Dow is Deploying Blockchain Technology to Boost Polyurethane Recycling
As the effects of the human race’s impact on the planet are being ever more keenly felt, the need for new and innovative environmentally friendly solutions is continuing to grow exponentially.
When it comes to the chemical logistics business, this often translates to making sure the chemicals and chemical-based materials our brands produce and ship around the world are managed in a manner which reduced the chances of those products entering the environment and harming flora and fauna and that those same materials are disposed in an environmentally conscious fashion.
Recycling is even better than disposal when it comes to these materials and the more chemicals that can be returned to the value chain and turned into new products the better. However, organising large scale recycling of these materials is not without its logistical challenges.
Polyurethane
One such chemical-based material which has seen steadily increasing demand over the last decade or so is polyurethane.
Vegan products have become increasingly popular in recent years, and this has driven the market for alternatives to animal derived materials. Polyurethane is one of the main ingredients in leather alternatives and can be found in products such as Dr Martins range of vegan footwear.
Polyurethane-based foam is also the world’s most popular material used to stuff both adult and crib mattresses due to its cushioning and supporting properties and its relative cheapness to produce. The material can also be found in similar soft furnishing products, such as sofas, armchairs, and other types of furniture.
However, polyurethane is made from fossil fuels and requires a lot of energy to produce. Compounding this is the fact that, in order to make these products flame retardant and meet global fire safety regulations, it needs to be doused in special chemicals – all of which conspires to make the material exceedingly difficult to dispose of in an environmentally friendly manner.
Dow
As a leading producer of industrial grade chemical products, Dow understands the challenges associated with recycling polyurethane mattresses and launched a new blockchain pilot program to assess the cryptocurrency technology’s suitability for supporting flexible foam circularity.
“What if we could ensure transparency in a circular product without compromising confidentiality?” said Director of Global Product Safety and Compliance at Dow, Jihane Ball. “Our engagement with recyclers and customers on circular solutions has led us to pose this crucial question. Ensuring that the necessary compositional information can be shared at every step in the value chain is critical to enable circularity at the end of product life. Through our pilot, we are testing the transfer of product information in a controlled way and applying it to the circular RENUVA™ mattress recycling program.”
The blockchain powered platform was developed in partnership with ChemChain and will help solve the issues of prompt responses, consistency, disclosure of information about formulations, and trust along the entire supply chain. ChemChain is a blockchain platform designed for use by the chemical industry to transfer information on chemicals in products along the value chain, from chemical manufacturers to consumers, recyclers, and waste operators.
Information sharing is at the core of effective circular product management and Dow believes blockchain will facilitate this in ways that would not have previously been possible. Blockchain technology can speed up information exchange, provide rapid access to verified data on a need-to-know basis, and make the entire process more traceable and transparent than ever before.
The ChemChain platform allows Dow to generate digital assets which contain key cryptographic information regarding the chemical compositions of its own solutions.
“Every year, millions of old mattresses are discarded and stack up in landfills or end up in incinerators,” says the RENUVA Program website. “This mattress disposal problem has escalated over the years to become a global issue that requires an innovative solution and collaborative approach. Through the RENUVA Mattress Recycling Program, we are recycling polyurethane foam from end-of-life mattresses and turning it into RENUVA polyols for use in new mattresses and other applications.”
Final Thoughts
The recycling of polyurethanes back into to raw materials and then using them in new products is an important goal in the fight against manmade climate change. The fewer polyurethane mattresses that end up in landfills or producing toxic fumes when burnt in incinerators, the greater the overall health of our planet will be.
Dow’s blockchain powered RENUVA Mattress Recycling Program is a solid effort in this fight and will certainly be one to keep an eye on in the future. Initial data from the pilot is incredibly encouraging and we can only hope more companies engage with their own environmental impact in similarly innovative ways.
You can hear Dow’s Director of International Trade Operations, Lennart Heip and The Dow Chemical Company’s Group President UK, Nordic and Benelux, France, Spain and Portugal, Anton G van Beek speak at LogiChem 2022, being held in March at De Doelen ICC Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Download the agenda today for more information and insights.