Amcor and ExxonMobil have signed a five-year deal to secure thousands of tons of high-performance, certified-circular material from ExxonMobil’s advanced recycling plant.
Amcor will purchase certified-circular polyethylene material in support of its target to achieve 30 per cent recycled material across its portfolio by 2030 in a move that the global packaging giant says will drive progress on advanced recycling materials for food and healthcare markets.
Amcor is already delivering a variety of solutions containing recycled content to customers around the world. A case in point is its supply of recycled-content flexible packaging to multinational Mondelez International, which has made the switch to 30 per cent food-grade recycled packaging for its Cadbury Dairy Milk, Caramilk and Old Gold family blocks in Australia.
The certified-circular polyethylene (PE) material will be sourced from ExxonMobil’s facility in Baytown, Texas. Scheduled to be up and running by the end of this year, it will be one of North America’s largest advanced plastic waste recycling facilities, with a capacity to recycle 30,000 metric tons of plastic waste per year.
The volume of material purchased by Amcor will increase incrementally each year and is expected to reach 100,000 metric tons annually at the end of the five-year period.
Enabled by ExxonMobil’s Exxtend technology for advanced recycling, Amcor intends to leverage this material across its global portfolio, with a particular focus on the healthcare and food industries, which are required to meet stringent safety requirements for recycled plastic.
The agreement expands on Amcor’s initial purchase of certified-circular PE material from ExxonMobil earlier this year.
Amcor CEO Ron Delia said: “We are committed to a future of more sustainable packaging and are excited to strengthen our ability to meet increasing customer demand for recycled content.
“We’re already working with major brands to support their sustainability ambitions and look forward to offering this innovative content across our global portfolio.”
Michael Zamora, senior vice president Product Solutions at ExxonMobil, said: “Our expanded commitment will make our Exxtend technology for advanced recycling available to even more of Amcor’s customers across the globe, and represents an important step towards reaching our shared goal of helping to increase the amount of plastic waste that’s recycled.”
Amcor continues to make progress on its pledge to make all products recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025, with 74 per cent of total production by weight already designed to be recycled.
In 2022, Amcor launched a product rebrand including its new EcoGuard brand, which makes it easier for customers to choose from a number of more sustainable solutions, including products that reduce the carbon footprint of packaging, are designed to be recycled and use recycled content or biomaterials.
