Borealis Acquires Minority Stake in Sustainable Packaging Innovator Bockatech

Borealis has acquired a minority stake in Bockatech Ltd, the U.K.-based inventor of the patented EcoCore Foam core platform technology for lightweight and reusable plastic packaging This investment move bolsters the two companies’ existing partnership,  underscores Borealis’ commitment to plastics circularity and it entails joint market and material development in the long term as well as the scaling of the EcoCore platform itself. The aim is to enable a greater number of global customers, value chain partners, and supply chain players to benefit from a broader range of lighter weight foam-based applications, primarily in the packaging sector.

Borealis and Bockatech are building on their cooperation which began in 2016, to develop foam injection molding solutions for reusable and recyclable packaging. The partnership has already chalked up success with the 2020 “Close-The-Loop” pilot project at Borealis sites in Belgium. Here, over a million single-use PP-based drinking cups were replaced with 30,000 EcoCore PP-based lightweight cups, which can be collected and washed for reuse before ultimately being recycled. Thousands of these more environmentally-friendly cups also made an appearance at the recent COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland where they were used for publicly catered events. The conference venue ordered 70,000 reusable cups for use at this and future events.

As previously reported, Bockatech EcoCore uses optimized polyolefin resins supplied by Borealis to create moldings that have skin-foam-skin walls with high strength-to-weight ratios and excellent thermal insulation. Because only minimal investment in new equipment is required to produce safe and reliable moldings using the EcoCore technology, converters can readily move into more sustainable packaging formats for a wide range of sectors.

While collaboration will continue to focus on reusable coffee cups, additional applications for technology licensing are foreseen, including more sustainable reusable packaging types and lightweight single-use solutions. Applications in non-packaging product ranges are also envisioned, as the EcoCore technology is further advanced and scaled up.