Circular Economy
We intend to reduce the concern consumers have about the impact of PET bottles in the environment, and will achieve this by building collaborative systems to increase the global recycling rate of polyester and investing in recycling capacities. As the largest virgin PET resin producer, we want to compliment this position by becoming the global leader in the recycling of PET bottles and packaging. We will supply our customers PET with their desired levels of recycled content, and in the process will save energy and water and reduce emissions that contribute to global climate change.
The Secrets to Unlocking the Next Frontier for a Circular Economy in the Asia-Pacific Region
(The source of this information is available at https://repository.unescap.org/handle/20.500.12870/7491)
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Circular Feedstock
Bio-based feedstock: 16% against IVL external feedstock
Recycled feedstock (Post-consumer PET bale input): 23% against IVL PET feedstock by 2030
2023 Progress
Bio-based feedstock: 1.32% against our external feedstock
Recycled feedstock (Post-consumer PET bale input): 5.11% against our PET feedstock
Circular Economy Achievement
Products are designed to be light weight, achieve high performance in the use phase, and include more sustainable and recycled materials which can be easily managed at their end of life.
PLA Filament Yarns
Trevira not only offers PLA staple fibers, but also PLA filament yarns. Some examples of products made from this sustainable material are knitted massage gloves by the Italian firm MDD di Maddaleno Massimiliano; an interior lining fabric that protects against the sun, by Spanish company Vertisol.
Biopolymers PLA Pillow
The filling for the pillow consists of 95% biopolymer PLA made from sustainable raw materials offer a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based fibers, in addition to being recyclable and 100% biodegradable with industrial composting.
Upcycle Textiles: Solid Textile Board / Acoustic Textile Felt
Solid Textile Board and Acoustic Textile Felt by Really are high-quality engineered materials made from end-of-life cotton and wool that is sourced from fashion and textile industries. These are thermally bonded with binder fibers supplied by IVL and generates only recyclable waste. The mechanical properties of the solid textile board allow it to be used as a substitute for wood and composites in furniture and architecture.
DEJATM Brand – 100% Recycled PET
DEJATM is the new global, sustainable performance brand for 100% rPET from Indorama Ventures. An ingredient brand, DEJATM is available across 100% rPET IVL recycled flake, pellet, fiber and filament. These products are derived by recycling 140 kilo tonne of plastic bottles yearly and transforming them into extra-ordinary, innovative, product ingredients. Moreover, it widely uses in various applications such as automotive, home & apparel, packaging and fiber.
Biodegradable Insulating Material
This productive collaboration between Trevira and AEROPOWDER resulted in the creation of a completely biodegradable insulating material. A start-up based in London launched a new sustainable product called
Pluumo – a biodegradable, innovative packaging material that harnesses the power of feathers, which have naturally insulating properties.
CiCLO BIODEGRADABLE TEXTILE TECHNOLOGY
CiCLO is a textile technology that promotes the biodegradation of synthetic fibers, thereby reducing synthetic microfiber pollution in the event that the products are discarded into the ocean, landfills and wastewater.
Operations that aim to reduce GHG emissions by using alternative raw materials and renewable energy as well as minimize resources consumption.
Operational Performance in 2023
- 16 Onsite / Offsite solar installations in China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Lithuania, USA, Italy and Egypt
- 324,256 tons recycling of post-consumer PET bale input
- Water intensity = 5.21% / ton of production
- Water reused / recycled = 6.96%
Improving Logistics Management / GHG Scope 3 Accounting
Improving Logistics Management / GHG Scope 3 Accounting
- Improving upstream and downstream transportation and distribution
- Shifting from road to rail transportation
- Moving to direct shipments by avoiding intermediary transshipments
Case Study
Ethylene Exchange Solution
Indorama Ventures (Oxide & Glycols) LLC, or IVOG, is IVL’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Clear Lake (Houston), Texas, producing Ethylene Oxide and Ethylene Glycols (EOEG). IVL is also establishing an olefins production site, Indorama Ventures Olefins LLC, or IVOL, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the neighboring state. The two companies are located 275 miles apart.
To ensure delivery of ethylene to IVOG, which it purchases as raw material, IVOL decide to enter into a 10-year co-producer ethylene exchange, whereby Indorama has the option to provide up to 100% of IVOL’s 420 KT annual ethylene production to a co-producer, for redelivery to mutually agreed upon destinations between the parties. This agreement benefits both IVOL and the coproducer who has excess capacity in Texas and is short of ethylene capacity in Louisiana, and also reduces pipeline transportation expenses for both parties. Moreover, it is ensured that IVOG’s Clear Lake EOEG plant can be adequately supplied in the event of any operating issues at any single cracker without a disruption in supply to IVOG.
