Good afternoon and welcome to today's webinar. I'm Ses, your moderator from Business Review, and it's truly a pleasure to have you all here. We're delighted to have our wonderful sponsor, LyondellBasell, with us today, who will be presenting this webinar titled, "Design for Recycling: Crafting Next-Generation Packaging." Let me introduce our esteemed guest speakers for today. Our first speaker, Ivan Meakin, Commercial Manager, Polymers EAI for LyondellBasell. Ivan is a highly experienced and self-motivated marketing professional with over 20 years of success in managing polyolefins and petrochemical portfolios. Known for driving business growth in complex environments, she has a strong customer focus and extensive international experience in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Oceania. She also has direct experience in international diplomacy, having worked for the Foreign Commonwealth Office in Tokyo, Japan. Educated in Melbourne, Australia, she holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts.
Our second speaker, Gianni Perdomi, A DTS Engineer for LyondellBasell. With a technical diploma in industrial chemistry, Gianni began his career in 1986 with Hemont, a precursor to MontellBasell, and now LyondellBasell. He has extensive experience in R&D, focusing on processing, product and application development, and technology business support for licensing. Currently, he specializes in application development and technical service, particularly in the film and textile areas. He's also a prolific inventor with several patents in polymer composition, properties, applications, and processing. He's based in LyondellBasell in Ferrara, Italy. Now, before we dive into the content, let me take a moment to familiarize you with our webinar platform, ON24. This webinar is browser-based, so if you happen to disconnect for any reason, simply click on the link provided in your email to rejoin the session. Additionally, today's webinar will be recorded and available on demand access.
Should you have any questions or thoughts during the presentation, feel free to use the questions widget. Just type your questions into the box located at the top right-hand corner of your screen and click submit. We'll set some time at the end of this session to address your queries. For any technical assistance, the Yellow Help widget is at your service, and you can adjust, resize, or maximize any of the windows on your screen for a better view of the slides. Now, without further ado, let's extend a warm welcome to our first speaker, Ivan.
Thank you, Ses. Good afternoon, good morning, and good evening to all of our viewers. I must say I'm very thrilled and excited to be able to present today, "Design for Recycling: Crafting Next-Generation Packaging." I won't repeat our self-introductions, but I will just draw your attention to the quick response code that we have there. We'll try and cover as much as we reasonably can in this hour. It's a fairly short time frame for, I think, a lot of exciting topics that we have for you today. I don't think we'll be able to cover it all. Do feel free to click on that or certainly take that image. If you have follow-up questions, we have a Q&A session planned at the end of this webinar, but feel free to drop us an email. You should see a link there on the screen.
We would be more than happy, certainly after the webinar, to try and answer as many questions as possible. Okay, with that said, let me just draw your attention to a customary but important cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements. We will be, in many ways, very future-focused here. With the future comes uncertainties, and with uncertainties, there's risk. Please do take time to take note of this. We also do have our disclaimer at the end of these presentation slides. Right, let's move on to today's agenda and sort of the flow of the webinar. I'd like to start with a little bit of a self-introduction, as in LyondellBasell, who we are. To kind of really frame what we're doing, we are talking about design for recycling, crafting next-generation packaging. This is not coming out of the vacuum.
There are mega trends in our society that are driving this and shaping the packaging industry. I just want to touch upon those. I will spend a little bit more time, I think, on a very important topic, which is the packaging and packaging waste regulation. I think this regulatory framework is something we need to spend some time on, in particular, those forces that are driving design for recycling. At that point, I will take a break, and I will hand over to my colleague and friend, Gianni, an expert, a really wealth of experience in flexible packaging. I'll ask Gianni to take us through, I think what you'll find is some very exciting, innovative examples of how we're addressing design for recycling. I won't steal his thunder, so I'll leave it at that.
