Henkel produces 100 percent chemically recycled detergent bottles as ChemCycling project gathers pace

25 Oct 2019 --- In collaboration with packaging manufacturer Alpla, Henkel has produced bottles using 100 percent chemically recycled plastic for the first time. Part of the ChemCycling project led by chemical producer BASF, Henkel will use the bottles as a pilot project for its Perwoll detergents. Through chemical recycling, mixed plastic waste that was previously impossible to recycle can be effectively reprocessed and reused.

Dr. Thorsten Leopold, Head of International Packaging Development Home Care for Henkel, tells PackagingInsights that Henkel regards chemical recycling as a complementary technology to mechanical recycling.

“Whenever possible, mechanical recycling should be used. The technology, however, has certain limitations: It will not be possible to recycle all plastic waste – particularly mixed plastic waste – in a high-quality standard via mechanical recycling. Here, chemical recycling could play an important role to enable a circular economy.”

“This project is an important additional step towards creating a circular economy for plastic – on this basis we are evaluating further opportunities for integrating chemically recycled plastic in our product packaging,” Leopold says.Dr. Thorsten Leopold, Head of International Packaging Development Home Care for Henkel

The pilot project with Henkel’s Perwoll bottle has shown that products made using chemically recycled raw materials boast the same high-quality and performance as products made of fossil materials, Leopold explains.

With ChemCycling, the proportion of recycled material that goes into the production process is assigned to the end product by the Mass Balance method. This can help our customers achieve their sustainability goals,” said Anja Winkler, BASF Head of Global Key Account Management Henkel Home & Personal Care.

“Through chemical recycling, the resource plastic can be durably retained within the material cycle – the carbon it contains can thereby be reused. This is how chemical recycling could complement established technologies like mechanical recycling. The quality of the materials tested has convinced us,” adds Nicolas Lehner, Chief Commercial Officer for Alpla.

Chemical recycling as a useful complement
Mechanical recycling involves crushing, cleaning and reprocessing separated plastic waste back into granulate form. The challenge inherent to this method is that the quality of the resulting recycled product can only be as good as that of the “input material.” Impure plastic, as well as color and a mix of materials,  can negatively impact the quality of the recycled product and make the recycling process more difficult. Also, plastic cannot be reprocessed endlessly through mechanical recycling. Chemical recycling allows plastic waste that can’t be recycled mechanically to be reintroduced into the material cycle.

ChemCycling uses thermochemical processes to transform plastic waste into pyrolysis oil. This secondary raw material then serves as feedstock for the chemical industry to produce plastic for various purposes, such as packaging. The packaging produced using these chemically recycled materials is of the same quality as packaging made of new plastic. This allows fossil resources to be saved and waste to be reduced.

ChemCycling project gathers pace
As the ChemCycling project continues to expand, BASF announced this month that it will invest €20 million (US$22 million) in Quantafuel, a specialist for the pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste and the purification of pyrolysis oil. The partners aim to further develop Quantafuel’s technology for chemical recycling, consisting of an integrated process of pyrolysis and purification, towards optimizing the output for the use as feedstock in chemical production.

During FachPack 2019 in September, Mondi launched a pilot project in collaboration with BASF and COROOS, a company specializing in the preservation of fruits, vegetables and pulses. The first result of the collaboration is a stand-up pouch that is safe for food contact and partly made with raw material derived from chemically recycled plastic.\

In July, Südpack, Zott, BASF and Borealis teamed up to develop a prototype Zott Gourmet Dairy flexible pack made from 100 percent recycled plastic. In this collaboration, BASF supplies chemically recycled polyamide, while Borealis provides sustainably produced polyethylene. Südpack, one of Europe’s leading producers of film packaging for food products, has used these materials to produce a multilayer film prototype for Zott Gourmet Dairy.

Henkel’s commitment to a circular plastic value chain
The collaboration with BASF and Alpla on the ChemCycling project represents another example of Henkel’s commitment to sustainable packaging. The company has already reached various milestones in the implementation of its packaging strategy: many product packages today are made of 100 percent recycled plastic. When integrating recycled plastic in its packaging, Henkel uses 99 percent of recycled plastic from consumer households (post-consumer recycled material).

Also, Henkel’s packaging experts are working on improving its packaging’s recyclability: for instance, they developed “the first” recyclable black packaging and introduced perforated sleeves that can easily be removed when disposing of the bottle. Most recently, Henkel made its software tool for evaluating the recyclability of packaging (EasyD4R) – which was developed in-house – available to other companies for free.

To drive progress towards a circular economy, Henkel is also partnering with various players across its value chain: among others, the company is a member of the German Rezyklat-Forum, the global Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) and the New Plastics Economy (NPEC).

By Joshua Poole