Circular Economy and innovative recycling - performance drivers
The European Union has the ambitious goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2050. Achieving this goal necessitates the implementation of a Circular Economy. This is because recycling, repairing and reusing goods that have already been manufactured can significantly reduce the CO2 footprint of almost all industries.
Since 2019, we follow our vision to become fully circular. This begins in product development. Here, Covestro is driving the "Design for Recycling" concept, which takes recycling into account as early as the product development stage and facilitates a product's recyclability at the end of its life cycle. Innovative recycling plays a pivotal role in Covestro's circular strategy, driving the promotion of feedstock recovery and reuse.
Mr. Heinemann, recycling is a widely discussed topic at the moment. Covestro manufactures precursors for many different industries, which are then further processed. How does Covestro guarantee the feasibility of innovative recycling at the end of the value chain?
"Our products can be found in many places, whether we think of insulation solutions in the home, auto seating or mattresses. Currently, our recycling efforts are primarily concentrated on closing the loop for these applications. Besides mechanical recycling, we also employ chemical recycling methods. In concrete terms, this means that we bring mattresses, for example, back full-circle at the end of their life cycle through innovative recycling methods. This approach allows us to ultimately reclaim the chemical building blocks utilized in the mattress foam and repurpose them as feedstocks through recycling. And we can do this without compromising on quality. Another sector we're actively researching right now is polycarbonate recycling."
What are the challenges associated with such recycling methods?
"Take polycarbonate, for example, which was developed and brought to market decades ago. The chemical industry has done decades of research to enhance the products and make them sustainable. The development and scaling up of the recycling process for these materials understandably require a significant amount of time. This is accompanied by complex requirements for research and development. One of the things that helps us here is the digitalization of chemistry through advanced simulation methods. In other words, digital process simulations enable us to accelerate the development of processes that efficiently break plastics down into their constituent building blocks.”
What is Covestro doing at the feedstock level to bring alternative feedstocks directly into the production process?
"Instead of converting production for each product, we rely on solutions such as recycling to replace fossil feedstocks by returning the plastics. This approach helps safeguard natural resources and contributes to achieving climate neutrality. Another solution is the use of mass-balanced feedstocks. In this context, feedstocks from sustainable sources are used and integrated right from the outset of the production process. A mass-balanced product contains a proportion of feedstocks that come from sustainable sources, even if it is not composed exclusively of these feedstocks. At Covestro, we don't need to overhaul every aspect of production; instead, we can progressively enhance the sustainability of our production using this approach.”
Last but certainly not least: What is our current status with regard to the Circular Economy?
"That's a good question. In the political, social, and economic realms, we are all aligned and moving in the same direction, which is a positive development. Can we implement the Circular Economy overnight? Probably not, because the entire economy has adapted to linear processes for decades. That can't be transformed overnight. However: we have technology and digitalization on our side, expediting our transformation process. What became evident, also during our discussions with experts at Handelsblatt (top tier newspaper in Germany), is that the Circular Economy concept is not only gaining traction in society but is also viewed by the capital market as a pivotal driver for performance and investment. So we have a very good starting position, which we should continue to harness to drive forward our vision of the Circular Economy."
Handelsblatt invited our Head of Innovation and Sustainability, Torsten Heinemann, to explain how "Circular Economy - Innovative Recycling" works at Covestro. Click here to watch the livestream: In the Handelsblatt-Livestream: Success factor Circular Economy (German only)