RIYADH: Chemical company Saudi Basic Industries Corp. has reaffirmed its commitment to accelerating the circular carbon economy by announcing plans to process 1 million metric tons of plastics through its Trucircle solutions initiative.
Abdulrahman Al-Fageeh, acting CEO of the firm – also known as SABIC – unveiled the ambition during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.
Trucircle is a portfolio of products offered by SABIC which include circular and bio-based products based on second and third-generation renewable feedstock, mechanically recycled polymers, ocean and ocean-bound recycled solutions, and closed-loop services and design for recyclability.
“At SABIC, we are committed to helping provide our customers with more sustainable solutions, and our target of one million metric tons of Trucircle solutions by 2030 intends to help usher in the new circular economy,” said Al-Fageeh.
He added: “Driving circularity for plastics will require a rapid transformation of the entire value chain, which is only possible through collective action, innovation, and collaboration across the industry and ecosystem of waste management. Therefore, we are working hard with downstream and upstream partners to accelerate this process.”
SABIC pioneered the industry back in Davos in 2019 when it announced plans to build a world-first small-scale commercial unit to produce certified circular polymers from the advanced recycling of used plastics.
Since then, the company has been employing existing facilities to process smaller volumes of advanced recycled materials for brand owners and customers for various applications already available in the market.
Construction of the company’s first commercial unit in Geleen, the Netherlands, is now entering the final stages, and deliveries of the first circular polymers are expected in 2023.
As a next step on the roadmap to meet its new 2030 target, SABIC will upscale volumes globally of advanced and mechanical recycling and bio-based materials.
It also announced that it is exploring a new world-scale commercial advanced recycling investment that would have a potential capacity to process around 200 kilotons of circular materials per year, as well as other projects such as a small-scale advanced recycling plant in Saudi Arabia.
Since 2020, SABIC’s certified circular polypropylene has been used in ice cream tubs from Unilever’s A-brand ice cream brand, Magnum, the first to use recycled plastic in the ice cream industry. In another successful collaboration, the chemical major teamed up with Mars and Landbell in an innovative closed-loop recycling project designed to close the loop on Kind snack bar wrap based on certified circular polypropylene.
