From mattress to insulating material: putting the circular economy into practice
Give a new lease of life to the foam filling from old mattresses, for example as insulation material. Ultimately, this is the main aim of a unique pilot project that began at Recticel in Wetteren in March 2018. The ground-breaking recycling technology has been developed in recent years as part of a cross-sector innovation project […]
INEOS Oxide and bECO2: 10 years of carbon capture and reuse, and 1 million tons of avoided CO2
By intelligently reusing carbon dioxide through industrial cooperation, the chemical company INEOS Oxide of Zwijndrecht, Messer Benelux and IJsfabriek Strombeek have avoided 1 million tons of CO2 over the past ten years. The CO2 released when producing ethylene oxide, has been captured at INEOS Oxide since 2010 and purified for use in many ways, such […]
Deceuninck leads the way in mechanical recycling of PVC window profiles
Deceuninck Group opened a new recycling plant in Diksmuide in February 2019, increasing its PVC recycling capacity to 45,000 tonnes per annum. The material to be recycled comes from collecting post-industrial waste (their own production waste and offcuts from their customers) and first-generation PVC windows which are now 30 to 40 years old and will […]
Driving sustainability across the cleaning and hygiene industry
Since 2005, the detergent industry has been developing an extensive sustainability programme for companies and cleaning products: the Charter for Sustainable Cleaning. This charter contains obligations and objectives that must be achieved by signatory companies in terms of sustainable development. It also includes company standards (relating to production, logistics, energy, etc.) and product standards (related […]
DETIC is committed by 2025 to the use of at least 20% of recycled plastics in detergent packaging
Plastics offer many benefits and are essential today, but their recycling potential needs to be improved further. In 2018, the European Commission published a strategy for the use of plastics in a circular economy. A strategy to which the detergents industry adheres very closely. In January 2019, the sector launched a voluntary initiative on plastic packaging that […]
How ANL Plastics is engaging in ecodesign and enhanced recycled content in plastic packaging
ANL Plastics is a thermoforming company that primarily produces packaging for the food industry. Created in 1938 it is located at Wellen. The focus of ANL Plastics is on the conscious use of the materials throughout the entire chain. Circular initiatives at ANL Plastics focus on two aspects mainly: enhancing the recycled content and working […]
Open innovation to accelerate recycling of mixed plastic waste: MATTER project
Four companies and 6 research groups from two universities collaborate to ramp up polymer recycling in the Catalisti MATTER project. Started in May 2018 the two year project brings together academic researchers and technological business experts to analyse socio-economic aspects related to plastic recycling options. The focus is on mixed, post-consumer plastic waste streams (the […]
Kaneka: a revolutionary packaging to counter the “plastic soup”
After more than two years of research, the Japanese chemical group Kaneka’s Belgian site has developed a completely new organic packaging material which can not only be recycled by composting but, of course, is also biodegradable. This innovation is the fruit of a marriage between their two main areas of expertise: fermentation and macromolecular technology. […]
INEOS Styrolution and Indaver working together to make polystyrene circular
Current mechanical recycling of plastics cannot deal with all plastic waste and thus additional technologies are needed to make plastic circular. One of the most promising ones is chemical recycling, also called feedstock recycling because plastic waste is ‘deconstructed’ into building blocks, monomers or other chemicals, that can ‘feed’ back to the beginning of the chemical value chains thus serving as alternatives to currently used feedstock. A specific […]
UCB engaged in diminishing waste
UCB’s management has set the ambitious goal to develop and produce medicines for people with severe diseases in the most environmentally sustainable way possible. Inspired by the Paris agreement, UCB decided to accelerate the implementation of its Environmental Strategy (also called Green Strategy) by setting the ambitious, absolute target to reach a waste reduction by […]