Sabic, a global leader in the chemical industry, has announced the successful roll-out of another project as part of its Trucircle program to accelerate the implementation of a circular plastic economy. Allied Bakeries, a major UK-based supplier of bakery products, has introduced bread bags made by St. Johns Packaging using Sabic’s certified circular polyethylene (PE) in the packaging of their Kingsmill No Crusts 50/50. Following the kick-off of the joint project in November 2020, the trial phase was completed in May 2021 at the St. Johns Packaging production site in China and Kingsmill introduced the bags made from PE film with certified circular polymers content to UK stores in September 2021.
The bags are made by St. Johns Packaging, a vertically integrated manufacturer of flexible packaging products with operations around the world, using a PE resin grade from Sabic. The bags incorporate a 30% content of recycled feedstock from post-consumer waste. Using advanced recycling, the used and mixed plastic is converted into pyrolysis oil which is then used in the production of new polymers with the same purity and quality as traditional virgin plastics.
“For such solutions to work in the long-term, the partners in the material value chain must closely collaborate,” says Abdullah Al-Otaibi, general manager, ETP & market solutions at Sabic. “With our Trucircle program, we are pushing for innovative business models to transform our industry from a linear to a circular one and help prevent the valuable material of end-of-life plastic applications from being wasted. Within a relatively short time, this remarkable joint project has shown what can be achieved to make this vision come true if all players work together to maximize post-consumer plastic recycling and sustainability.”
Sabic’s circular materials are produced using mass balance accounting according to the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS program which follows a set of predefined and transparent rules for tracking the material flow across complex supply chains from the feedstock to the final application.
Sabic’ s certified circular polymers form part of its Trucircle portfolio and services for circular solutions that also include design for recyclability, mechanically recycled products, certified renewables products from bio-based feedstock and closed-loop initiatives to recycle plastic back into high-quality applications and help prevent valuable used plastics from becoming waste.
