Braskem has become the first Brazilian company to receive ISCC Plus International Sustainability and Carbon Certification the use of alternative raw materials, such as feedstock made from post-use plastics, at the company's industrial units located in southern Brazil.

"In practice, this certification by an international organization means we're getting closer to expanding the sales of resins and chemical products made from more sustainable raw material with the same characteristics as the ones produced nowadays with fossil materials. The circular raw materials we intend to use are produced from hard-to-recycle plastics, such as flexible packaging made with different types of materials.," explained Luiz Alberto Falcon, head of Braskem's Recycling platform.

With this new step, ISCC Plus will apply to all Braskem industrial units in the petrochemical complex in the ABC region of Greater São Paulo and in Triunfo Petrochemical Complex in Rio Grande do Sul. At these units, the company will move forward with additional advanced recycling and renewables feedstock trials in 2021.

The new development complements the recently announced cooperation agreement signed by Braskem, Fábrica Carioca de Catalisadores (FCC S.A.), SENAI CETIQT and COPPE/UFRJ to carry out the next phases of the tests . The research team formed by these institutions will invest around R$2.7 million in financial and human resources to develop new catalysts to optimize the pyrolysis process, making advanced recycling more economically feasible at industrial scale.

Braskem has also recently announced two new initiatives in the United States to expand the use of recycled plastics as inputs and increase the circularity of polypropylene (PP). First, Braskem America announced its intent to develop a circular feedstock agreement for polypropylene with Encina , a leading provider of solutions to produce renewable chemicals. Braskem America also recently announced the initiation of a feasibility study for an advanced recycling project in the United States to examine an efficient and sustainable route for producing circular polypropylene (PP) from mixed plastic waste.

All these initiatives are aligned with Braskem's feedstock diversification strategy and its macro goals of expanding the circular economy concept in the plastic chain and becoming a carbon-neutral company by 2050 . One of the company's commitments is to expand the I'm green^TM portfolio to include 1 million tons of thermoplastic resins and chemical products made from recycled content by 2030.