SABIC offers recycled material from ocean-bound PET

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has announced that it is launching a new recycled material made from ocean-bound plastics that has been recovered from ocean-feeding waterways and inland areas within a 50-kilometer radius of the ocean. According to a news release from SABIC, the ocean-bound material is mechanically recycled and converted into components for new consumer goods and electronics, such as TV remote controls and electronic razors, with the potential to be used in other industries, such as automotive.

Part of SABIC’s Trucircle portfolio, the new recycled material is a SABIC Xenoy polycarbonate (PC) / polyethylene terephthalate (PET) compound comprising a minimum 10 percent recycled ocean-bound PET blended with PC.

According to an internal SABIC study based on a resin grade comprising 20 percent recycled content, for every kiloton of product containing the ocean-bound recycled Xenoy PC/PET compound, an equivalent of 24 million single-use 0.5-liter PET water bottles can potentially be diverted away from oceans. The company says this new material, part of its engineering thermoplastics (ETP) product range, offers reductions in carbon footprint of up to 7 percent and energy consumption of up to 11 percent compared with its virgin grade. The company says the material has “good impact strength, processability and chemical resistance.”

“Our new recycled ocean-bound material can help to tackle the problem directly as part of our commitment to minimize plastics waste ending up as waste,” says Sergi Monros, vice president of performance polymers and industry solutions for petrochemicals at SABIC. “By creating more sustainable materials and forging new collaborations, we hope to help reshape our industry and our entire value chain, while at the same time playing a leading role to help provide guidance for necessary regulation and governance.

“We are proud that we managed to design material based on recycled ocean-bound PET in such a way that it meets high performance requirements of our customers, in combination with very good processability,” Monros adds.

The new material is part of SABIC’s Trucircle portfolio, which offers circular innovations and sustainable materials.