Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) is poised to make plastics from waste fat and cooking oil for packaging food and medicines.
Mark Vester, a business-unit director at Sabic Europe, told Bloomberg that the company would expand from using naphtha and gas to serve European manufacturers looking for packaging from renewable sources.
The products will meet purity standards more reliably than materials made from recycled packaging, which might contain plastic not certified as safe for use with consumables, said Steven de Boer, head of innovation and sustainability.
Sabic is adapting plastic operations acquired in the past 12 years from Royal DSM NV, Huntsman Corp and General Electric Co to meet demand from consumer-goods producers looking to enhance their environmental credentials. A line making renewable polyolefins from waste fats will be set up alongside a naphtha-fed unit at Sabic’s plant in Geerlen, Netherlands.
“The market is growing at a substantial rate,” said Vester, who worked at DSM’s petrochemical unit before its sale to Sabic, and who integrated the Huntsman sites and assets into the Riyadh-based company’s European business.
While Europe is “one of the more advanced markets”, there is also “demand for this solution outside of Europe”, he told Bloomberg.