MONTAJE 1
CELOOPS®-Boxen verfügen über identische Eigenschaften wie Boxen aus herkömmlichem EPS Foro: Knauf Industries CELOOPS® boxes with identical properties as boxes from conventional EPS Photo: Knauf Industries
Sea products supplier Pescafácil, specialized in seafood, has started using fish boxes made of Knauf Industries’ CELOOPS® material, which is produced using expandable polystyrene (EPS) granules Styropor® Ccycled® from BASF. In the manufacturing process of Ccycled® materials, fossil feedstocks are replaced by pyrolysis oil at the very beginning of the BASF value chain. This pyrolysis oil is obtained from post-consumer plastic waste through chemical recycling and attributed to the EPS via the mass balance approach [1]. By this, the three companies contribute strongly to the circularity of plastics.
CELOOPS® quality for food contact
EPS packaging is widely used for food transportation, especially for fish boxes, due to its excellent isothermal properties which ensure securing of the cold chain. In addition, EPS offers high protection against shocks and excellent stacking stabilities while being very lightweight at the same time. Furthermore, packaging made from EPS is 100% recyclable.
With the goal of sustaining the performance properties of EPS, while contributing to the circularity of plastics, Knauf Industries developed CELOOPS® together with BASF. “CELOOPS® offers the same high standards of hygiene and food contact quality, but also conserves fossil resources and contributes to the circular economy”, explains Víctor Borrás, COO at Knauf Industries Spain. “This makes CELOOPS® a great and more sustainable alternative to conventional EPS.”
Securing the cold chain of fish and seafood transport at Pescafácil
Pescafácil is now using CELOOPS® boxes from Knauf Industries to transport its products. “Food quality and safety are our top priority, and securing the cold chain is vital to guarantee both", says Mara Prieto, responsible of driving this change in the Purchasing Department of auxiliary materials, and also member of the Sustainability Committee at Pescafácil. "That's why we trust in the new CELOOPS® fish boxes produced by Knauf Industries with Ccycled® material. In addition to the well-known EPS properties like excellent temperature control and impact resistance, this demonstrates our commitment to the circular economy".
Styropor® Ccycled® from BASF as sustainable raw material
CELOOPS® from Knauf Industries uses Styropor® Ccycled® from BASF. In the production of Styropor® Ccycled®, fossil feedstocks are replaced at the very beginning of the petrochemical value chain by pyrolysis oil produced by chemical recycling. “We are committed to continuously developing our products further with a special focus on their ecological profile. And it is of highest importance to us to support our customers in optimizing the sustainability profile of their products”, says Jesús Ocaña Corral, Product Management EPS at BASF. “We are convinced that technologies such as chemical recycling are essential to meet the recycled content quotas set by legislation such as the Plastic Packaging Waste Regulation, or PPWR for short.” The fact that the PPWR is technologically neutral in its definition for high-quality recycling reinforces BASF´s commitment to this technology. Furthermore, other legislation at the national level, such as the plastic tax in Spain, explicitly accepts chemical recycling.
At the end of their life, the new fish boxes made from CELOOPS® are – as all CELOOPS® products – 100% recyclable and can be recycled through existing EPS recycling technologies or Knauf Circular.
[1] More information can be found on: https://plastics-rubber.basf.com/global/en/plastics-hub/chemcycling
Further information at www.basf.com