Advocating for Changes in Laws and Regulations by providing and promoting waste management and demand for rPET.
Effort to Impel the Use of Recycled PET in Food Packaging
Thai Beverage Industry Association (TBA) with the support of The Coca-Cola system in Thailand, Suntory PepsiCo Beverage (Thailand) Company Limited and Nestlé (Thai) Ltd. Companies in partnership with IVL have announced their collaboration to further encourage regulation amendment that will allow the use of recycled PET in food and beverage packaging in Thailand.
Explore morePromoting Demand for rPET
IVL signs agreement with beauty leader and Food & Beverages Brands to supply Sustainable PET Packaging for a multi-year.
- Supply PET resin made of 100% recycled materials for L’OREAL packaging needs
- L’OCCITANE will meet its 100% recycled bottles goal ahead of schedule
Partnership with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)
In partnership with the BMA’s Education Department, we conducted a sustainable plastic waste management program, training 437 BMA school directors. As of 2022, we have educated 2,445 students at 19 schools across the Bangkok metropolitan region, with a goal to further engage a total of 100 schools in 2023.
Explore moreWaste Hero Education: Reduce to Zero
In partnership with Yunus Thailand, IVL introduced “Waste Hero Education: Reduce to Zero,” a global resource for teachers with 19 well-crafted lesson plans focused on Recycling Fundamentals, Creating Zero Waste, and Building the Circular Economy. Developed by educators and experts from 17 countries and tested internationally, the materials are tailored for students from kindergarten to university levels. We are also collaborating with regional partners to disseminate the materials through global educator and teacher networks.
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Collaborating with Stakeholders to build Recycling Education Awareness (suppliers / partners / customers / general public / students / teachers / private sector)
IVL encourages recycling and waste separation among children, communities, and consumers through our recycling education programs, which aim to increase their awareness and involvement in protecting the environment for a better future. In 2021, our training programs were arranged in several organizations.
Explore moreTo raise awareness on the value of recycling PET, IVL has cooperated with several partners to collect Post-Consumer PET Bottles and send back to our recycling factory.
GEPP: The IVL Foundation has signed a memorandum of understanding with GEPP on the collection of waste for sustainable recycling, bringing used PET bottles back to an appropriate recycling process, based on the circular economy concept.
Coca-Cola Thailand: IVL collaborated in the “Coke Kor Keun x Central Group Journey to Zero” project, entering an agreement to support the establishment of a waste management system at Central Group department stores. Beverage bottles and other recyclable materials will be sent to partnering companies to be recycled correctly.
Kasetsart University: IVL joined with Kasetsart University by signing a memorandum of understanding in creating awareness of recyclable waste collection among university staff, students and the public as well as initiating proper waste management. The collaboration includes developing learning materials regarding waste separation and plastic waste recycling, creating a mechanism entrapping waste in a watercourse to avoid it leaking into the sea, as well as creating awareness of waste separation.
Bangchak Corporation: IVL and Bangchak Corporation PCL have signed a memorandum of understanding to join the ‘Rak Pan Sook’ Project, a sustainability project supporting the recycling of used PET bottles. Donation points for PET bottles have been set up at over 100 Bangchak fuel stations around Bangkok and the Metropolitan area. They collected PET bottles from their fuel station and sent 600,000 bottles to our recycling plant.
HSBC Thailand: IVL has collaborated with HSBC Thailand to arrange the “Separate PET Bottles to Help Doctors” project, which aims to transform collected post-consumer PET bottles into much-needed PPE suits for medical personnel. Under the project, HSBC has gathered more than 200 kilograms of post-consumer bottles to make 650 recycled PPE suits to be used when treating low-to-medium risk patients.
Indorama Ventures received the “International Textile Manufacturing Federation” or ITMF Award in 2022 in recognition of progress in the area of international collaboration in the textile industry through the project “ReHubs - Initiatives for fiber-to-fiber recycling in Europe” in accordance with the values of the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Indorama Ventures participates in the project “Transform Textile Waste into Feedstock” which was developed by TEXAID, with the goal to establish scalable sorting facilities across Europe, the first one with a capacity of 50,000 tons by end of 2024. This will lead to reach a circular textiles economy in Europe by closing a technology gap to ensure high quality feedstock from non-wearable pre-and-post consumer textile waste to be sorted commercially at scale.
