German waste management service provider Landbell (Mainz; www.landbell.de) said it and chemicals group Sabic (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; www.sabic.com) have signed a long-term cooperation agreement to further combine the specific expertise of each partner to set up more close-loop systems for plastic packaging and to scale-up advanced recycling. 

The parties plan to work closely together on establishing and further developing innovative processes to increase feedstock streams, technology, and know-how. The deal builds on the recycling project both had announced in 2022 with US candymaker Mars Wrigley (Hackettstown, New Jersey; www.mars.com) under which chemically recycled plastics from household waste are to be used to produce the BOPP films needed for the packaging of chocolate bars. 

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Generally, mixed plastics waste is sent by the industry for low-end mechanical recycling or incineration. Under the collaboration with Sabic, the mixed plastic packaging waste Landbell has collected is further sorted and cleaned in a specialised pre-treatment plant operated by A. Siemer Entsorgung (Vechta, Germany; www.siemer-vechta.de). It is then to be supplied to the Sabic Plastic Energy Advanced Recycling Unit (currently in the final stages of construction) as raw material to produce the feedstock for Sabic’s Trucircle product portfolio used in food contact packaging and other high-end applications, Landbell added.

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Landbell and Sabic now intend to encourage other brand owners and plastics and packaging converters to incorporate circular solutions from advanced recycled post-consumer plastic packaging into their product applications. The scheme envisions the involvement of a downstream value chain partner, Landbell said.