Braskem is the 40th participant to join Nextek's groundbreaking project NEXTLOOPP, to create food-grade recycled Polypropylene (FGrPP) from post-consumer packaging waste.

This award-winning project, which launched in October 2020, recently revealed outstanding results of its innovative tracer-based sorting trials. NEXTLOOPP uses a combination of cutting-edge technologies to first separate food-grade PP from the rest, and then decontaminate the polymer to ensure compliance with food-grade standards in the UK, EU and the USA.

Being able to identify and sort any number of pack variants from bleach bottles to milk bottles in any plastic type is a world-first that is poised to transform the way we recycle the prolific volume of single-use post-consumer food packaging waste back into circular applications.

Polypropylene (PP) accounts for around 20 percent of the world's plastic and is the biggest plastic fraction in the FMCG sector. In the UK alone, 210,000 tonnes of food-grade polypropylene (FGPP) packaging is used in pots, tubs, trays and films each year [1] , in the U.S. an estimated 827,000 tons of PP per annum is generated by single-family households [2] .

Yet, recent changes in the global recycling markets have challenged whether post-consumer PP packaging is considered widely recycled in conventional mechanical recycling systems. PP's "widely recycled" status was downgraded to "check locally" in the US in 2020. Since then, significant progress has been made to bolster PP recycling access through the actions of companies like Braskem, who are working with others to grow the US domestic PP recycling infrastructure and developing recycled products for the PP market.

By tapping into Nextek's technologies, NEXTLOOPP is now well underway to create a world-first; post-consumer food-grade recycled PP (FGrPP).

"We are very proud to join NEXTLOOPP given the urgent need to increase recycling rates and improve the quality of mechanically recycled PP, not only in Europe but globally. I'm confident that in cooperation with the other members, we will achieve the goal of closing the loop on food packaging", says Alberto Chiozzi, who was recently appointed to lead Braskem's efforts to further develop mechanical recycling in Europe.

Professor Edward Kosior, founder and CEO of Nextek Ltd and NEXTLOOPP says: "We are delighted to include Braskem amongst our dynamic body of participants, whose unique expertise is invaluable to our groundbreaking project. Braskem's strategic vision to support technology and innovation to achieve sustainable development and to make people's lives better by creating sustainable solutions dovetails with our mission to create a circular economy for food-grade PP packaging waste and help reach Net Zero Carbon targets."

About Nextek Ltd

Nextek is a global sustainability consultancy that offers strategic advice to regional and multi-national organisations and recycling companies. Launched in 2004, Nextek researches and develops innovative strategies and processes within the recycling ecosystem - from designing recycling plants to developing ground-breaking projects for governments and major organisations. Nextek launched NEXTLOOPP, a multi- participant project, to close the loop on food-grade rPP. This project incorporates unique technological breakthroughs that include innovative sorting and cutting-edge decontamination technology.

www.nextek.org

www.nextloopp.com

About Braskem

With a global vision of the future, oriented towards people and sustainability, Braskem is engaged in contributing to the value chain in order to strengthen the Circular Economy. Its 8,000 team members dedicate themselves every day to improving people's lives through sustainable solutions in chemicals and plastics. With its corporate DNA rooted in innovation, Braskem offers a comprehensive portfolio of plastic resins and chemical products for diverse industries, such as food packaging, construction, manufacturing, automotive, agribusiness, health and hygiene, and more. With 40 industrial units in Brazil, United States, Mexico and Germany, Braskem exports its products to clients in over 80 countries.

Maite Lazo Muñoz, Marketing & Communications Europe & Asia - Braskem Netherlands BV; maite.lazo@braskem.com

_{[1]WRAP 2018, Plastics Flow 2025: Plastics Packaging Flow Data Report' & WRAP 2012, Final Report - UK Market Composition Data of Polypropylene Packaging}

_{[2] https://recyclingpartnership.org/stateofcurbside}