Sustainability Focus Areas

Introduction

The unique properties of plastics have been a key factor in their global success. Their malleability and versatility enable the production of products which make daily life safer, more efficient, sustainable and convenient. These properties mean that as the global population grows, demand for plastics is increasing.

Within the linear economy model, plastic products are made, used and disposed of. Continuing with this model will lead to more plastic waste and environmental pollution, while putting pressure on the planet’s limited resources. The solution is to further transition to a circular economy, where plastics are reused, recycled and made from renewable feedstock. A circular economy decouples economic growth from resource constraints, while reducing the leakage of waste into the environment, and in particular the oceans, and to landfill. The circular economy will also reduce global warming: greenhouse gas emissions can, for example, be lowered by 30% by substituting recyclates for virgin feedstock.

The potential for polyolefins to help mitigate global warming is widely known. However, in recent decades the entire plastics value chain, from producers to governmental bodies, has paid too little attention to the after-life of plastic materials, with the inefficient waste management of plastics leading amongst others things to unacceptable marine littering. The entire plastics industry therefore needs to transition towards a more circular model to future-proof the industry’s existence.

The creation of a truly circular economy has wider implications. It will provide economic benefits to society by reducing the significant financial burden of ineffective waste management systems and pollution management, and will create new business opportunities and employment at various stages of the value chain. A circular economy will also result in better living and working conditions and in general in a cleaner environment.

A circular economy, in which waste and pollution do not exist by design, also offers much promise for achieving numerous UN Sustainable Development Goals, including those relating to economic growth, sustainable consumption and production, climate change and the oceans.

Strategy

Borealis’ circular economy strategy is based on three pillars:

• making its core business circular, by gradually shifting from a model based on fossil resources to one based on the circulation of materials, which entails making recycling and renewable feedstock part of the core Borealis business;
• supporting customers by leveraging Borealis’ expertise in developing and implementing novel polyolefins-based solutions for plastics reuse and recycling, and by designing for recyclability; and
• helping to establish circular infrastructure in Southeast Asia, where the rates of ocean plastic leakage are the highest in the world, through Project STOP.