Close the raw material cycle
SABIC today outlined its plans for the TRUCIRCLE™ initiative—aimed at closing the loop on plastic recycling—to business leaders and policymakers from around the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The four-day annual summit features a series of high-level discussions that challenge global leaders to propose innovative ideas on the 2020 theme of “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.”
Closed-loop recycling of plastic involves collecting post-consumer plastic waste, recycling it, and using it to make new products. For this vision to become a reality, consumers, retailers, recyclers, and manufacturers must collaborate to recover valuable materials from our waste stream and process them into new products. This process requires a complete transformation of the value chain, which SABIC has been working hard to achieve in partnership with its upstream and downstream partners.
SABIC’s groundbreaking TRUCIRCLE™ solutions encompass the company’s circular materials and technologies, including certified circular polymers derived from the chemical recycling of mixed plastic waste; certified bio-based renewable polymers; new polycarbonate (PC) made from certified renewable feedstock; and mechanically recycled polymers.
Yousef Al-Benyan, SABIC Vice Chairman and CEO, said:
“SABIC is committed to creating a more sustainable world and has established a strategy to help customers achieve their sustainability goals. We have collaborated closely with partners across the value chain to promote a circular economy for the recycling of plastic waste, and over the past year, we have provided TRUCIRCLE™ solutions to customers and brand owners such as Unilever and Tupperware Brands.”
He added, “SABIC is also moving forward with a semi-commercial facility that will increase the production of pyrolysis oil from plastic waste. We expect this facility, located at SABIC’s Geleen campus in the Netherlands, to be operational by 2021.”
The facility will initially supply materials to SABIC’s downstream partners, but the long-term goal is to rapidly scale up the supply of its certified circular polymers to all global customers.
SABIC’s commitment to using more plastic waste as feedstock for its circular polymers goes hand in hand with its 2020 goal of increasing the use of recycled plastic from mechanical recycling. SABIC is determined to increase the amount of plastic it processes in Europe to 200,000 metric tons by 2025, in line with a pledge made by the European Commission.
SABIC has also been actively collaborating on international initiatives that can enhance the circularity of material use and open up new opportunities for sustainability.
In Saudi Arabia, SABIC is helping the Kingdom achieve the waste management goals of the Saudi Vision 2030, including commitments to reduce landfill and increase separate collection and recycling. Strategic partnerships with the Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC), which is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), are creating new opportunities in the waste management sector.
As part of its commitment to closing the loop, SABIC became a founding member of the World Plastics Council and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, as well as a partner of The Ocean Clean-Up. Each initiative aims to prevent plastic waste from entering marine environments and ecosystems. The company also views each of its TRUCIRCLE™ solutions as a significant contribution to its efforts to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
In line with its strategic sustainability goals, SABIC works to recycle waste from its own manufacturing processes for use as secondary feedstock and has launched a comprehensive program to optimize the performance of its manufacturing facilities by enhancing expertise, knowledge, and a culture of sustainability.
SABIC’s TRUCIRCLE™ solutions were showcased at the distinctive Innovation in the Circular Economy House (ICEhouse™), a conceptual structure that demonstrates new possibilities for building closed-loop carbon systems that reduce energy and material waste.
