UBQ Materials has found ways to grow its business globally while its home country remains at war.
NPE2024 was "a major success" for UBQ, according to Chairman and co-CEO Albert Douer. The firm presented more than 35 products made with UBQ at its booth, including a cocktail table with 75 percent UBQ content. Douer said that product represented the highest load of UBQ in any product to date.
Also at NPE, material firm Teknor Apex Co. highlighted its partnership with UBQ. The two firms have worked together since 2022 and are launching product development leveraging UBQ's sustainable product portfolio.
In the U.S., UBQ has expanded its team and has opened an office in Miami. The firm also is exploring sites for a production facility in the U.S.
"We have moved full steam ahead as a company and are growing rapidly," Douer said of UBQ's many initiatives.
UBQ has partnered with leading brands, including Mercedes-Benz, PepsiCo, and McDonald's, who have already integrated UBQ material into durable and semi-durable products such as car parts, footwear, pallets, display stands, panels and planters.
Earlier this year, Tel Aviv-based UBQ opened an industrial-scale production facility in Bergen Op Zoom, the Netherlands. In an email to Plastics News, Douer said the site's production capacity enables the firm to convert almost 230 million pounds of regional waste into almost 180 million pounds of UBQ material annually.
Douer declined to comment on the political situation in Israel. Two UBQ officials — assistant controller Hadar Rosenfeld-Berdicheskey and maintenance and engineering manager Uri Russo — were among the more than 1,000 people killed in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. UBQ's Israeli facility reopened three weeks after the attack, Douer said.
In addition to its Tel Aviv headquarters, UBQ operates a production site in Tse'elim. Production of UBQ material uses unsorted municipal solid waste as its primary feedstock, diverting it from landfills and reducing emissions.
The company also uses the name UBQ for its material.
In January, UBQ debuted its diversified sustainable product portfolio, which includes three material additives and replacements and two material modifiers/enhancers. UBQ also has signed distribution deals with Plastribution for the United Kingdom and Ireland and with Plastcom for the Scandinavian region.
Also this year, UBQ launched its first consumer marketing campaign to educate consumers on the firm's sustainable material and to empower them to ask more from their favorite brands. Douer said the campaign's educational video has had more than 2 million views on social media.