Saudi Arabian petrochemicals giant Sabic (Riyad; www.sabic.com) has named further companies manufacturing products from polyolefins that are part of its “Trucircle” line of polymers made from recycled feedstocks. To make what it calls the “circular” polymers, the supplier employs a process to recover materials from mixed and used plastics, including difficult-to-recycle post-consumer plastics. The waste is converted into an oil, which then enters the production chain just like fossil-based feedstocks, Sabic said (see Plasteurope.com of 17.10.2019).

The supplier said the introduction of Trucircle transparent polyethylene film bags for vegetable packaging began in October as part of a pilot project with German supermarket proprietor Schwarz Group, Europe’s largest retail store operator, and parent of retail chains Lidl and Kaufland as well as waste disposal service provider PreZero. The bags will be available at select Kaufland and Lidl shops, and materials under review include LDPE, LLDPE, HDPE and metallocene PE, Sabic noted.

Dietmar Böhm, managing director of GreenCycle (Neckarsulm / Germany; www.greencycle.de), Schwarz Group’s waste-management company, said the retailer’s strategy is to make all Lidl and Kaufland brands' plastic packaging as recyclable as possible by 2025, reducing overall plastic consumption by 20%.

Sabic said it is also entering the upscale cosmetics market by supplying its material for a PE-PP, tube-cap combo for an Estée Lauder skin product. French packaging producer Albéa (Gennevilliers; www.albea-group.com) is to manufacture the combo, scheduled for introduction in 2021, which will contain a liquid facial mask.

German coffee-production and beverages group Melitta (Minden; www.melitta.info) has selected Sabic’s “Qrystal” PP copolymer, part of the Trucircle line, for capsules designed for the company’s “Avoury” tea machines. Transparency and aesthetics were said to play roles in the decision to use the material along with environmental concerns.

Sabic recently also announced a collaboration with German machine maker Brückner (Siegsdorf; www.brueckner.com) to encourage flexible-packaging manufacturers to use Trucircle PP and PE to create more sustainable products. The two companies said they recently created a platform to produce biaxially oriented polypropylene films.

Additionally, the materials supplier is working with Denmark’s Fibertex Personal Care (Aalborg; www.fibertexpersonalcare.com) to develop what is said to be hygiene industry’s first nonwovens range based on recycled plastics. Fibertex makes spunbound nonwovens for sanitary products.