Sabic announced its recent collaboration with Brückner Maschinenbau, a leader in film manufacturing technologies. This innovation combines Sabic’s certified circular BOPP and BOPE materials with Brückner’s manufacturing technology for flexible packaging. The collaboration aims to encourage flexible packaging manufacturers to use Sabic’s TRUCIRCLE solutions for certified circular polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) to create more sustainable products.

The certified circular products from the TRUCIRCLE portfolio are made from feedstock recycling of difficult to recycle post-consumer used plastics. Its certified circular BOPP polymer uses recycled material without compromising on quality; meaning the performance of the film including the stiffness toughness balance, barrier properties and hot fill requirements are met, whilst meeting the food compliance standards, high product purity and safety requirements. According to the press release, this most recent combination of Brückner and Sabic’s technological innovations has resulted in the creation of a unique platform to produce specialised BOPP (biaxially-oriented polypropylene) films that can be used for various flexible applications such as labels, tape and food packaging such as confectionary, snacks, baked good, dried fruits, pasta and fresh food packaging.

As the world-leading biax-film machine manufacturer, Brückner tested Sabic’s certified circular BOPP material in their technology centre as a drop-in solution for biax-film applications. Trials demonstrated once again that BOPP films made from Sabic’s certified circular polypropylene is fully in line with industry’s need for more sustainability-focused solutions without any compromises on quality. The material’s processability and stretchability performance was shown to be on a parr with the best performing reference materials.

“Flexible packaging converters are expanding their range of applications and offer a polypropylene which incorporates recycled content as a drop-in solution and viable alternative to existing biax-film lines, offering added sustainability benefits without affecting quality. This is a huge step forward in our journey towards closing the loop across the plastics value chain and working together to create a circular economy,” said Dr. Stefan Seibel, Head of New Technologies, Brückner Maschinenbau.

“With Brückner’s machinery and processing expertise, convertors can take full advantage of our innovative TRUCIRCLE solutions and integrate it into their flexible packaging. Sabic and Brückner are working together to find further solutions to improve the recyclability of packaging films and enable manufacturers to create more sustainable products which will help to drive forward the circularity of our industry,” said Mark Vester, Circular Economy Leader at Sabic.

The two companies have previously collaborated to create more sustainable materials for the packaging industry. In 2019, they worked together to successfully introduce BOPE films into the market.