Scientex Group develops flexible food packaging with ocean-bound recycled plastic

SABIC, headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has collaborated with the packaging company Scientex, headquartered in Malaysia, to develop material for what they say is the world’s first flexible food packaging based on advanced recycled ocean-bound plastics, or OBP, using SABIC certified circular polypropylene (PP). The material is being used in a premium brand of noodle packaging sold in Malaysia.

OBP is defined as plastic waste found in areas up to 50 kilometers inland from waterways that could eventually be carried into the ocean by rainfall, rivers or tides.

The OBP used in the project is recovered and converted to pyrolysis oil in an chemical recycling process. SABIC uses this oil as an alternative feedstock to produce certified circular PP polymer for further processing to biaxially oriented polypropylene, or BOPP, film.

Scientex then manufactures and prints the noodle packs from this film.

The entire chain from the management of the collected OBP to the final packaging is accredited through International Sustainability & Carbon Certification, the company says.

“We are proud to offer our customers circular solutions to reduce plastic waste that could otherwise end up in our rivers and oceans,” says Abdullah Al Otaibi, general manager, Engineering Thermoplastic & Market Solutions Business Unit for Petrochemicals at SABIC. “This flexible food packaging containing OBP connects with our Trucircle program of circular solutions designed to help protect our planet.”

“Thanks to this highly efficient collaboration with SABIC, we are able to bring the world’s first advance recycled flexible PP food packaging to the Asian market, using circular OBP,” Paul Ng Kok Leong, head of BOPP Film Division, Scientex Group, says. “This successful initiative demonstrates the feasibility of tackling the plastic waste issue through dedicated value chain collaborations and sets a milestone in shaping a circular plastics economy in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia.”

With a mass balance accounted for OBP content of 30 percent, the certified circular PP from SABIC performs the same way as traditional virgin PP and can be used as a direct drop-in alternative in this flexible food packaging application, SABIC says.

SABIC’s certified circular polymers form part of the company’s Trucircle portfolio and services for circular solutions. The offering also includes design for recyclability, mechanically recycled products, certified renewable polymers from bio-based feedstock and closed-loop initiatives to recycle plastic back into high-quality applications and help prevent valuable used plastics from becoming waste.