Flexible Packaging Made from Recycled Ocean Plastics

Scientex, a major producer of stretch film and flexible packaging based in Malaysia, worked with resin producer SABIC to develop material for what the partners say is the world’s first flexible food packaging based on advanced recycled ocean-based plastics (OBP), using SABIC’s certified circular polypropylene (PP). The material is used in a premium brand of noodles sold in Malaysia. 

OBP is plastics waste found up to 50 km (31 miles) inland from waterways that may eventually be washed into the ocean by rainfall, rivers or tides. 

The OBP used in the packaging is recovered and converted to pyrolysis oil in an advanced recycling process. SABIC uses the oil as an alternative feedstock to produce certified circular PP for further processing to biaxially oriented PP (BOPP) film. Scientex manufactures and prints the noodle packs from this film. The entire chain from management of collected OBP to packaging is accredited under the ISCC+ (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) program. 

With a mass balance content of 30 percent, the circular PP from SABIC reportedly performs the same way as fossil-based virgin PP and is a drop-in alternative for this packaging application. 

SABIC’s certified circular polymers is part of the Trucircle portfolio for circular solutions. The portfolio includes design for recyclability, mechanically recycled products, certified renewable polymers from biobased feedstock and closed-loop initiatives to recycle plastic into high-quality applications and help prevent valuable used plastics from becoming waste.  

“This initiative demonstrates the feasibility of tackling plastic waste through dedicated value chain collaborations and sets a milestone in shaping a circular plastics economy in Malaysia and Southeast Asia,” says Paul Ng Kok Leong, head of the BOPP Film Division at Scientex.