Chemical recycling company Nexus Circular and Braskem, the leading polyolefins producer in the Americas, have signed a 10-year definitive commercial agreement for the supply of circular feedstocks.
The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding signed in July 2022 between the two companies.“This long-term commercial contract builds upon the strong foundation of our growing relationship,” said Nexus CEO Jodie Morgan.
Under the present agreement, a new chemical recycling facility will be built with an initial capacity to convert over 30,000 metric tons annually of used plastic into new materials. The aim is to expand this capacity in the short term to over 120,000 metric tons a year.
Braskem will have exclusive rights to the production output from the new facility, which will be used for the production of Braskem’s certified circular PP resins.
In January 2022, Braskem made a strategic investment in Atlanta-based Nexus Circular. Nexus Circular uses proprietary technology to convert landfill-bound films and other hard-to-recycle plastics into high-quality materials used to produce virgin-quality sustainable plastics. Since 2018, Nexus has been supplying consistent, on-spec commercial volumes of ISCC Plus certified circular products.
The contracted volumes of advanced recycled circular products from Nexus will support Braskem’s strategic objective to sell 300,000 tonnes of products with recycled content by 2025 and 1 million tonnes by 2030.
"The partnership with Nexus supports our corporate initiative to develop a carbon-neutral circular economy for plastics while supporting our clients’ goals for plastics with recycled content," said Braskem America’s CEO Mark Nikolich.
This project will enable Braskem America to expand its existing sustainable PP and PE portfolio. This currently consists of 9 post-consumer recycled products, including two PCR PP grades that can be used in a wide range of U.S. Food and Drug Administration food contact applications where PP is used today. Braskem’s full range of PCR solutions can be used in a variety of PP and PE applications, including but not limited to consumer packaging, caps and closures, durable goods, automotive, and consumer housewares.