Emission Lifetimes technology for sorting, Security and Traceability

Objective

Plastic waste is a clear and present danger to life—polluting ecosystems, entering food chains, and draining value from our economy. Today’s sorting systems recover too little, too impure, and too expensively. Our project proposes a new end-to-end system that turns plastic waste into a reliable, low-cost secondary raw material by making every item machine-readable at birth and machine-separable at end-of-life. We will develop lifetime-based coding using silicon quantum dots (SiQDs): invisible markers embedded at parts-per-million that are safe, tunable, and produced from abundant silicon. Unlike color-only tracers, our codes exploit emission lifetimes, unlocking a vast, robust coding space at ultra-low doses and enabling rapid time-gated detection on fast conveyor belts. Combined with the innovative industrial sorting platform being developed by our partner Polysecure, our approach will separate plastics not only by polymer but also by grade and prior use (e.g., food vs. non-food), creating pure, high-value streams ready for closed-loop recycling. What we will do: (i) scale reproducible, high-brightness SiQD formulations and masterbatches/inks; (ii) engineer compact, low-cost lifetime readers; (iii) integrate markers into commercial materials without altering performance or appearance; (iv) pilot at industrial facilities to demonstrate >99% purity streams, cost reductions per ton, and strong LCA gains; and (v) verify compliance for sensitive applications, including food contact. This is a highly ambitious project with transformative upside. If we succeed, the gains will be immense: cheaper, higher volumes of higher-quality recycled plastics for converters and brands to boost a 100% European-made circular economy; major CO2, pollution, and landfill reductions for society. Our vision is simple: code every product once, sort it right every time, and make plastic waste a valuable resource again.