COVESTRO whole portfolio of products which contain post-consumer recycled ( PCR ) plastics . At present PCR serves primarily the electronic industries , so if you are using a laptop of a major brand in the U . S . or Europe , the chances are it will contain some percentage of recycled plastics that come from companies like us .”
The second pillar involves the essential principles of the circular economy . “ The key for this lies in recycling ,” insists Roy . “ We are investing a lot in recycling technologies because there ' s a huge amount of plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled properly . With different types of plastics , you need another type of recycling technology – chemical recycling .”
If you are using a laptop of a major brand in the U . S . or Europe , the chances are it will contain some percentage of recycled plastics .
The third is called ‘ joint solutions ’. This means working with partners upstream as well as downstream .
A good example of this cohesion is Covestro ’ s recycling of the enormous 19 litre water bottles . These are used throughout many countries – typically in offices – and made out of polycarbonate . Historically the water company would collect the old water bottles and refill them a few times , but at the end of life these would be disposed of . Therefore , it has been essential that the company discovers how to integrate the old bottles into a circular model .
Roy says : “ Now we ’ re working with one of the biggest water bottlers – Nongfu Spring – to retrieve all end-of-life water bottles .
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