Dow’s first recycling collaboration in the Asia Pacific is in line with its sustainability targets to Stop the Waste
HDPE bottles at sorting facility in Luhai. (Credit: Dow)
Dow has collaborated with an integrated waste management company Luhai to increase the circularity of plastics in China.
Via the strategic partnership, Dow will provide its materials science and application development to produce new circular plastic solutions for the Asia Pacific market by using plastic waste collected by Luhai.
Luhai president Jennifer Jiang said: “As a pioneer in the waste recycling sector in China for twenty years, we are committed to turning plastic wastes into high-value products and enabling the waste management value chain to give plastics a second life, thus accelerating the development of China’s “Zero Waste” city.”
The deal is said to be in line with Dow’s new sustainability targets to Stop the Waste, and allows to collect, reuse or recycle one million tonnes of plastic via its direct initiatives and partnerships by 2030.
Luhai’s waste management operation is involved in the collection and recycling of different post-consumer plastics from the waste collected in China. The company has expertise in the recycling of beverage cartons.
At present, the company is gathering plastic waste from local communities in Xiamen city in Fujian province and intends to expand its operations to other cities across the country.
The collaboration enables Dow to provide recycled plastics for different packaging applications
Dow stated that the partnership with Luhai will help show the value of recycled plastics by placing them in different packaging applications, as well as enhance the collection and recycling of post-consumer plastics in the local communities.
Dow’s packaging and specialty plastics Asia Pacific commercial vice president Bambang Candra said: “Plastic waste is one of the most important environmental concerns in Asia, however we can solve this important issue as waste plastic is a valuable resource that can be transformed into new products. We are aggressively tackling the issue by joining efforts with partners to create new applications and value-add to this important material.”
In June this year, Dow introduced new post-consumer recycled (PCR) resins to better meet the increasing demand for recycled plastics from the brand owners.
Dow’s packaging and specialty plastics business unit serves customers in food packaging, personal hygiene, infrastructure, consumer goods and transportation sectors.