Positioning Canada as a leader in plastics circularity through the reciChainTM program
According to the Government of Canada, every year, Canadians throw away three million tonnes of plastic waste, less than 10 percent of which is recycled. This means that the vast majority of plastic waste produced in Canada ends up in landfills or enters the environment as pollution where it poses a risk to wildlife and their habitat.
To address these challenges, BASF Canada has launched the reciChainTM program, a technology-enabled ecosystem that brings together all the plastic value chain players to enable circularity, tracking and sorting of recycled plastic.
The reciChain concept was created by BASF in Sao Paolo, Brazil and tested with an initial proof-of-concept pilot in 2020 in British Columbia, Canada, that successfully demonstrated circularity by tracking the products lifecycle from pellet to pellet.
Click here to learn more about the BC Pilot
With the support of Alberta Innovates, provincial government corporation responsible for promoting innovation in the province, reciChain is now expanding to Alberta to conduct a subsequent phase of the project which will scale the solution to a semi-commercial phase.
Click here to learn more about the Alberta Innovates funding
reciChain Pilot Consortium Members
Relevant players from the plastics value chain, including BASF, Cascades, Layfield, London Drugs, NOVA Chemicals, Orion Plastics, [Re] Waste, and Waste & Recycling Services from the cities of Calgary and Edmonton, have joined forces in the next phase of reciChain
Click the link below to learn more about reciChain:
Revitalizing the Value of Plastics and Improving Circularity within the Supply Chain
A successful implementation of reciChain will support Alberta in achieving impacts such as:
BC Plastics Circular Economy
reciChain’s underlining technology components
To extend the lifecycle of plastics, reciChain comprises two technology components:
- A physical tracer that identifies and follows key plastic features throughout the value chain and enables the connection of plastic to a digital twin
- A blockchain marketplace developed by the California-based, Web3 start-up Real Items, which creates and translates the digital twin, providing a secure, auditable transfer-of-ownership and assigning incentives to incent participation and offset cost
reciChain
The reciChain project began in 2019 at an ideathon in Brazil, when BASF together with its partners, designed a solution to fight waste certificate fraud in Sao Paulo.
reciChain Canada - Phase 1 (Jan – Mar 2020)
BASF then looked to expand the use case to Canada in order to test and prove the broader vision of circularity in a new market.
BASF engaged Deloitte to act as a strategic partner to provide project governance and work with the local stakeholders in the plastics value chain.
BASF also engaged Security Matters, as the core solution provider for both the physical marker technology and blockchain development.
reciChain Canada – Phase 2 (Mar – Nov 2020)
BASF, Deloitte, and Security Matters looked to pilot two plastic product loops to prove out feasibility and enable a circular plastics economy in Vancouver B.C.
The reciChain team defined the plastic value chain comprised of 8 key stakeholders, to form a consortium. This collaborative ecosystem would enable the team to develop product loops, in which two separate plastic product packages would be embedded with a physical marker.
The project culminated in a 3 week pilot whereby the consortium successfully proved that plastics circularity, and the ability to track and trace plastics through the value chain was feasible.
Why Expanding to Alberta?
- Emerging EPR stage
- Government's innovation priorities and incentives
- Developed petrochemical industry
- Local footprint of major players in the plastic and resin manufacturers
Plastics have proven benefits for multiple applications. Plastic waste, however, poses a major global challenge. To solve this environmental issue, we need to build a more circular economy for plastics through innovation and collaboration across the value chain. This is exactly what reciChain brings to the industry.
Creating a cleaner world starts at the local level, in communities all around the country and right here in Alberta. Innovative programs like reciChain are creating meaningful changes in plastic recycling. Alberta Innovates is pleased to support this partnership and looks forward to the results that flow from this program.
We are excited to be early evaluators of the technology, and be at the forefront of development. The pilot has created interest across a number of our customer, in regards to our involvement and the technology.
This pilot has been a galvanizing force for our internal sustainability discussions and across different teams, the project has shown that something like this is possible. For us, the traceability factor is very exciting. To be able to build a story around a private label program that can trace the amount of product that is being recycled in very valuable looking into the future.
The ability for the tracer to survive recycling, and possibility for auditability of product are key features.
The future vision for the reciChain Canada program
The program has set a long term vision that will enable plastics circularity through a self-sustaining ecosystem.
Demo: trinamiX integration into reciChain blockchain
BASF Canada Live Lounge Series: ReciChain
reciChain - capturing the value of plastics in the circular economy
If you have any questions about this project or if you would like to learn more on how to join the consortium in Alberta please contact:
reciChain is a trademark of BASF, used with permission by BASF Canada Inc. (c) 2022 BASF Canada Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners and use of any such trademark does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by its owner.