Sustainability
Sustainable Impact
The polycarbonate industry is investing substantially in the transition to a more sustainable economy.
Major agreements and acquisitions as well as pilot projects demonstrate the feasibility of innovative ideas. The dynamics of the approach allow for healthy competition within the sector. Sustainability advantages become competitive advantages and, in this way, sustainability is completely integrated into business plans.
Polycarbonate is already on its path to circularity
Recycled polycarbonate is already successfully used in consumer electronics, which can contain up to 95% of recycled content.
This has been possible thanks to a coordinated value-chain effort which included:
- promoting and making recycled polycarbonate available in the market
- major brands’ demanding more circular materials
- and governments’ incentivizing this uptake.
Further circularity of polycarbonate can be achieved when mechanical recycling is complemented at scale with additional recycling technologies.
To reach this goal, different technologies such as dissolution and chemolysis have been adapted for polycarbonate and successfully applied in mini and pilot plants. Industrial-scale production could be achieved as early as 2025 for dissolution technologies. During production, polycarbonate with recycled content has favourable environmental impact, such as reduced CO2 emissions and less water and energy consumption.
Recycling
Recycling technologies for PC
