Turning Plastic Waste into New Packaging

Using raw materials from chemically recycled plastic waste

With its ChemCycling™ project, BASF is working with partners in order to turn plastic waste into secondary raw materials, moving away from the traditional process of using fossil feedstock in expanded polystyrene (EPS). The materials are chemically broken down, delivering pyrolysis oil that is used as a precursor in the production of EPS. Since recycled and fossil based raw materials are mixed in production and cannot be distinguished from each other, the recycled portion is allocated to Ccycled™ EPS, using a mass balance approach. Both the allocation process and the product itself have been certified by independent auditors according to the REDcert² standard. The final material has identical characteristics as conventional EPS. But one important thing changed:

Smaller ENVIRONMENTAL Footprint

Since its introduction as a packaging material, EPS offers exceptional protection from light, extreme temperature changes, and jostling during transport. Switching to Ccycled™ EPS as packaging material for our Spectroquant^® cell test kits reduce fossil resources in the production process, thus taking another step forward on our path to reducing our environmental footprint.

In a verified life cycle analysis performed by our supplier comparing conventional EPS boxes and Ccycled™ EPS boxes, this change results in decreased CO₂ emissions by 36% per box. The reduction results from avoiding incineration of the plastic waste used. This change will save 70 metric tons of CO₂ equivalents annually.

Used Trademarks/References/footnotes:

• The Ccycled™ Logo, Styropor^®, Ccycled™, ChemCycling™ are trademarks of BASF
• REDcert² is a certification scheme that includes sustainability certification of biomass for material purposes in the chemical industry. Learn more at www.redcert.org.