Meeting Your Corporate Circularity Commitments: Welcome to the Age of Advanced Recycling – Sustainable Brands

DowPublished 6 hours ago.About a 5 minute read.Image: Hans Braxmeier/PixabaySponsored Content/ This article is sponsored byDow.

We believe that the solution to stopping plastic waste is understanding that the material is too valuable to be lost in landfills. We can change what istraditionally considered waste and transform it into a valuable, sustainable resource through advanced recycling.

If you ask the average American what advanced recycling is, chances are theywont know the answer. Most peoples understanding of recycling stems from thatone lesson they had in elementary school the reduce, reuse, recycle refrain and thats it. This lack of understanding results in widespread, incorrect useof the service as people dont know what can be recycled and how to recycleit. In fact, a recentsurveyof 2,000 US consumers revealed that 62 percent of people felt a lack ofknowledge was causing them to recycle incorrectly.

For a non-technical brand leader, the ability to explain what your company isdoing to limit waste is critical to meeting mounting consumer expectationsaround sustainability. As the world watches for action on sustainabilityfollowingCOP26,companies should seize the opportunity to educate their customers and showcasethe steps they are taking to limit waste, increase circularity and use morerecycled content in products and packaging.

That ubiquitous elementary school lesson on recycling generally dealt withtraditional or mechanical recycling. Mechanical recycling for plastics involvessorting items by plastic type, washing them, grinding and melting them down, andre-granulating and compounding the material to replace virgin plastics in theproduction of new products such as yarn, fibers and building materials. Thisform of recycling is incredibly important and greatly reduces the environmentalfootprint of product manufacturing. That said, it can only be used for specifickinds of plastic, leaving many products at risk of being wasted and dumped intolandfills or the environment if it is not paired with other recycling processes.

Advanced recycling, which in many ways picks up where traditional recyclingleaves off, is a process that can be used for virtually all plastics. In a moretechnical sense, advanced recycling also called feedstock or chemicalrecycling works by breaking down plastic through pyrolysis-based heating (thermalheating in the absence of oxygen) into its original molecules to rebuild theminto new products. Advanced recycling can also capture hard-to-recycle plasticsthat dont work within the traditional, mechanical recycling streams such asplastic films and packaging and can be repeated over and over again for somematerials.

At Dow, we like to use an analogy to help people unfamiliarwith the process understand it:

Think about a Lego castle thats made up of all different colors, shapesand designs that you want to break down and rebuild into a new creation. If youwere to use traditional, mechanical recycling, you could only break down Legosof the same shape and color yellow, square Legos with yellow, square Legos, or#1 PET plastic with other #1 PET plastic products limiting your ability toreimagine, reuse or recreate. But if you used advanced recycling instead, youcould break down the castle and use any kind of Lego regardless of style,design or color and rebuild however you want.

With these advanced technologies, we can break down structures of multiple typesof plastics to their original molecules that can be reused many times overwithout traditional recyclings deterioration in quality, thereby decreasingwaste and environmental footprint of all kinds of products. Optimizing theexisting mechanical-recycling system alongside an expansion of advancedrecycling is key to achieving the goal of recycling, or recovering, 100 percent of used plastic packaging inthe US by 2040.

A common and understandable response to the global plastic wastecrisisis why dont we just stop making and using plastic? While there are someproducts that could be made using less plastic, in general people underestimatehow important plastic is and what a groundbreaking innovation it was for humanprogress. Plastic keeps food fresh for longer and medical equipment sterile, andreduces weight in transportation, saving fuel and reducing emissions.

At Dow, we believe that the solution to stopping plastic waste is understandingthat the material is too valuable to be lost in landfills. And the numbers backthis up: If recycled and repurposed through a circular economy, the value ofthese recycled plastics would top $100 billion per year. Yet, according to theWorld EconomicForum, 95percent of the value of plastic packaging material is lost to the economy due tolinear supply chains and continued reliance on traditional, mechanical-recyclingsystems. We can change what is traditionally considered waste and transform itinto a valuable, sustainable resource through advanced recycling.

Innovation takes time and investment. Thats why Dow and partners, such asMuraandFuenix,are investing heavily in scaling advanced-recycling infrastructure andtechnology. While advanced recycling is not yet widely available, as more brandsinvest in new products backed by advanced recycling such as EsteLauders announcement thatits Origins Clear Improvement tube will be 100 percentrecycled the more material science players such as Dow can get recycled materials tomarket.

Showing clear progress on sustainability goals is also central to appealing toconsumers: Recent BCGresearchshows that nearly 95 percent of people believe that their personal actions couldhelp reduce unsustainable waste, tackle climate change and protect wildlife andbiodiversity. The data is clear: For companies and brands trying to limit theirenvironmental footprint and meet their zero-waste commitments, investing inadvanced recycling is a safe bet.

As we close out a powerful year for sustainability commitments, brands shouldconsider how innovative technologies can scale plastic waste reduction whilestill providing consumers with the safe, sterile products they need and love.Watch for whats happening with advanced recycling on Dows Science andSustainabilitypage.

Published Nov 17, 2021 7am EST / 4am PST / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET

This article, produced in cooperation with the Sustainable Brands editorial team, has been paid for by one of our sponsors.

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Meeting Your Corporate Circularity Commitments: Welcome to the Age of Advanced Recycling - Sustainable Brands