Saudi-based chemical manufacturers SABIC announced a major milestone in a pioneering project to produce certified circular polymers, made from a feedstock from mixed plastic waste at their Geleen production site in The Netherlands.
The groundbreaking achievement – the first ever certified circular polymers – is part of the ‘market foundation stage’. This stage, launched in January this year, is an important step in the creation of a new circular value chain for plastics, during which, initial volumes of pyrolysis oil from plastic waste are introduced as feedstock. The pyrolysis oil is patented and produced by Plastic Energy Ltd and made from the recycling of low quality, mixed plastic waste which would otherwise have been bound for landfill or incineration.
Certified circular polymers will help meet consumer demand for more sustainable products as well as contributing to an overall reduction in plastic waste.
certified circular polymers produced in nl
Frank Kuijpers, General Manager Corporate Sustainability, and Jeroen Castelijn, General Manager Geleen site celebrate the certified circular polymers produced in the Netherlands. Image: Sabic
SABIC has begun to produce and commercialise the first monthly volumes of certified circular polymers - polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) – as part of the market foundation stage. This is a precursor to the 2021 projected start up of SABIC and Plastic Energy commercial plants in The Netherlands which will manufacture and process the alternative feedstock.
“Certified circular polymers are a disruptive innovation and SABIC’s market foundation stage is a critical phase in their development”, said General Manager Corporate Sustainability at SABIC, Frank Kuijpers. “It will act as a bridge moving from a linear economy to a circular one and will enable the value chain to become familiar with the products and consider how they can best be implemented in their own markets. It will allow confidence in this pioneering product to grow before SABIC goes into full scale production.”
The new polymers have been certified through the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification plus (ISCC+) scheme that gives certification to circular content and standards right across the value chain from source to end product. The ISCC+ is based on a “mass balance system”. What this means is that for every tonne of circular feedstock put into the system, a tonne of the output is classified as circular.
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