Sustainability

landfills. The research aims to create new uses for the plastic waste and possibilities for the re-manufacturing of sustainable products.

Innovative plastics-processing technologies developed by the researchers and industrial partners would create new opportunities for manufacturers across the country, according to Umass Lowell’s Davide Masato, assistant professor of plastics engineering, who is leading the project with Margaret Sobkowiczkline, associate professor of plastics engineering.

“Umass Lowell has been a partner with REMADE since the institute’s founding in 2017,” Sobkowiczkline said. “As a nationally recognized research university for plastics engineering and manufacturing, Umass Lowell leads the way in advocating for and promoting increased efforts by the U.S. plastics industry to adopt more sustainable manufacturing practices.”

Industry partners working with Umass Lowell on the project include SER North America LLC, a material supplier that focuses on sustainable plastics, along with IMFLUX Inc., a Procter & Gamble company that develops injection molding innovations in support of sustainable manufacturing, according to Masato.

The collaboration will provide Umass Lowell engineering students opportunities to work closely with engineers at the partner companies, Masato said.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, manufacturing accounts for 25% of U.S. energy consumption at a cost of approximately $150 billion. Industry is the third-largest contributor to greenhouse-gas emissions in the nation at 22%, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

REMADE and its partners are working to reduce those numbers, while creating new, clean-economy jobs, according to REMADE Chief Executive Officer Nabil Nasr, who said the Umass Lowell project will move the U.S. closer to achieving the nation’s environmental and manufacturing targets.

“Our mission is to reduce energy consumption and decrease emissions, while increasing the country’s manufacturing competitiveness,” Nasr said. “Our experts are working diligently to reach these critically important goals and, in the process, accelerate the U.S.’S transition to a circular economy.”

Courtesy Joson images umass lowell plastics engineering faculting members working in the Mark and elisia Saab emerging Technologies and innovation center in lowell have been awarded $1.8 million from the u.s. department of energy to develop recyclable plastics and manufacturing technologies to help the country improve its environmental sustainability.