Austria-headquartered raw materials producer Borealis has joined the KGD, the Finnish environment ministry’s Circular Economy Green Deal, as one of the first companies to do so.
The KGD is a voluntary commitment in which the participating organizations aim to reduce their use of natural resources and set effective goals that promote a low-carbon circular economy — goals that "align well with Borealis’ sustainability goals and the company’s EverMinds ambition of accelerating action on circularity," according to Jaakko Tuomainen, SPIRIT development program manager at Borealis. As the manager of the SPIRIT — Sustainable Plastics Industry Transformation’ -— development program at Borealis, alaunched in 2022 by Borealis Finland with funding from Business Finland, finding ways to replace conventional fossil fuel-based feedstocks with renewably sourced ones are among the themes within his scope.
Borealis’ Porvoo site manufactures polyethylene and polypropylene plastics, which are widely used across society and are easily recyclable. Borealis aims to replace plastics made from virgin raw materials with those made from recycled plastics, while maintaining their material properties. As its first KGD commitment, Borealis plans to use 30 kilotons of Finnish plastic waste as a raw material by 2035.
“The Green Deal outlines a long-term vision for Finland’s progress towards greater sustainability, with the circular economy creating new opportunities for the country. For companies like Borealis, having a long-term vision is essential when developing new business and making investment decisions,” said Tuomainen.
“As a producer of plastic raw materials, Borealis aims to develop plastics recycling to enable the production of high-quality recycled plastics from waste-based raw materials sourced from partners. Finnish plastic waste should be recycled in Finland,” he added.
Borealis belongs to an energy-intensive class of industry and works to continuously improve its energy efficiency to lessen the environmental and climate impact of its operations and to remain competitive. Borealis Finland supports the Energy Efficiency First principle; as its second KGD commitment, the company aims to improve its energy efficiency by 360 GWh by 2035 (based on a 2022 baseline).