MOSCOW (MRC) -- LyondellBasell has announced the company has obtained the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS certification for certain grades of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) produced at four of its US manufacturing sites, as per the company's press release.
ISCC PLUS certification is a globally-recognized system for providing traceability of recycled and renewable-based materials across the supply chain.
ISCC PLUS certification enables LyondellBasell to extend its Circulen suite of products to customers in North America and offer mass balance certificates for these products. The company will begin North American Circulen production with its CirculenRevive products, which are polymers produced from plastic waste through an advanced recycling process1, initially using feedstock provided by third parties. LyondellBasell expects to gradually ramp up production to meet growing demand over the coming years.
"The ISCC PLUS certification of four of our North American sites will help us bring more sustainable solutions to our customers," said Ken Lane, LyondellBasell Executive Vice President of Global Olefins and Polyolefins. "By delivering these new CirculenRevive products, we are proving plastics have value beyond their initial use, in any application that virgin plastic is used. The ISCC PLUS certification helps us to accelerate our progress as an industry leader in the production and marketing of recycled and renewable-based polymers."
LyondellBasell secured the certification for its crackers in Channelview, Texas and its polymer sites in Lake Charles, Louisiana; La Porte, Texas; and Clinton, Iowa. The company plans to broaden the ISCC PLUS certification to its other North American polymer plants.
The ISCC PLUS certification is part of the company's multi-pronged approach to help advance the circular economy. In addition, LyondellBasell continues to develop its own proprietary advanced (molecular) recycling technology to enable a more efficient chemical conversion process and use less energy than other technologies.
As MRC reported earlier, LyondellBasell said in early August it was restarting the polymers and olefins units at its La Porte, Texas, facility following an acetic acid leak on 27 July, 2021, that killed two people. Both units are located in other parts of the La Porte site.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
LyondellBasell is one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world. Driven by its 13,000 employees around the globe, LyondellBasell produces materials and products that are key to advancing solutions to modern challenges like enhancing food safety through lightweight and flexible packaging, protecting the purity of water supplies through stronger and more versatile pipes, and improving the safety, comfort and fuel efficiency of many of the cars and trucks on the road. LyondellBasell sells products into approximately 100 countries and is the world's largest licensor of polyolefin technologies.
MRC