Altium Packaging, one of the nation's largest plastic packaging manufacturers, has announced that its Allentown, PA facility has been awarded the ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) PLUS certification.
The ISCC PLUS certification allows Altium to replace a portion or 100% of the virgin resin with a certified circular polymer to produce products offering the same material performance as virgin. With this certification, Altium will be able to bring in-demand certified circular products to market and offer customers circular material options on a mass balance basis to meet their sustainability goals.
As the wider societal conversation about plastics continues to evolve, the material’s climate impact has been much discussed, both in terms of harmful environmental impacts from production and also in regards to the energy and emissions benefits that can come from plastic use. The Remade-funded study focused on PET, HDPE, LDPE/LLDPE and PP in the US. It found that the full life cycles of those polymers accounted for about 100.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per year, which amounts to 1.5% of total US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Virgin resin has been shown to produce 58% of the 100.6 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions.
ISCC certification is a globally recognized standard for the sustainable production of biofuels, biomaterials, and other sustainable products. It verifies that the raw materials used in the production of these products are sustainably sourced and that the production process meets strict environmental and social criteria.
Other companies that have recently received ISCC certification include Phillips 66 for its Sweeny refinery in Texas. The company shared that they will process oil made from waste plastics into feedstocks for new plastics. Phillips has said they are committed to keeping plastics out of the environment, hoping to push forward a more circular mindset where plastics are reused, recycled, or recovered.
L’Oréal Group’s North Asia Zone also recently became the first of the company’s zones worldwide to achieve carbon neutrality across all operated sites, plants, distribution centers, offices, and research & innovation centers spanning five geographic markets of Mainland China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
