SABIC outlines intentions for TruCircle™ to close loop on plastic recycling

SABIC today outlined intentions for its TRUCIRCLE™ initiative to help close the loop on plastic recycling with global business figures and policy makers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The four-day annual summit facilitates a series of high level debates that challenge global leaders to put forward fresh thinking around the 2020 theme of ‘Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World’.

Closed loop recycling of plastic would see post-consumer plastic waste collected, recycled and used to make new products. For this vision to work, consumers, retailers, recyclers and manufacturers must work together to reclaim valuable materials from our waste stream and process them to make new products. This process requires a total transformation of the value chain, which SABIC has been working hard with its partners downstream and upstream to achieve.

SABIC’s ground-breaking TRUCIRCLE™ solutions encompasses the company’s circular materials and technologies including certified circular polymers from the chemical recycling of mixed plastic waste; certified bio-based renewable polymers; new polycarbonate (PC) based on certified renewable feedstock; and mechanical recycled polymers.

Yousef Al-Benyan, SABIC Vice Chairman and CEO, said: 

“SABIC is committed to achieving a more sustainable world and has an agenda in place to help customers achieve their sustainability goals. We have worked closely with partners across the value chain to advance a circular economy for the recycling of plastic waste and, in the last year, delivered TRUCIRCLE™ solutions to customers and brand-owners like 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, will be operational by 2021.”

The output from the facility will initially provide materials for SABIC’s downstream collaborators but the long term intention is to rapidly scale up the supply of its certified circular polymers for all global customers.

SABIC’s commitment to using more plastic waste as feedstock for its circular polymers runs parallel to its 2020 ambition to increase the uptake of recycled plastic from mechanical recycling. SABIC is determined to increase the amount of plastic it processes in Europe to 200Kt by 2025, in line with an EU Commission pledge.

SABIC also has been actively collaborating in international initiatives that can improve the circularity of material usage and unlock new sustainability opportunities.

In Saudi Arabia, SABIC is enabling the Kingdom to fulfil the waste management objectives of Saudi 2030 Vision including commitments to reduce landfill of waste and increase separate collection and recycling. Strategic alignments with Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC), which is wholly owned by the Saudi Arabia 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 and a partner of The Ocean Clean-Up. Each initiative aims to prevent plastic waste from reaching marine environments and ecosystems. The organisation also sees each of its TRUCIRCLE™ solutions as a firm contribution to its efforts to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In line with its strategic sustainability aspirations, SABIC works to recycle waste from its own manufacturing processes for use as secondary feedstock and started a holistic program to optimize the performance of its manufacturing facilities by improving the expertise, knowledge, and culture related to sustainability.

SABIC’s TRUCIRCLE™ solutions were showcased at the distinctive Innovation in the Circular Economy House (ICEhouse™), a concept-structure that presents new possibilities for building in closed-loop carbon systems that reduce energy and material waste.