Envisioning Plastics Circularity
According to a report produced by Deloitte for Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada disposed of nearly 4.7 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2016. Of these plastics, less than 9 per cent were recycled, meaning the rest was landfilled or lost to the environment.
In response to one of the most pressing environmental challenges – plastic waste, BASF launches pilot platform reciChain. The pilot project will involve:
reciChain Pilot Consortium Members
Click the link below to learn more about reciChain:
Revitalizing the Value of Plastics and Improving Circularity within the Supply Chain
A successful implementation of reciChain will enable:
For the pilot in British Columbia, BASF is working with Deloitte as a strategic advisor for the project.
BC Plastics Circular Economy
reciChain
The goal of the reciChain pilot was to prove that circularity, the action of maintaining a product’s value through the product’s lifecycle and into a new product, is feasible, cost effective and can be enabled through recycling. The reciChain project pushed innovative boundaries through its approach to circular economy, the physical marker, and blockchain. The pilot successfully proved the technical feasibility of a plastics circular economy by tracking the lifecycle of each product from pellet to pellet.
reciChain
The reciChain project began in 2019 at an ideathon in Brazil, when BASF together with its partners, designed a solution to fight waste certificate fraud in Sao Paulo.
reciChain Canada - Phase 1 (Jan – Mar 2020)
BASF then looked to expand the use case to Canada in order to test and prove the broader vision of circularity in a new market.
BASF engaged Deloitte to act as a strategic partner to provide project governance and work with the local stakeholders in the plastics value chain.
BASF also engaged Security Matters, as the core solution provider for both the physical marker technology and blockchain development.
reciChain Canada – Phase 2 (Mar – Nov 2020)
BASF, Deloitte, and Security Matters looked to pilot two plastic product loops to prove out feasibility and enable a circular plastics economy in Vancouver B.C.
The reciChain team defined the plastic value chain comprised of 8 key stakeholders, to form a consortium. This collaborative ecosystem would enable the team to develop product loops, in which two separate plastic product packages would be embedded with a physical marker.
The project culminated in a 3 week pilot whereby the consortium successfully proved that plastics circularity, and the ability to track and trace plastics through the value chain was feasible.
Physical Movement
We are excited to be early evaluators of the technology, and be at the forefront of development. The pilot has created interest across a number of our customer, in regards to our involvement and the technology.
Education and marketing to customers will be an important focus moving forward. You will need to explain to consumers and government what we are doing.
Physical to Digital Twin
This pilot has been a galvanizing force for our internal sustainability discussions and across different teams, the project has shown that something like this is possible. It is a proof-of-concept that this can work, and circularity is possible across multiple loops (loops 2-3 will have the best stories).
For proof-of-concept the pilot was a success. As we look to integrate into the current physical process and day-to-day use there are several key considerations to industrial scale.
Blockchain
The ability for the tracer to survive recycling, and possibility for auditability of product are key features.
For us, the traceability factor is very exciting. To be able to build a story around a private label program that can trace the amount of product that is being recycled in very valuable looking into the future.
The future vision for the reciChain Canada program
The program has set a long term vision that will enable plastics circularity through a self-sustaining ecosystem.
