SABIC has been awarded with a 2023 Sustainability Leadership Award for Exemplary Achievements in Circularity by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), recognizing the company’s pioneering collaborations to bring ocean bound plastic (OBP) back into a circular material.

Abdullah Al-Otaibi, general manager, ETP and market solutions at SABIC, states, “We are very proud to receive this prestigious distinction. It acknowledges the importance of collaborative efforts to enable the recovery and reuse of ocean bound plastic as feedstock in the production of new polymer resins. By driving these successful collaboration projects with industry players, we can demonstrate that advanced recycling can be effective to convert ocean bound plastic that could potentially enter our waterways and oceans, into a valuable feedstock to produce high quality food contact packaging.”

Next to Product Safety, Innovation & Transparency, Environmental Protection and Social Responsibility & Community Engagement, Circularity is one of four priority areas of the ACC Sustainability Leadership Awards, which are granted to ACC member companies for innovative products, technologies and initiatives that help advance sustainability.

SABIC received the 2023 Circularity Award for its leadership in implementing effective solutions using recovered and recycled OBP, which also contribute to UN SDG #14 ‘Life Below Water’. The projects include:

• Collaboration with HHI, a Malaysia based plastics recycling company, in demonstrating the art of the possible in the recovery and reuse of OBP through dedicated value chain collaboration. Read more here.
• Collaboration with Polivouga, a European manufacturer of flexible packaging film products, and Nueva Pescanova Group, a leading Spanish food brand, in developing the world’s first frozen food packaging using certified circular polyethylene resin from SABIC’s TRUCIRCLE program with OBP based feedstock. Read more here.
• Collaboration with Scientex, a major Asian manufacturer of flexible packaging, in introducing the world’s first flexible premium brand noodle packs made from SABIC certified polypropylene resin based on OBP. Read more here.

OBP is abandoned plastic waste found in areas up to 50 km inland from waterways and at risk of eventually being washed into the ocean by rainfall, rivers or tides. The OBP used in the above collaborations is recovered and then converted to pyrolysis oil in an advanced recycling process. SABIC uses this oil as an alternative feedstock to produce certified circular polymers for new high-quality applications.

The ocean bound plastic feedstock is certified under the Zero Plastic Oceans program and SABIC’S certified circular polyolefins are certified under the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS chain of custody that uses transparent mass balance accounting of the recycled content from polymer production to the final applications. SABIC’s OBP-based solutions form part of the company’s TRUCIRCLE portfolio and services which also comprise design for recyclability, mechanically recycled products, certified renewable polymers from bio-based feedstock and closed loop initiatives.