Chemistry may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of sustainability, but it has a big role to play, particularly in a circular economy. We caught up with Christoph Jäkel, BASF’s Head of Sustainability Strategy, to learn more about how BASF is working to improve our everyday lives.
Chemical recycling and bioplastics have gained a lot of attention, lately.
Perhaps it’s related to society’s growing awareness of our plastic waste
problem; or perhaps it’s simply a desire to make things that are less toxic and
can be recycled. Chemistry may not be the first thing that comes to mind when
one thinks of sustainability, but it’s relevant for everything from plastic bags
to tennis shoes and has a big role to play, particularly in a circular economy.
Christoph Jäkel took the reigns as
BASF’s Head of Sustainability
Strategy this summer, after holding other strategy roles within the company for
many years. We caught up with him to learn more about how BASF is working to
improve our everyday lives.
As a leading global company focused on chemicals that enter a huge number of the products we use every day, what does BASF see as its role in contributing to sustainability?
Christoph Jäkel: It is our company purpose to create chemistry for a
sustainable future; and our position in the value chains of various industries
enables us to develop countless sustainable solutions, together with our
partners and customers. Based on the sustainability assessment of our 60,000
solutions,
we are shifting our portfolio towards solutions which make a positive
sustainability contribution in the value chain. We call them Accelerators,
because they help to speed up the transition towards a more sustainable economy;
and we have set ourselves the target to achieve €22bn — or more than US$24bn —
in sales with our Accelerator solutions in 2025. Moreover, we are pushing for
more circular solutions, to decouple growth from the use of finite resources. We
are currently working with many partners in the value chain on new circular
business models.
As companies move towards a circular economy, one of the major questions has been how to handle our use of plastics. How does BASF see itself responding to this issue with its own products and role in the market?
CJ: Many of the industries we serve – e.g. mobility, construction, electric
devices or footwear – have made sustainability and recycling commitments, and we
help them achieve their targets. Besides fulfilling aesthetic, performance,
quality and efficiency requirements, our plastics solutions become increasingly
recyclable or are based on sustainable feedstock. Take footwear, for example: We
have contributed to the development of adidas’ new FUTURECRAFT
Loop
shoe with material expertise and recycling technology. The shoe is completely
recyclable because it is made 100 percent of TPU — thermoplastic polyurethane.
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For several years, we have been using biomass-based raw material in our
integrated production. This enables us to offer our customers certified
biomass-balanced products to which the amount of renewable feedstock is
allocated. Similarly, we are piloting the use of recycled feedstock derived from
plastic waste. We have already produced the first certified chemically recycled
materials, and customers have used these in pilot projects to manufacture
prototypes — e.g. for automotive parts, food packaging or circuit breakers.
BASF has launched a ChemCycling program. What considerations are necessary when it comes to chemical recycling? What kinds of products is BASF able to make most easily using recycled chemicals?
CJ: Chemical recycling is complementary to mechanical recycling, which is
already well established. However, mechanical recycling requires well-sorted
waste streams. Chemical recycling can deal with mixed and impure plastic waste
streams. This kind of plastic waste is transformed back into an oil through
thermochemical processes by partners. This oil can then in turn be fed into our
integrated production. We can manufacture basically all kinds of products with
this recycled feedstock because it partially replaces feedstock from fossil
resources at the very beginning of the chemical production chain. The share of
recycled material is allocated to the end product through a third-party-audited
mass balance approach. The whole project is very complex due to regulatory
requirements, technical challenges and economic considerations. But we are
convinced that it can contribute significantly to a circular economy solution
for plastic waste, once we will have achieved market readiness.
What are some applications for BASF bioplastics that you think are particularly outstanding and relevant to sustainability?
CJ: The main areas for our certified compostable and biobased biopolymer
ecovio® are organic waste bags or fruit and vegetable bags. ecovio can also
be used to manufacture certified compostable coffee capsules — a product which
was awarded with the Pierre Potier Prize by the French Chemical Industry
Association in France in 2017. I would also like to mention the advantageous
use as agricultural mulch film. Rather than being labor-intensively removed and
recycled, mulch films made of ecovio can be ploughed into the soil after
mechanical harvest. Bacteria and fungi in the soil take the carbon from the
polymer both to generate energy and to form biomass. The remaining end products
after biodegradation are CO2, water and biomass.
As BASF’s new VP for sustainability, what unique passions do you personally bring to the role that may shape the future of BASF’s sustainability strategy?
CJ: I have a passion for people, strategy and sustainability. All three come
together perfectly in my job. It’s great to work in a global company that has
sustainability deeply embedded in its purpose, strategy and decision-making
processes. Facing the global challenges around us, we have to push even harder
to live up to our purpose every day.
Published Dec 5, 2019 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET
Sustainable Brands Staff
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/ This article is sponsored by
BASF.
This article, produced in cooperation with the Sustainable Brands editorial team, has been paid for by one of our sponsors.
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