The Innosuisse flagship project “Towards a NetZero Plastics Industry” (ZeroPol) brings together leading Swiss research institutions and industrial partners to address the challenge of reducing the climate impact of plastics while enabling circular material flows. Rather than focusing on isolated technologies, ZeroPol adopts a systemic perspective across the plastics lifecycle, including material and product design, manufacturing, use, collection, sorting, recycling, and market integration. The flagship project integrates material development, recycling and processing research, life-cycle assessment, and digital approaches to analyse current limitations and to develop scientifically grounded and industrially relevant solution pathways.
A central objective of ZeroPol is to link technological innovation with industrial practice. Through close collaboration with companies operating at different stages of the value chain, the flagship project develops and evaluates concepts, tools, and process insights that support improved decision-making, more sustainable design choices, and more effective recovery and recycling strategies for plastics.
Through this interdisciplinary and application-oriented approach, ZeroPol contributes to strengthening the sustainability and competitiveness of the Swiss plastics ecosystem and supports the objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly responsible production and consumption (SDG 12) and climate action (SDG 13).
