Circular Funding : Closed Loop Partners receives $5 million from Sealed Air
Sealed Air invested $5 million in the Closed Loop Circular Plastics fund, a US based initiative driving plastic packaging innovation within the country.
Said fund aims to to extend the supply of high-quality recycled plastic being produced.
Money from the Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund will benefit plastic collection and waste processing (in the form of technology investment) systems for polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), recycling and logistics efforts but also plastic manufacturing facilities and respective infrastructure.
Closed Loop Partners, the New York based investment firm that manages the fund, plans to attract further investment from financial institutions and corporate investors to further these goals.
Previously, Dow, LyondellBasel and Nova Chemicals invested $25 million while South Korea based global petrochemical company SK Global invested $10 million to aid the fund’s recycling and recovery efforts.
The Closed Loop Ci fund aims to reach a target $100 million, the intention being to recycle more than 500 million pounds of plastic.
“[Sealed Air Corp.’s] investment in the Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund demonstrates their commitment to be a part of the solution to plastic waste, marking a critical step in building a waste-free future for the plastics and packaging industry. Their scale and deep expertise in the space allow us to extend our reach even further and encourage other companies to invest more capital to scale critical sustainable solutions,” says Ron Gonen, founder and chief executive officer of Closed Loop Partners.
In recent years, demand for recycled plastic has risen exponentially in the US yet recycling rates have stayed constant. According to a 2019 Recycling Partnership Report, there is an annual gap of more than one billion pounds between current US supply and projected 2025 demand for R-PET for use in bottles.
Much of this has to do with the fact that a possible surge or downturn in recycling is fully dependent on consumer behaviour as recycling rates do not follow a supply-demand model. With US residents being often ignorant of proper recycling methods and prone to struggle with the lack of proper infrastructure as well as of curbside collection services, flat recycling rates make more sense.
Added investment to improve the situation could help usher in a more sustainable plastic economy that also generates enough plastic feedstock for companies to profit from said approach.