RIYADH, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with France's TotalEnergies, has succeeded in converting the waste plastic oil into circular polymers certified by ISCC Plus, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Monday.
This is also the first ISCC Plus certified success in the Middle East and North Africa region. The oil was first processed in a refinery jointly owned by Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) and TotalEnergies in the eastern coastal city of Jubail and then used as a feedstock by a Saudi petrochemical complex to produce circular polymers.
The success will pave the way for creating a value chain for advanced recycling of plastics to circular polymers in Saudi Arabia and contribute to solving the environmental problems caused by end-of-life plastics, according to the SPA report.
"This achievement illustrates the importance of the petrochemical sector in creating more sustainable products and solutions," Aramco's President of Downstream Mohammed Al-Qahtani was quoted by SPA as saying.
"Our aim is to create circular solutions for plastic waste, while also making progress on our ambition to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across our wholly-owned operated assets by 2050," he added.
ISCC Plus is an international sustainability certification program for bio-based recycled raw materials for all markets and sectors. ■
