Dow, Liby, a leading laundry brand in China, and LOVERE, an internet environmental tech company, have signed a strategic three-way Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to address plastic packaging waste and promote a circular plastics economy in China. The MoU signing took place at Dow's Customer Innovation Center in Shanghai, China.

The collaboration bolsters Dow's sustainability target to stop the waste and close the loop, and marks the start of a long-term partnership to reduce plastic waste in the environment or landfill. The MoU focuses on three key actions: keeping plastics out of the environment, increasing collective impact through partnerships and delivering circular economy solutions.

The collaboration drives these actions through three main areas of focus: designing for recyclability; collection of waste; and reusing or recycling plastic waste. The collaboration represented by the MoU has the potential to serve as an example of companies closing the loop and helping to drive the healthy and dynamic development of the plastics industry.

Dow, Liby and LOVERE ink MoU to advance sustainability in packaging agenda.

In addition, under the terms of the MoU, Dow's INNATE tenter frame biaxially oriented polyethylene (TF-BOPE) based and all-polyethylene (PE) packaging solution will be applied to other product lines under Liby - expanding the use of fully recyclable packaging applications.

"We have seen increasing commercial adoption of designing for recyclability as more companies pledge to use recyclable packaging for their products in an effort to be more environmentally sustainable and responsible. Brand owners like Liby are leading the industry in taking action towards closing the plastics loop," said Bambang Candra, Asia Pacific commercial vice president for Packaging and Specialty Plastics, Dow.

"LOVERE's independently-developed and Internet-connected Smart Sorting/Recycling Machines (SSRMs) is a technological innovation aimed to close the loop, from sorting to treatment to recycling. Consumers can sort and recycle their plastic waste at disposal simply through their WeChat account. We plan to make SSRMs accessible by placing them at various strategic points across the country," noted Chen Jingye, CEO of LOVERE.

The three companies have also committed to implementing content marketing as a tool in getting more end-consumers to understand the value of recyclable packaging and the concept of a circular economy, aimed at reducing plastic waste in China.

Zhang Liping, general manager of Liby Research and Development Center, added, "Through this partnership with Dow and LOVERE, our goal is to build new consumer behaviours around the old adage: reduce, reuse and recycle for environmental sustainability. At the core of it, plastics need to be viewed not as waste - but as a valuable resource/ material that must be kept in the circular economy loop."

This MoU follows Liby's recent adoption of fully recyclable laundry packaging for its laundry pods, in three-way collaboration between Dow, Liby and Fujian Kaida.

Dow's INNATE TF resins were utilized due to its all-PE structure that allows the end-product to be recycled in existing recycle streams, strong material properties offering high toughness in order to reduce leakage during e-commerce transportation, as well as excellent optics for stand-up shelf appeal and touch and feel.