Green Bay Innovation Group has built a tremendous partnership with the University of Wisconsin Engineering Department. The (CUWP) Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics provides technical, environmental, and economic information on chemical recycling and plastic waste. CUWP had their Annual Meeting at the College of Engineering, Monday, May 13th to Wednesday May 15th with an impressive agenda. The United States is the world’s largest producer of plastic waste estimated at seventy-three million metric tons. By 2050, the US is projected to produce 138 million metric tons while global plastic is expected to increase to 977 million metric tons. The recycling infrastructure for plastics is dropping from 8.7% in 2018 to 5-6% in 2004.
The CUWP is a ten-million-dollar multi-university center funded by the Department of Energy with UW Madison leading the way. George Huber Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at UW Madison is the Executive Director of CUWP developing STRAP technologies for hard to recycle multilayer films in packaging. Industry will need to work and develop solutions for recycling and the development of new plastic and packaging materials.
Wisconsin is a leader in the production of plastics and flexible packaging materials. Wisconsin’s plastic industries employ over 43,000 people with a payroll estimated at $2 Billion. The Wisconsin Flexible Packaging Industry is one of the largest producers of flexible packaging in the United States and the world!
