By Plasteurope.com staff

Compounder and plastics wholesaler WIS Kunststoffe (Breitungen, Germany; www.wiskunststoffe.de) has announced the expansion of its product portfolio to include plastic recyclates from Tide Ocean (Langnau, Switzerland; www.tide.earth). This is the first time that the company is selling “ocean-bound plastic”, i.e. plastic recyclate from a base material that is sourced from waste collection in coastal regions, said Daniel Römhild, member of the WIS management team. In an interview with Plasteurope.com, he said that he expects they will be able to sell several thousand tonnes of Tide Ocean PP, HDPE, and PET recyclates each year.

Above all, the trend towards sustainability speaks in favour of the material, said Römhild. A life-cycle analysis of the PET recyclate has shown that the material is almost 80% more sustainable than first-use material. For PP from coastal areas, the reduced carbon footprint is still half that of first-use PP. The sales cooperation between WIS and Tide Ocean covers Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Römhild sees areas of application for the Tide material in the packaging and toy sectors. 

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Since 2019, Tide Ocean has been collecting and processing plastics waste from coastal areas, primarily in Southeast Asia. The company said it has now launched over 100 products onto the market that are made from “ocean-bound plastic”. Customers include European injection moulding and yarn producers as well as brands such as Ricola, Fossil, UBS, Condor, and Lufthansa, according to Tide CEO Thomas Schori.

— Translated by Elspeth Lenhard