There are four examples, as you can see on your screen. Time permitting, if all goes well, we'll have some interactive questions and answers. Okay, a little bit about us first. LyondellBasell, creating solutions for everyday sustainable living. I think each of these words are actually quite important. Certainly, we are becoming more and more solution-focused, and I think, hopefully, that will come through on today's webinar. Everyday sustainable living, I think this really encapsulates the fact that we do participate. As building blocks, we tend to be a business-to-business, very much a manufacturer. You will see an increasing focus on building a sustainable, a low-carbon, circular solutions business platform. I do want to give perhaps a few more metrics around this.
For the packaging value chain, I think if you look at plastics and polyolefins, we do have a very well or a strong presence in some of these value chains. If you look at Europe, we are certainly at the top in terms of the install capacity, if you put polyolefins, as in polyethylene and polypropylene, together. Globally, we are number two for polypropylene. It's not listed on the slide, but we also take part in propylene oxide as the number two global producer. This is the material for basically the building blocks of polyols, which go into polyurethanes, which are much more into durable, rigid, and flexible foams. Innovation is very much part of our DNA. We are very active in licensing technology. We're active in the catalyst business. As you can see, we have many patents.
I'm really pleased to say we're also developing technologies which are really addressing plastic waste. I think the one that I would like to highlight is Moratech, our proprietary advanced recycling technology, where we have made a final investment decision at the end of 2023. We are building an industrial-scale plant in our Wesseling complex. This is just around Cologne in Germany. We do expect that to be complete around about towards the end of 2025. This is highlighting the fact that we are certainly active and investing in this area. Sustainability, yeah, I think this is one of our key pillars and key parts of our strategy. We do have what I would like to say is a very aspirate, well, a very ambitious target here of, by 2030, selling 2 million tonnes—I'll repeat that—2 million tonnes of recycled or renewable-based polymers.
This will all be marketed and sold under our Circulen brand. We have Circulen Recover, which speaks to mechanical recycling. Circulen Renew, these are polymers made from renewable feedstocks, often hydrogenated vegetable oils. These are typically waste oils that are recovered, processed, and then cracked again to form ethylene and then polyethylene, as well as polypropylene. Coming back to Moratech, again, the proprietary technology, this is under Circulen Revive, advanced recycling. Okay, let me switch gears now into mega trends and specifically mega trends that we see shaping the packaging industry. I do want to say, first and foremost, that it's not one particular trend that's out there. I think it's a combination of factors or a combination of effects that are really starting to shape packaging as we see it today. There is just no doubt that there is more plastic waste.
I was, in some ways, not amazed, but if you look at the amount of, say, packaging waste in the European Union, it is a very, very steady growth. I just have a number from Eurostat there. In 2021, we're talking about 84 million tonnes. If you look back at the trend lines in 2009, I think it was around about 66 million tonnes. What is very interesting is it just constantly, constantly increases year on year, year on year, which in some ways is a little bit surprising for a mature economy. Nonetheless, with urbanisation and population growth, we're using more packaging, not less. Economic factors, I think the days of a linear society where you simply have a manufacturing and a supply chain that delivers a product to a customer and then that's it are behind us.
I mean, I think we now look at waste as really a valuable resource. I think parts of the, let's say, the regulations and the policies that we'll talk about today are starting to really address that and provide market-based mechanisms to further speed this along. We really look at waste now in a completely different lens. We see it as a resource. We're willing to invest in this, aggregate it, process it, and capture that for essentially what we see as sustainable packaging in the future. Technology, as I mentioned, it's not just us. We see a lot of advances in technology, and there are much more advances and innovation that need to come.
I think we are slowly but surely moving into that phase where, with the right regulatory framework, with the right incentives, we start to see, hopefully, a very fertile investment for innovation that will keep spurring this on. I think this all kind of boils together ultimately into political factors. I think if you look at plastic waste, it is understandably a very hot topic. It's well broadcast by the media. It's, of course, in the eyes of NGOs. I think brand holders, manufacturers, converters, we're all faced with this. I think, as far as we're concerned with LYB, we're really ready to step up to this challenge and address it. We do see, I think PPWR is the classic example of regulation now coming into the forefront to really address an ongoing and significant issue of packaging and packaging waste.
