TAGS: Sustainability and Bioplastics Creativity with Plastics
An Interview with Bert Havenith, Strategic Affairs and Sustainability Director at DSM Engineering Materials
DSM Engineering Materials’ has introduced the Simply Circular™ agenda to help shape a more circular future together for a range of industries – from automotive, electrics & electronics, consumer goods, packaging, sports & leisure, and beyond.
This agenda enables customers to:
- produce more sustainable products,
- close material loops, and
- fulfill circular and net-zero ambitions.
DSM Engineering Materials designs sustainable and low carbon footprint solutions – including recycled- and/or bio-based alternatives as well as using a mass-balanced approach. Along with these materials, they also develop digital tools and product development support to embrace circularity, by simplifying material selection and application.
We recently talked to Bert Havenith, Strategic Affairs and Sustainability Director at DSM Engineering Materials about how the Simply Circular™ agenda commits to offering more sustainable products in its existing portfolio by 2030 to enable circularity.
#1 – Please share briefly how DSM came up with the idea of Simply Circular™ and your ideology behind this agenda.
To help our customers rethink how they produce, look beyond society’s current ‘take, make, discard’ model, and drive circular economies,
DSM Engineering Materials initiated its Simply Circular™ agenda which focuses on three key pillars:
Sustainable sourcing: As we aim to minimize the use of fossil feedstocks, we are transitioning to recycled-based and/or bio-based sourcing solutions. These include both mechanically and chemically recycled feedstocks, as well as biomass (waste or virgin). In many cases, we use a mass-balance approach to trace the recycled- or
bio-based content back to its various sources and limit our consumption of fossil fuel-based resources.
Enabling circularity: To enable our customers to have a positive impact and design more sustainable solutions for their customers and end consumers, we are creating bio-based or recycled-based alternatives. These alternatives don’t force our customers to compromise on quality: they have the same performance characteristics as our conventional portfolio, do not require requalification, and are certified by third parties.
Simple solutions: To make embracing circularity as easy as possible, we are simplifying our customers’ experiences of processes such as material selection and application. Our simple solutions include our
Plastics Finder tool, application and product development support, certified transparency and traceability for our mass-balanced solutions via International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), full transparency on the carbon footprint of our materials supported by Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) calculations, and educational support from our sustainability experts.
We have already made several commitments to enabling circularity. Within DSM Engineering Materials, for instance, we have committed to offering bio- and recycled-based alternatives to our entire existing portfolio by 2030.
#2 – Could you share with us the approach you have followed to strategize incorporating Simply Circular™ in your polymer production?
Simply Circular Concept is based on offering Circular Solutions which can be used in a simple manner by the different brand owners.
DSM Engineering Materials offers the following Circular solutions:
- EcoPaXX® PA410 are biobased materials based on castor oil. They offer outstanding performance and provide the lowest carbon footprint of common polyamides for use in automotive, electronics, consumer goods, and water management.
- Bio-mass balanced (B-MB) based Akulon® (PA6) or Stanyl® (PA46) or Arnitel® (TPC)
- Akulon® RePurposed: To address the challenge of derelict and abandoned fishing nets, DSM Engineering Materials has pioneered an initiative where these nets are collected, sorted, and used to create a new polyamide. It is widely used by leading manufacturers of automotive parts, consumer goods, electrical devices for sustainable homes, and industrial equipment to create world-class products. In this way, it helps to tackle ocean waste, contribute to litter-free beaches, and drive jobs for local communities together. See the video to know more about Akulon® RePurposed:
- Akulon® CRC-MB – a chemically recycled, mass-balanced PA6 – enables our customers to create circular solutions with the same properties as those based on virgin materials. It is especially ideal for food packaging.
Note: Circular Solutions are those which are classified by ISCCplus as BIO or BIO-CRCULAR or TECHNICAL-CIRCULAR…
#3 – Please share with us the brands that DSM has developed since to enable circular transitions in the plastic value chain.
DSM Engineering Materials increasingly deliver on circularity. We have developed the following brands to enable circular transitions in the plastic value chain.
#4 – What are some success stories of your recycled materials making place in the market ranging from everyday products to high-end applications?
DSM Engineering Materials is already making a more sustainable, bio-based & circular economy a reality together with our customers and suppliers. This includes working with brands in the fields of electronics, automotive, consumer goods, water and food. Some exciting examples include:
-
Working with Bugaboo to create an industry-first portfolio of strollers made with bio-based materials. Thanks to strong cross-value-chain partnerships, DEM contributed to a carbon footprint reduction of up to 24% per stroller.
- Partnering with Samsung to create the first smartphone made with recycled ocean-bound fishing nets. DEM’s Akulon® RePurposed high-performance polymer helps to clean up the Indian Ocean by recycling discarded fishing nets while enabling a lower carbon footprint for the Samsung Galaxy S22 series of smartphones and Tab S8 series of tablets.
Samsung products made with Akulon® RePurposed recycled ocean plastic PA6 (Source: Samsung)
- Supporting our partner Schneider Electric in creating the first home electric solutions made from recycled ocean plastics. The market-leading Merten range of sockets and switches are made from recycled ocean material thanks to DEM’s Akulon® RePurposed high-performance polymer.
- Partnering with Ford Motor Company to incorporate Akulon® RePurposed recycled ocean plastic in the Ford Bronco Sport. Ford, HellermannTyton, and DSM earned an Innovation Award from the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) for the application, which was recognized as potentially the first of many automotive applications.
Wiring harness clip for Ford Bronco Sport made with Akulon® RePurposed recycled ocean plastic PA6
- We enabled the first gluten-free bread recycled packaging for Dr. Schär with our Akulon® CRC-MB – a chemically recycled, mass-balanced PA6.
#5 – Do you have any more recycled or bio-based polymer launches planned in the future aligned with the Simply Circular™ agenda? Would you like to share few words about it?
Yes, we are working on additional solutions. Also, like many in the industry today, I am fascinated by the development of pyrolysis oil as derived from advanced recycling of mixed plastic waste – another crucial piece of the sustainability puzzle. In the medium term, I also expect other chemical recycling methods to continue working their way up the agenda. With so many developments and innovations occurring, it is an exciting time to work in this field. Let’s hope we can report a new breakthrough within the next five to ten years!
#6 – From linear to circular – how do you anticipate the plastics industry moving towards this direction in the coming years?
Brand owners (downstream in our value chain) will be forced by legislation to increase the true-Circular recyclability of their applications, components and/or systems and/or to increase the recycled content in those systems (preferably by closed-loop circularity). Design-for-Recycling is then one of the first steps to consider for those brand owners.
BIO-BASED GRADES SUPPLIED BY DSM:
View a wide range of bio-based grades available in the market today, analyze technical data of each product, get technical assistance or request samples.
About Bert Havenith
Ir. H.G.J. (Bert) Havenith was born on June 13, 1963. He studied Physics at the Technical University in Eindhoven (Netherlands). In 1989, he started at DSM in Geleen (Netherlands) and since then Bert had various roles in various departments.
In 2019, he has been appointed as Strategic Affairs Director at DSM Engineering Materials with combined responsibilities in Strategic Intelligence, Market Intelligence, and Sustainability. Since the beginning of 2021, Bert is also taking care of the Intellectual Property Department at DSM Engineering Materials.