US chemicals firm Dow has developed and commercialized a formulated post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic resin in Asia-Pacific.
Such initiatives threaten virgin plastic demand, but it will take time for recycling to scale up enough to make a significant difference in the short term.
The resin designed with 40pc PCR content creates a film with performance comparable with virgin resins, Dow said. Using recycled plastics collected domestically in China, the product is made at Dow’s external manufacturing site in Nanjing. The resin is designed to be used as 100pc of the core layer of collation shrink applications and will enable the development of film with 13-24pc recycled content.
Petrochemical firms have been stepping up their recycling and sustainability initiatives in recent years.
Kuwaiti petrochemical producer Equate this year announced its first production of food-grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate. Austrian chemical company Borealis last year signed an agreement to buy Austrian plastic recycling firm Ecoplast Kunststoffrecycling to expand its mechanical recycling capability.
Consumer firms like Unilever and Proctor & Gamble are also making sustainability pledges to reduce virgin plastic for packaging. Unilever in October last year said it intends to use more recycled plastic and reduce its absolute volume of plastic packaging by 100,000 t/yr to halve its use of virgin plastics by 2025.
By: Muhamad Fadhil
Source: Argus Media
INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, has today announced the official opening of a new world-scale ABS[1] facility located in Ningbo, China, together with its joint venture partner SINOPEC. The facility has an annual nameplate capacity of 600,000 tonnes.
The merger of Röhm’s Acrylic Products business unit and SABIC’s Functional Forms business has resulted in the formation of Polyvantis. This new company will offer extruded products in the forms film, sheet, pipe and rod for markets that include building and construction, transportation and aviation, electrical and electronics, automotive and home and garden.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) is considering plans to acquire upstream oil and gas company Wintershall DEA, an affiliate of BASF SE, according to a Bloomberg report citing people with knowledge of the matter. A deal to acquire Wintershall DEA could be worth more than €10 billion, the report said. BASF and Adnoc declined to comment on the report.
