First Commercially Available Chemically Recycled Bioplastic

Total Corbion PLA has launched the world’s first commercially available chemically recycled bioplastics product—more specifically rPLA. The Luminy  rPLA grades boast the same properties, characteristics and regulatory approvals as virgin Luminy PLA, but are partially made from post-industrial and post-consumer PLA waste. Total Corbion PLA is already receiving and depolymerizing reprocessed PLA waste, which is then purified and polymerized back into commercially available Luminy rPLA.

The commercial availability of rPLA offers brand owners the opportunity to make products from rPLA, with the luxury of having original food contact and other certifications in place. Using rPLA can contribute to meeting the recycled content targets of brand owners.

Said senior marketing director François de Bie, “The ability to chemically recycle post-industrial and post-consumer PLA waste allows us to not only reduce waste, but also keep valuable resources in use and truly ‘close the loop’. For our customers, the new, additional end-of-life avenue this provides could be the missing piece in their own sustainability puzzle, and we look forward to solving these challenges together.”

As an initial offering, grades will be supplied with 20% recycled content using the widely accepted principles of mass balance. “As we are currently ramping up this initiative, the initial volumes are limited but we are confident that rPLA will grow to be a significant part of our overall sales revenues”, states de Bie. Currently, Looplife in Belgium and Sansu in Korea are among the first active partners that support collecting, sorting and cleaning of post-industrial and post-consumer PLA waste. The resulting PLA feedstock is then used by Total Corbion PLA to make new Luminy PLA polymers via the chemical recycling process. Total Corbion PLA is actively looking for additional partners from around the world that will help to close the loop and are inviting interested parties to contact their local sales representative.

Meanwhile, Total Corbion PLA will transition to TotalEnergies Corbion, launching a new company name and logo over the coming months. TotalEnergies Corbion is a 50/50 joint venture between TotalEnergies and Corbion. The name change follows the recent rebranding of TotalEnergies earlier this year, anchoring its strategic transformation into a broad energy company.