BASF’s Canadian plastics waste blockchain project gains momentum

TORONTO (ICIS)–A BASF pilot project in Canada to use blockchain in order to track plastic through its life-cycle is gaining momentum, the Canadian affiliate of the Germany-based chemicals major said in an update on Wednesday.

A number of companies, including Canadian petrochemicals producer NOVA Chemicals, have joined the “reciChain” project since it was launched in February, BASF said.

The project is aimed at extending the life-cycle of plastics, incentivising recycling, reducing waste and enhancing resource efficiency.

It uses a “track and trace technology” that marks plastic products with a unique “chemical barcode” and connects them to a digital twin, thus improving the sorting, tracing and monitoring of plastics throughout the value chain.

Both rigid and flexible plastic products will be used during the pilot to test the feasibility of the marker technology in the logistics process.

The pilot project will allow users to access and verify information associated with the production of the material, supporting producers’ recycled content targets and retailers’ plastic waste diversion targets, thus further “closing the plastic loop”, BASF said.

The project currently runs only in British Columbia, but BASF aims to expand it across Canada.

In addition to BASF and NOVA Chemicals, reciChain’s partners are CSSA, Layfield, London Drugs, Merlin Plastics, Recycle BC, Return-It, Save on Foods, Deloitte and V.I.P. Soap.

BASF has a similar project underway in Brazil that it will continue to develop in parallel with the Canadian pilot.

For more information on reciChain, please click here.

Also, please visit ICIS’ topic page on the Circular Economy