The U.S. Department of Energy has named the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, to lead its new Reducing Embodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) Institute, which is a national coalition of universities and companies that will forge new clean-energy initiatives and promote the continuous reuse of materials.
According to its website, “The REMADE Institute is a new initiative under development aimed at benefitting small and medium businesses involved in recycling, reuse and remanufacturing in the U.S. by investing in new technologies to help overcome common challenges. Over $150 [million] has been committed to the initiative so far by the federal government, industry, leading universities and national labs across the U.S. to make this Institute a reality.”
The REMADE Institute has five technology focus areas: system analysis and integration, design for reuse and disassembly, manufacturing processes, remanufacturing / eol (end-of-life) reuse and recycling and recovery.
ACC’s Plastics Division, which is an affiliate member of the REMADE Institute, issued the following statement from Steve Russell, its vice president:
“ACC and America’s plastics makers welcome the selection of the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute of Sustainability to lead REMADE. As one of 13 national research consortia that comprise DOE’s Manufacturing USA Initiative, REMADE represents $140 million in committed resources and the expertise of 26 universities, 44 companies, seven national labs and 26 industry associations.
“We look forward to working with all consortium members to increase the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers and to strengthen remanufacturing and recycling as a means to further enhance the overall sustainability of the materials we use. For more than 20 years, ACC has worked to deliver new and improved products and to advance plastics recycling through research and demonstration projects, improved infrastructure and collection practices, partnerships and consumer education.
“One of our more recent efforts has focused on expanding opportunities to recover difficult-to-recycle plastics, such as multilayer flexible packaging (e.g., pouches) through the Materials Recovery for the Future (MRFF) research collaborative, which published its initial research findings in September 2016.”