Jokey, Henkel and Akpol combine on closed-loop recyclate buckets in Poland

28 Jan 2022 --- Jokey is partnering with Henkel Adhesives Technologies and Akpol, a Polish specialist in plastics recycling, to advance the circular economy in the plastics industry and the construction sector and further solidify environmental sustainability throughout the value chain.

The three companies have been active in a pilot project with fully recyclable packaging since 2021. The project explores the possibilities of closed-loops, where raw materials are kept in strictly closed cycles.

To ensure this, Henkel as brand owner, Jokey as a specialist in environmentally sustainable packaging solutions, and Akpol as an expert in plastics recycling work closely together.

Henkel fills construction products for the Polish market in recyclate buckets from Jokey, for which Akpol supplies the raw materials recovered through recycling.

Customized collection system
The recyclate comes from a customized collection system. In this process, used Jokey buckets are specifically collected from construction sites and delivered to Akpol for recycling.

The company recovers high-quality post-consumer recyclate from the buckets through mechanical recycling and supplies it back to Jokey to produce new recyclate buckets.

After the test phase, the project will be analyzed and expanded if the closed-loop is successful.

Coming full circle
The project is significant in several ways since Jokey launched the first buckets made from post-consumer recyclates back in 1991 – for its customer Henkel.

“Today, on the other hand, they are seen [the buckets] as a clear statement in favor of the circular economy,” notes Lukas Heller, key account manager at Jokey.

“This is precisely what our successful ‘Gray is the New Green’ campaign is aimed at. We are therefore pleased this renewed collaboration closes the circle in two respects: on the one hand, with regard to our early joint [environmental] sustainability ambitions, and on the other hand, with regard to plastics cycles.”

Henkel and Akpol’s perspective
Henkel also sees environmentally sustainable packaging solutions as an important pillar. “Henkel is intensively committed to driving the circular economy across all industries, including in our construction business,” says Adrian Orbea, corporate director for global marketing, digitalization and sustainability for the Construction Business at Henkel.

“We invest and collaborate to develop energy-efficient solutions as well as [environmentally] sustainable building materials, focusing on the three key areas of CO2 reduction, safe housing and circular economy.”

“As part of our commitment to this last pillar, we are now launching new [environmentally] sustainable packaging that is fully recyclable and maximizing the amount of recycled content in the packaging.”

Meanwhile, Rafal Topolski, sales manager for regranulates at Akpol, adds: “We recycle the used buckets we receive and produce pure post-consumer recyclates from polypropylene for the production of new recyclate buckets. So all three of us can help close the loop.”

Last year, rigid packaging specialist Jokey, Spanish multinational Repsol and Spanish organic dairy company Cantero de Letur partnered on a circular cheese packaging initiative.

Edited by Joshua Poole

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