With the mega trends complete, I would now like to really talk a little bit about PPWR, the packaging and packaging waste regulation. When I thought about this a little bit and how to best address this in the webinar, it's quite daunting because it is a, well, it's an enormously complex, far-reaching, I think it will be a transformational piece of legislation. I simply won't have time to go into every nook and cranny of the legislation. We will focus perhaps on the aspects that drive packaging and design for recycling. This is the part that I really want to spend more time on. Specifically, that's Article 6 and to a little bit of a lesser extent, Article 7. I realize it's a very topical regulation or legislation. I do want to give it some justice.
I'll stay on the blue screen, if you will allow me, just for a moment. Yeah, let me cover a few aspects. I'll give an update a little bit about where the legislation is now in the current day and age. Key objectives, so what is this regulatory framework trying to achieve? As I will be looking at certain aspects, but not others, I will give a helicopter view, like a very sort of generic view of some of the other mechanisms, provisions in PPWR, which I think are really worth taking note of. The current state of affairs, the most recent, I guess, milestone was April the 24th when the current text was adopted by the European Parliament. This does not mean that the PPWR has been fully enacted into law. It still needs to go before the European Council.
We don't expect any surprises there, but that should be around the fourth quarter of this year. If approved, which I think it will be, it will enter into publication, into the official journal of the EU. Twenty days later, it enters into force. If you sort of like distil all of that into a time frame, we should see something effectively enter into force probably around the start of 2025, maybe earliest at the end of 2024. We have PPWR, which will enter into force. Does that mean everything's done and dusted? Absolutely not. In the text, it's quite an extensive text. I think it's around about 321 pages, if I recall correctly. There will be a significant amount of secondary legislation.
What we will see, and this is part of the text, is a number of delegating and implementing acts that will flow into really the European Commission. This is a non-legislative process. We do not return this back into the European Parliament, but the European Commission will have some limited authorities to supplement, to add to the existing text. This is a very important part of PPWR because as we step through it, you'll see that we have some very, I think, interesting and sort of defining provisions here. If you really examine them and say, "Well, how does this really work?" you can see that there's quite a bit of work that will need to be done here to really fully define and enforce and measure and enforce some of these provisions.
The secondary legislation part is, what I say, is a very, well, it's a very important space to watch. I think it's important for the value chain as well because this will really define some key criteria. In terms of, let's say, just the objectives, why is PPWR brought about? It replaces effectively the PPWD, which is the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. The main point is to just kind of address and mitigate this relentless growth of packaging waste in Europe. In this text, there are defined reductions of packaging waste for the EU as a whole and for member states. We're talking about 5% in 2030, I think 10% by 2035, and 15% by 2040, which is quite unique for a legislation. The other key objective here is to really promote the internal market mechanisms to boost the circular economy.
We do need to find homes for, as we recycle and we bring back packaging back around as secondary raw materials, there needs to be a market demand. You will see that this regulation does boost that through minimum quantities and mandates to use minimum quantities in plastic packaging and certain applications. I think the other key point here is PPWR, the R stands for regulation. This is very important compared to a directive. A directive gives member states latitude to enact laws in their own national legislative assemblies. You do tend to get a common, let's say, target, but quite significant interpretation and different sets of rules in different member states. The regulation is really designed to harmonize. It really will be one set of rules for all. They will be legally binding and enforceable.
This is a big step certainly in that direction. Yeah, as I mentioned, because we will spend quite a bit of time on the aspects that really focus on design for recycling, I did want to just kind of highlight a couple of other aspects of PPWR. I think one important thing to say is it talks about reduction of packaging, minimizing packaging. You should only use, whether that is by volume or weight, the minimum amount of packaging for a particular function, whether that is protecting goods or keeping food hygienic, safe, preserving, and extending shelf life, use the minimum. This immediately speaks to down gauging, lightweighting, perhaps shifts from bulky, heavy, rigid containers to lightweight, flexible.
There is an element here that's already kind of pushing in some ways, which I think is actually an established trend, but it certainly tends to provide a bit more impetus to it. The other aspects are avoiding unnecessary packaging and void spaces. I'm sure for all those viewers today, you've experienced the box in the box. Where you order something, this is speaking to e-commerce, you get an amazing package, and then you open the package to find a lot of air cushions or paper or card. There could be many, many different materials in there. Within all of this, there is a very, very small actual package that you have ordered. There will be limitations on that. Void spaces will be maximum 50%.
