Sustainability and Waste Reduction Drive Winners
Gold Winners: Innovation and Sustainability or Innovation and Cost/Waste Reduction
Agribusiness Virtuous Cycle: Full Cycle Recycling System Transforms Plastic Bottles Waste for High-Value Plastic Products
Greif / Cimplast Embalagens and Cimflex—Brazil
The Virtuous Cycle is a complete cycle approach that enables used multilayer agrochemical bottles to be diverted from landfills and remade into high-value products. Typically, most post-consumer multilayer recycled materials are used to make low-value products. The help of a polymer compatibilizer, DuPont™ Fusabond®, makes it possible to reuse this mixed material waste stream for products such as rigid or flexible corrugated pipes and automotive lubricant bottles. Through this process, more than 150,000 tons of agrochemical empty plastic bottles have been collected from the field since 2002, saving an estimated 374,000 barrels of crude oil and more than 160,000 tons of CO2 equivalents that were not belched into the atmosphere.
- Places:
- USA
- WILMINGTON