AI APPLICATION HUB ON PLASTIC PACKAGING – Sustainable Circular Economy through Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to reduce mountains of waste and extend the lifecycle of important resources. To make use of this potential, the AI Application Hub is putting AI methods into practice along the entire value chain: from design to cycle closure for plastic packaging.

Packaging accounts for by far the largest share of plastic waste worldwide. But due to major technical and economic challenges, only a small proportion of plastic re-enters the cycle as secondary raw material. Within the funding measure “AI Application Hub on Plastic Packaging - Sustainable Circular Economy through Artificial Intelligence” of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, artificial intelligence methods are used to improve the sustainability of plastic packaging – along the entire value chain.

The Innovations Labs

The AI Application Hub on Plastic Packaging consists of two Innovation Labs: KIOptiPack (on design and production) and K3I-Cycling (on cycle closure), involving a total of 51 partners from industry, science, and society. The common goal is to close the value chain of plastic packaging as far as possible. To this end, the two Innovation Labs engage in a dynamic exchange of data and results.