Chemicals & plastics
SABIC traces certified circular feedstock from plastic waste to packaging
SABIC uses MARCO to follow TRUCIRCLE circular feedstock from pyrolysis oil to finished packaging, with mass balance credits checked at every step.
66%
less manual work on certified mass balance
Mass Balance
The challenge
SABIC is one of the world's largest petrochemical manufacturers, serving customers in more than 140 countries. Its TRUCIRCLE portfolio includes certified circular polymers made from pyrolysis oil, produced by chemically recycling plastic waste.
That supply chain is hard to trace. Pyrolysis oil passes through several intermediaries and is blended with fossil feedstock, so circular content can only be followed through mass balance. Tracking it through the petrochemical value chain made certification slow, audits expensive and record-keeping heavy, especially for food packaging and healthcare customers with strict standards.
SABIC wanted full transparency from waste to packaging: to simplify certification, reduce audit effort and support the delivery of its circular feedstock to customers.
What MARCO does
SABIC set up a consortium with Plastic Energy, which recycles plastic waste into pyrolysis oil, and the packaging specialist Intraplás. MARCO tracks the oil from Plastic Energy's recycling process, its delivery to SABIC for conversion into TRUCIRCLE polymers, and the delivery of those polymers to Intraplás for conversion into packaging.
At each step, Mass Balance books the sustainability credits that come in and allocates them to what goes out, so the final packaging traces back to the credits of the original plastic waste with no double counting. All partners share the same records, and every record is sealed so it can be verified by auditors and customers.
MARCO works as a layer between the partners' systems, so each company keeps its own tools while the shared records stay consistent. It was the first project in the industry to trace circular feedstock from production through to the converter. The pilot followed real batches between February and April 2022, from used plastic received for recycling to finished packaging, with credits and balances recorded at every stage.
Results
MARCO was fully deployed in under three months, including configuration, integration, training and data standardisation.
- 66% less manual work, measured in FTE effort
- Mass balance operations that scale beyond the pilot
- Integration with ERP systems and certification schemes
- Lower compliance risk under voluntary sustainability schemes for circular packaging
The project opened the way for SABIC to add traceability to other circular and low-carbon chemicals, and gives its customers stronger evidence against greenwashing claims.
At SABIC, we have a deep commitment to innovation and technology that can help us to deliver more sustainable solutions to our customers. Finboot’s technology holds exciting potential for the provision of our TRUCIRCLE™ products to customers, and therefore for our commitment to supporting customers in their sustainability ambitions.