SABIC’S TRUCIRCLE™ USED BY GAROFALO IN THE FIRST MONO-MATERIAL PASTA PACKAGING

SABIC, a global leader in the chemical industry, has announced the successful rollout of another project as part of its TRUCIRCLE™ program to accelerate the implementation of a circular plastic economy. Garofalo, a major Italian pasta manufacturer, has introduced a novel packaging made by GT Polifilm and Polivouga using SABIC’s certified circular polypropylene (PP). The sustainable material is derived from advanced recycling, and converted into a Biaxially Oriented PolyPropylene (BOPP) film for this application, which is the first pasta mono-PP packaging material in the market containing 30 percent of post-consumer recycled (PCR) content. Garofalo introduced the first pasta bags made from the new packaging to Italian stores in March 2023.

The PCR content in the bags is based on post-consumer used plastics, which is turned into pyrolysis oil in an advanced recycling process. At SABIC, the pyoil is used in the production of new polymers with the same specifications as virgin plastics from conventional feedstock. Polivouga, a vertically integrated Portuguese manufacturer of flexible films for packaging products uses a SABIC® PP 525PC grade from SABIC’s TRUCIRCLE portfolio of certified circular polymers to produce the basic BOPP film for the new pasta packaging solution. GT Polifilm, a specialist in the production of flexible polypropylene products for automated packaging in the food industry, adds a cast PP film to the BOPP film to create a monomaterial structure, which is then converted to tailor-made pasta bags. Once used, the mono-PP bags can easily be recycled again in existing PP waste streams.

Abdullah Al-Otaibi, General Manager, ETP & Market Solutions at SABIC says: “For such solutions to work in the long-term, the partners in the material value chain must closely collaborate. With our TRUCIRCLE program, we are pushing for innovative business models to transform our industry from a linear to a circular one and help prevent the valuable material of end-of-life plastic applications from being wasted. Within a year, this remarkable joint project has shown what can be achieved to make this vision come true if all players work together to maximize post-consumer plastic recycling and sustainability.”