Green Materials: Blue Polymers breaks ground on rPE/PP facility in US; Sabic launches low carbon methanol product

US-based materials firm Blue Polymers; recycler Republic Services; and the City of Buckeye in Arizona recently broke ground on Blue Polymers’ latest recycled plastics production facility, which will support sustainable packaging manufacturing throughout the Western US.

The facility will specialise in recycled polyethylene, commonly found in milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles, and polypropylene, used in consumer packaging, such as margarine tubs and yogurt cups. These plastics will be processed and formulated into high-quality, drop-in recycled plastic solutions for the packaging industry.

The 162,000-sq-ft facility is expected to create more than 60 highly skilled permanent jobs when it opens in Buckeye in the second half of 2025.

Phoenix-based Republic Services, a joint venture partner in Blue Polymers, is developing a network of regional polymer centre plastics recycling facilities, the first of their kind in North America. These produce colour-sorted recycled plastics directly from Republic’s national curbside collection operations.

Each Republic centre will be paired with a Blue Polymers facility; the Buckeye facility will process materials from Republic’s Las Vegas centre, which opened in late 2023.

Demand is rising for domestically sourced, high-quality recycled plastics from both voluntary sustainability commitments and state legislation. Many consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies are pledging to incorporate more recycled content into their packaging designs.

At the same time, five US states have implemented minimum recycled content requirements for single-use packaging.

Blue Polymers’ facilities aim to support true package-to-package circularity, with an annual production target of 300+ million pounds of recycled resins. The Buckeye facility joins the previously announced Indianapolis location as part of Blue Polymers’ network of four regional facilities.

In other news, chemical firm Sabic has announced the launch of its new certified low carbon product portfolio, with the first product in the portfolio being methanol from its Chemicals business.

The methanol product in the new portfolio contains a lower carbon content than a traditional portfolio, as a result of the raw material used for production: by-product CO2 is captured from upstream processes (carbon capture and utilisation - CCU), providing a valuable source of carbon needed to manufacture the methanol, while reducing usage of traditional feedstocks. As the captured CO2 is utilised as a raw material, the new product can enable Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) savings.

Certified low carbon methanol is being manufactured at Sabic’s joint ventures’ methanol production sites. It is typically used - for example – in maritime fuel, resins for laminate flooring and furniture panels and acrylic sheets. More certified low carbon products in Sabic’s global portfolios will be rolled out across the company’s worldwide asset base.

As an early adopter, Sabic worked together with independent third parties to drive the development of the new ISCC Carbon Footprint Certification (CFC) module and execute a pilot audit for the certification at its jv’s methanol production sites. The CFC module has been developed for the certification of product carbon footprints for various products and value chains. The model will make it possible to link sustainability certifications and mass balancing along complex value chains.

The firm says it is continually pursuing efforts and exploring solutions to meet carbon neutrality from operations under its control by 2050, taking into account different regional and national ambitions, commitments and initiatives.

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