BASF, Borealis, Südpack and Zott have collaborated to work on the pilot project "ChemCycling" to produce a prototype packaging made of chemically recycled polyamide and polyethylene.
Collaboration and Contributions
BASF supplies chemically recycled polyamide while Borealis provides sustainably produced polyethylene. Südpack, one of Europe’s leading producers of film packaging for food products, uses these materials to produce multilayer film for a specially sealed Mozzarella packaging for Zott Gourmet Dairy.
“Within the ChemCycling project, BASF is working on advancing the chemical recycling of plastic waste because this will make it possible to process and reuse previously non-recyclable plastics, such as mixed plastics,” explained Christoph Gahn, BASF.
The raw materials for polyamide and polyethylene were produced in small quantities as part of the project. The pyrolysis oil derived from plastic waste was supplied by a partner and fed into BASF’s Verbund production site in Ludwigshafen as feedstock. According to the certified mass balance method, both plastics have an allocated 100% share of recycled materials.
“It is important to us to be part of this pilot project right from the start in order to share our experience on sustainability standards as well as our high-level requirements on packaging and its barrier functions, and to contribute to the development of a solution with identical functionality and increased environmental performance,” explained Andreas Strunk, Head of Production, Technology & Supply Chain Management at Zott.
Multilayer Packaging is Sustainable
Multilayer packaging reliably ensures high-quality and fresh food products. Smart solutions with multilayer packaging can play a part in reducing this unnecessary waste. Multilayer packaging is sustainable: it does not require much material and can now also be produced from chemically recycled material.
“Today’s high-tech film packaging solutions consist of multiple materials and layers with different properties, such as an oxygen barrier. And thanks to the optimized use of materials, we were able to reduce the packaging volume to a minimum,” said Johannes Remmele, Managing Director of Südpack.
Source: https://www.borealisgroup.com/