Recycling is the Heart of A Sustainable and Future Global Economy
In 2011, our post-consumer PET bale input were recycled 5,418 tons, but by 2023, it had grown exponentially to about 324,256 tons. During this period, we recycled around 109 billion bottles. This worked out to 2.2 million tons of plastic waste not going to landfill, which would cover 3.2 million tons carbon footprint reduction.
IVL adopts various technologies to develop the PET recycling system. In 2022, IVL established three more recycling facilities in Poland, the Philippines, and France, scaling up to 20 recycling facilities worldwide, with a total of 342,961 tons of post-consumer PET bale input recycled
Carbios in partnership with IVL, to build a Bio-recycled PET manufacturing plant in France
Carbios, a French bio-tech company, and Indorama Ventures have teamed up to construct the first industrial-scale enzymatic PET bio-recycling plant in France. This plant will leverage Carbios’ PET bio-recycling technology and will have the capacity to process 50,000 tons of PET waste per year, equivalent to 2 billion PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET trays. Expected to begin operations by 2025,the plant will also generate 150 job opportunities. Additionally, IVL may explore opportunities to employ Carbios’ unique biological recycling process at other PET facilities in the future.
Explore moreWe are working with several industry partners and organizations, which have a joint commitment to improve plastic waste management, which lead to a circular economy for sustainable plastics.
The New Plastics Economy: IVL is proud to announce its commitment as part of the New Plastics Economy to eliminate problematic plastic packaging, and increase the use of recycled plastic in packaging. The commitment calls on companies and governments to innovate solutions enabling plastic to be 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
Global Plastic Action Partnership: IVL announced that it has joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP), which aims to reduce plastic leakage into the environment and is driving the transition to a circular economy for plastics. This partnership is aligned with Indorama Ventures 2019 commitment to increase recycled content volumes of PET by at least 750,000 tonnes, pledging US$ 1.5 billion towards achieving this target by 2025.
The Recycling Partnership: IVL announced that it has joined the Recycling Partnership, the only organization in the United States that engages the full recycling supply chain. IVL’s collaboration with The Recycling Partnership will promote the U.S. residential recycling rates and increase availability of recycled PET to meet the global recycled content commitments.
We strongly support the global efforts underway to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our recycling efforts are particularly focused on addressing the following SDGs:
Indorama Ventures becomes the first company in Thailand to produce high standard recycled PET fibers to manufacture Level 3 reusable isolated gown PPE suits for medical personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic, working in collaboration with Less Plastic Thailand, Thai Taffeta, T-Plus, TOA Paint and GoWith20. The PPE suits are made from PET bottles collected in Thailand through various organizations and recycled into fibers at our facility in Nakhon Pathom.
Explore moreWe established Indorama Ventures Investments & Holdings (IVIH), our start-up business incubator, which invests in start-up businesses driving advancements in recycling, bio-based chemicals and polymers, renewable feedstock, and biodegradable polymers. We have already identified 30 projects with the potential to deliver on these commitments. Through the employment of circular feedstocks, IVL can reduce hazardous waste generation, fossil feedstock consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions, making it a key strategy for embracing circularity.
โครงการ “ขวดใสเพื่อโลกสวย” PET Bottles for a Better Tomorrow
อินโดรามา เวนเจอร์ส ร่วมกับ บริษัท ไทยวาโก้รณรงค์ให้ประชาชนร่วมลดขยะชุมชน ด้วยการคัดแยกขวด PET และรวบรวมมาบริจาคให้กับไทยวาโก้ โดยตั้งเป้าแปรรูปขวดพลาสติกเดือนละ 1 ตันหรือเทียบเท่าขวดน้ำ ดื่มขนาด 600 มิลลิลิตร จำนวนกว่า 45,000 ขวด ต่อเนื่องเป็นเวลาอย่างน้อย 3 ปี
ทั้งนี้ อินโดรามา เวนเจอร์ส จะนำขวดพลาสติกมารีไซเคิลและแปรรูปเป็นเส้นด้ายคุณภาพสูง ซึ่งสามารถนำมาผลิตเป็นผลิตภัณฑ์และสินค้าต่างๆ ในเครือวาโก้ ภายในแนวคิด Eco Bra
