This week, three plastics and material science giants — Dow,
LyondellBasell and NOVA Chemicals — established the Closed Loop
Circular Plastics
Fund to
invest in scalable recycling technologies, equipment upgrades and infrastructure
solutions across the US and Canada. The Fund, managed by Closed Loop
Partners, and with an initial $25 million investment, invites businesses
across the plastics value chain to join in advancing the recovery and recycling
of plastics in the US and Canada. The goal of the catalytic fund is to
grow to deploy $100 million — through a combination of the Fund's investors,
additional corporate investors and financial institutions — to attract
additional capital beyond the Fund's own commitments. At scale, the Fund’s
investments aim to recycle over 500 million pounds of plastic over its lifespan.
The Fund will continue Closed Loop Partners’ work to bring US and Canadian
recycling infrastructure and processes into the 21st century by investing in
three strategic areas — to increase the amount of recycled plastic available to
meet the growing demand for high-quality, recycled content in products and
packaging:
-
Access – Increasing the collection of targeted polyethylene (PE) and
polypropylene (PP) plastics by advancing current and next-generation
material collection systems
-
Upgrading and optimizing recycling systems
-
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Manufacturing – Investing in facilities and equipment that manufacture
finished products, packaging or related goods using recycled content
With their extensive supply chain networks and markets, Dow, LyondellBasell and
NOVA Chemicals are collectively well-positioned to help advance the transition
to a new, more circular system for
plastics.
“The plastic resin manufacturers that create value for their shareholders now
and in the future will be the ones that ensure that 100 percent of their
products are safely recycled or reused, and never discarded in a landfill or
elsewhere in our ecosystem. We look forward to investing in sustainable
infrastructure and innovations that enable and encourage other companies,
including investors in the Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund, to deploy
significantly more of their own capital to further scale these critical
solutions,” says Ron Gonen, Founder & CEO of Closed Loop Partners.
“Alongside championing scalable reusable packaging
models
and innovative new
materials,
growing recycling and circular economy infrastructure in the US and Canada plays
a critical role in eliminating plastic waste and reducing the need for the
costly extraction of raw materials.”
“Addressing the challenge of plastic waste in the environment requires
collective action on multiple fronts,” says LyondellBasell CEO Bob Patel.
“In addition to our company’s efforts, further enhancements to recycling
infrastructure are critical to capturing the value of used plastics and
advancing the circular economy. We believe successful joint investment can
transform the challenges of plastic waste into sustainable business
opportunities.”
Read more about the Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund
here
…
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published May 28, 2021 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST