Sabic (Riyadh / Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com) is planning to produce polymers based on mixed packaging waste. The plastics producer has teamed up with consumer goods giant Unilever (Rotterdam / The Netherlands; www.unilever.com), synthetic wine bottle closures manufacturer Vinventions (Zebulon, North Carolina / USA; www.vinventions.com) and protective packaging materials specialist the Walki Group (Espoo / Finland; www.walki.com), as announced at the latest World Economic Forum (WEF, Geneva / Switzerland; www.weforum.org) in Davos / Switzerland. The first polymers are expected to hit the market later in 2019.

The feedstock is an oil called "Tacoil", which the company Plastic Energy (London / UK; www.plasticenergy.com) produces from mixed plastics waste. Sabic will produce polymers from Tacoil at its plant in Geleen / The Netherlands. According to Plasteurope.com's Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), the Saudi Arabian group operates facilities at Geleen with a combined capacity of 4.3m t/y, including 590,000 t/y of LDPE, 350,000 t/y of HDPE and 620,000 t/y of PP.

Plastics produced from Tacoil will then be exclusively sourced to Sabic's three partners, and used to manufacture packaging for food, beverages, personal care products and household products. Sabic and Plastic Energy are currently building a plant in the Netherlands that will produce Tacoil from mixed plastics waste, with production start set for 2021 – see Plasteurope.com of 14.12.2018.