Extrusion International 1-2019

16 Extrusion International 1/2019 INDUSTRY NEWS BASF SE www.basf.com Global Alliance to End Plastic Waste co-founded BASF co-founded a global alliance of nearly 30 companies to advance solutions that reduce and eliminate plastic waste in the environment, especially in the ocean. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) has committed over $1.0 billion with the goal of investing $1.5 billion over the next five years to help end plastic waste in the environment. New solutions will be developed and brought to scale that will minimize and manage plastic waste. This also includes the promotion of solutions for used plastics by helping to enable a circular economy. “We strongly support the aimto reduceplasticwaste in the envi- ronment,” said Dr. Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors and Chief Technology Officer of BASF SE, who supported settingup theAlliance fromthe beginning. “We are co-founding the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, because we want to drive and promote solutions that will effectively help solve the world’s plastic waste problem,” explained Brudermül- ler. “Plastics are efficient materials that can save resources and enable health, safety as well as convenience benefits for society. These benefits could be contradicted, if plastics and their waste are neither used nor disposed nor recycled in a responsibleman- ner.” Understanding where the plastic waste originates from is key. Research by the Ocean Conservancy shows that plastics in the ocean predominantly originate from litter on land. Most of the plastic waste is spread through rivers and can be traced back to ten major rivers around the world, mainly in Asia and Africa. Many of these rivers flow through densely populated areas which have a lack of adequate waste collection and recycling infrastructure, leading to significant waste leakage. The AEPW will initiate actionswhere they aremost needed. Thiswill include projects that contribute to solutions in four key areas: • Infrastructure development to collect and manage waste and increase recycling; • Innovation to advance and scale up new technologies that make recycling and recovering plastics easier and create value frompost-use plastics; • Education and engagement of governments, businesses, and communities tomobilize action; and • Clean-up of concentrated areas of plastic waste in the environ- ment, particularly the major conduits of waste, such as rivers, that carry land-based waste to the ocean. The alliance is a not-for-profit organization that includes com- panies from across the global plastics and consumer goods value chain: chemical and plastic manufacturers, consumer goods companies, retailers, converters, andwastemanagement companies. The alliance will work with governments, intergov- ernmental organizations, academia, non-government organi- zations and civil society to invest in joint projects to eliminate plastic waste from the environment. The following companies are the founding members of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste: BASF, Berry Global, Braskem, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, Clariant, Covestro, CP Group, Dow, DSM, ExxonMobil, Formosa Plastics Corporation USA, Henkel, LyondellBasell, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, Mit- sui Chemicals, NOVA Chemicals, OxyChem, PolyOne, Procter & Gamble, Reliance Industries, SABIC, Sasol, Shell, Suez, SCG Chemicals, Sumitomo Chemical, Total, Veolia, and Versalis (Eni). Further Expansion in Mexico “Given the highly positive turnover trends that we had seen in Mexico over the years, it seemed logical to invest in our sales partner GiTamsa in order to boost our growth in Cen- tral America and continue expanding our market,” Carsten Koch, Managing Director of Werner Koch Maschinentechnik GmbH, reported. Since the foundation of GiTamsa seven years ago, KOCH- Technik has been successfully cooperating with the Mexican company based in Querétaro. Now it has acquired a majority stake in GiTamsa. Armando Feregrino, founder and Managing Director of Gi- Tamsa, relies on a team of more than 30 employees. Of the seventeen sales and administration employees, six are re- sponsible for the area around Querétaro. The service and in- stallation team counts thirteen highly qualified technicians. Many well-known customers from the automotive, pack- aging and medical technology sectors already rely on high- quality equipment and systems produced by KOCH-Technik. KOCH-TechnikManaging Director Carsten Koch, GiTamsaManaging Director Armando Feregrino andMichael Rentschler, Sales Director for Mexico (from left)