Borealis and TOMRA have today announced the operational start of their advanced mechanical recycling demo plant in Lahnstein, Germany, the result of a partnership that marries chemistry with technology for unsurpassed results.
“This plant embodies the principles of the EverMinds™ platform founded by Borealis, which seeks to innovate plastics circularity through collaboration,” says Lucrèce Foufopoulos, Borealis Executive Vice President Polyolefins, Innovation & Technology and Circular Economy Solutions. “Offering brand owners and converters top quality recycled material, suitable for use in highly demanding applications is Borealis’ latest contribution to a more circular economy of plastics. Life demands progress, and through collaboration we re-invent for more sustainable living.”
The state-of-the-art plant processes both rigid and flexible plastic waste from households. And unlike many current recycling plants, it will produce the advanced solutions necessary for use in high-demanding plastic applications in various industries, including automotive and consumer products. With high purity, low odour, high product consistency and light colour fractions, these Borcycle™ M grade recycled polymers will meet customer quality requirements across the value chain.
The purpose of this demo plant is to generate material for brand owners and converters to qualify, validate and prove fit for use in their highly demanding applications. Technical success will set the groundwork for a commercial-scale advanced recycling plant.
“This plant is just the beginning of what’s possible when key players in the value chain come together to make a truly significant impact in the market,” says Volker Rehrmann, Executive Vice President and Head of Circular Economy at TOMRA. “Having just launched the new Circular Economy Division, it is clear what a large role waste management and pivotal projects like this have on moving towards a sustainable future. We are proud to have initiated one of the most advanced mechanical recycling plants when it comes to post-consumer polymer waste. This will become an important enabler as we accelerate the transformation to a circular economy in the years to come, and we are excited to be a part of this pioneering project.”
Operation of the plant is a joint enterprise between Borealis, TOMRA and Zimmermann. Borealis is responsible for the plant’s commercial success and contributes its expertise and knowledge in innovation, recycling and compounding. Likewise, TOMRA contributes as a provider of technology-led solutions and brings its proven expertise, established process and market knowledge, which, in turn, enable the circular economy through advanced collection and sorting systems. Zimmermann is a waste management company with experience in sorting multiple types of waste, including plastics, and is responsible for successful plant operations and product quality.
“At P&G we are making packaging with the ‘next life’ in mind to help drive a more robust circular economy. We must increase the supply of high quality recycled plastic to enable the industry to deliver on this vision,” says Gian De Belder, Procter & Gamble (P&G) Technical Director, R&D Packaging Sustainability. “The innovative new approach that Borealis is taking shows potential to step-change both the quantity and quality of PCR available for our brands, and help us to achieve our 2030 goal to reduce our use of virgin plastic in packaging by 50%, or 300 kilotonnes annually. Early tests of the material looks very promising!”
“One major challenge towards more circular packaging is the availability of high-quality recycled plastics that can be used in the packaging of our brands,” comments Thorsten Leopold, Director International Packaging Technology Home Care at Henkel. “We are, therefore, very excited that this project brings together three proven experts along the value chain with the ambition to lift mechanical recycling to a new level.”
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Media contact:
| Borealis Group: | TOMRA: |
| Virginia Mesicek Senior Manager External Communications tel.: +43 1 22 400 772 e-Mail: Virginia.Mesicek@borealisgroup.com | Mithu Mohren SVP, Marketing & Communications, Circular Economy tel.: +49 2630 9150 450; Mob: +49 171 47 88335 e-mail: Mithu.Mohren@tomra.com |
About Borealis:
Borealis is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced and circular polyolefin solutions and a European market leader in base chemicals, fertilizers and the mechanical recycling of plastics. We leverage our polymers expertise and decades of experience to offer value adding, innovative and circular material solutions for key industries. In re-inventing for more sustainable living, we build on our commitment to safety, our people and excellence as we accelerate the transformation to a circular economy and expand our geographical footprint.
With head offices in Vienna, Austria, Borealis employs 6,900 employees and operates in over 120 countries. In 2019, Borealis generated EUR 8.1 billion in sales revenue and a net profit of EUR 872 million. OMV, the Austria-based international oil and gas company, owns 75% of Borealis, while the remaining 25% is owned by a holding company of the Abu-Dhabi based Mubadala. We supply services and products to customers around the globe through Borealis and two important joint ventures: Borouge (with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or ADNOC, based in UAE); and Baystar™ (with Total, based in the US).
About Borealis EverMinds™:
Launched in 2018, EverMinds is an umbrella brand uniting the wide range of Borealis activities and initiatives aimed at making plastics more circular. As a dedicated platform, EverMinds promotes a circular mind-set among all Borealis stakeholders. The platform encompasses proprietary Borealis technologies as well as established brands such as Purpolen™ and Dipolen™. It facilitates deeper collaboration between Borealis and its partners in order to develop innovative and sustainable polyolefins solutions based on the circular model of recycling, re-use and design for circularity. EverMinds also extends to pioneering corporate programmes such as Project STOP, and engagement in industry initiatives like the Polyolefins Circular Economy Platform (PCEP), and Project CEFLEX.
About TOMRA:
TOMRA was founded on an innovation in 1972 that began with the design, manufacturing and sale of reverse vending machines (RVMs) for automated collection of used beverage containers. Today TOMRA provides technology-led solutions that enable a sustainable future with advanced collection and sorting systems that optimize resource recovery and minimize waste in the food, recycling and, mining industries. With the addition of a circular economy division in 2020, TOMRA is committed to playing a significant role in building and enabling a global circular economy framework. TOMRA has more than ~100,000 installations in over 80 markets worldwide and had total revenues of ~ 9.3 billion NOK in 2019. The Group employs ~4,500 globally and is publicly listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE: TOM). For further information about TOMRA, please see www.tomra.com
Further information:
www.borealisgroup.com
www.borealiseverminds.com
www.tomra.com
Borcycle, EverMinds, Purpolen and Dipolen are trademarks of Borealis AG.
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