic con­vert­ers and brand own­ers. GCR also offers turn-key project man­age­ment where cus­tomers com­plete­ly trust GCR’s capa­bil­i­ties. “We pre­fer to send you all our scrap because the qual­i­ty you’re get­ting out of it is some­thing we will nev­er reach,” quot­ed a major converter.

GCR’s exten­sive mate­ri­als know-how and relent­less atten­tion to qual­i­ty are reflect­ed in exist­ing prod­uct ranges. CICLIC R‑polyolefins (Recy­cled poly­olefins) are based on ‘up-cycling’ ful­ly trace­able waste streams and can deliv­er sim­i­lar and con­sis­tent mate­r­i­al prop­er­ties as vir­gin plas­tics with 60–80 per­cent low­er Car­bon Foot­print certification.

GRANIC min­er­al-filled mas­ter­batch­es and com­pounds can offer up to a 30 per­cent reduc­tion in ener­gy costs in down­stream poly­mer pro­cess­ing. In addi­tion to an exten­sive range of exist­ing prod­ucts, the Inno­va­tion Hub com­bines GCR’s com­pre­hen­sive tech­ni­cal and pro­cess­ing exper­tise to cus­tomise prod­ucts and bring solu­tions to the chal­lenges encoun­tered when using post-con­sumer or post-indus­tri­al waste or car­bon footprint/LCA improve­ment. GCR can enhance the val­ue of waste streams through, for exam­ple, com­pat­i­bi­liz­ers or capturing/blocking odour-pro­duc­ing bac­te­ria. In addi­tion, it has devel­oped bio-poly­mer-based and biodegrad­able solutions.

“We firm­ly believe that we have the capa­bil­i­ty, agili­ty and vision to accel­er­ate the cir­cu­lar econ­o­my,” says San­ti­a­go Sans, Inno­va­tion Direc­tor at GCR. “Through this invest­ment, we demon­strate our belief in col­lab­o­ra­tion with like-mind­ed part­ners in the val­ue chain.”

Find­ing new sus­tain­able solu­tions will require changes in how the plas­tics indus­try tra­di­tion­al­ly works; a com­bi­na­tion of know-how, new ways of think­ing, and a long-term vision. GCR’s invest­ments in Inno­va­tion Hub and the new recy­cling plant bring new tools to help facil­i­tate these changes. This is anoth­er exam­ple of GCR’s long-term com­mit­ment to the cir­cu­lar economy.