Nine companies and academic institutions from six countries are collaborating to develop a complete circular product life cycle and turn polyurethane into a truly sustainable material.

Plastic water bottles are producing potable water and optimizing irrigation in villages in Guatemala and Timor-Leste, thanks to Oklahoma City–based NGO World Neighbors.

Under the company’s sustainability policy, the Korean electronics giant plans to minimize and replace packaging with environmentally-sustainable materials.

The “zero waste” event expects more than 700,000 fans.

The polymers are made from feedstock derived from low-quality, mixed-use plastic waste that would otherwise be incinerated or sent to a landfill. Unilever and other strategic customers will use the materials to develop consumer packaging.

Many of its member companies are part of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which “is driving forward a major initiative that has set realistic and obtainable goals,” said the Plastics Pipe Institute Inc. (Irving, TX).

Caving to pressure from environmental activist organization As You Sow (Oakland, CA), the company promises to eliminate non-recoverable or non-reusable plastic packaging by 2025.

And if they do, where does that leave the traditional recycling industry?

The new Loop platform shifts the packaging paradigm from disposable and owned by the consumer to durable and borrowed. Major consumer products companies such as Nestlé, P&G and Coca-Cola are on board.

Partnering with RPC bpi nordfolien, the Korean company says it has become one of the first chemical companies in the world to package its products in 20-kg polyethylene (PE) bags made with 50% recycled PE.