In some cases, I honestly think there's 300% to maybe 400%, 500% is still possible, depending on the particular vendor that you order from. Again, avoiding unnecessary packaging is part of this. There will be packaging bans for single-use applications. One particular one is where we see collation of goods at points of sale. We're not talking about the supply chain and handling and transportation, if you like, from a business to a retailer, but simply at the point of sale, where it really is a matter of convenience. You can buy six bottles of mineral water and not one by one by one. These applications are set to be banned. It's a little bit further than this. It reaches out into the HoReCa sector. Hopefully, I pronounce that correctly, but the hotel, restaurants, and catering.
These mini sachets of condiments that I'm sure we've all seen, as well as single-use cosmetic packaging, which is still very typical, I think, if you stay in hotels. Very convenient, but again, single-use plastics. These are part of, let's say, the applications, single-use applications that are set to be banned. There are many more aspects. There is a considerable amount of focus on reuse, labelling, conformity. I could go on and on. Substances of concern. I really think for today, I'll have to limit it to this as I sort of deep dive now back into design for recycling. Would really welcome your feedback because I think this webinar is certainly our first shot at it. If it is useful and our audience finds it valuable, I'd certainly be happy to do more of these.
With that, let's get a little bit into Article 6 and Article 7. We're really going to talk more about some of the aspects which are driving design for recycling. I just want to put out a disclaimer to start the slide. You see an infographic. This is really for illustration. Please do not interpret that we have some sort of secret formula or we're a little bit ahead of the secondary legislation and we understand the exact algorithms. Yet we don't. What we're trying to describe here is a little bit about how these various aspects will interact and shape packaging. Let's start at the top. By January the 1st, 2030, and I appreciate we don't have that tape, but it's January the 1st, 2030, or I think it's 24 months after adoption of the secondary legislation.
If you place packaging onto the European market, it will need to be designed to be recycled. How this works is not exactly defined, but there are some, I would say, reasonable indications of an ability to, let's say, predict a little bit about how this is going to work. Certainly, the recyclability and recycling performance is graded A, B, and C. This is per unit of packaging, and it is per the predominant material in the packaging. Higher than 70% for C, higher than 80% for B, higher than 95% for A. If you fall below this, you will be in a level which is defined as technically not recyclable. You will not be able to place that packaging for sale or for use in the EU market. The exact definitions of this design for recycling criteria, it is a combination of materials.
It's a combination of parameters of the packaging. We can see certain factors. Does the packaging have an additive? Does it have a printing? Does it have a barrier layer? Does it have closures? These will form ultimately part of the puzzle and part of the answer in terms of what we really mean. I think ultimately, when we look at, say, certainly flexibles, the more complex, the more heterogeneous the structure you have, the lower that you will see that. If we think for a moment about, let's say, high performance, high barrier food or even pet food packaging, where you may have a stand-up pouch where you need some mechanical strength, you tend to have a number of different layers. Layers that will all attribute a performance to the packaging.
One may be on the inside for direct contact with the foodstuffs, providing a sealing performance. You may have polyester on the outside, providing good printability, mechanical performance. You may have a lamination, where you combine these layers with aluminum foil, very, very thin, six or seven microns, that provides an excellent barrier layer. This is a very functional article, and it performs extremely well. In the light of PPWR, you're very likely to see this as being really described as technically not recyclable. It is very difficult to delaminate these layers. The simpler, more homogeneous the packaging gets, the better. The second point, and I just want to mention here, the second point really does not come to 2035, so perhaps that's in line with the infographic. This is how effective is the recycling.
We're talking about in a calendar year for a certain packaging category, there will be a need to show that you can recycle this at 55% or better as part of PPWR, again, in 2035, so a little bit further out. When it comes to this, again, there's a lot to define. For example, how would you measure that? You have to make some measurements about the packaging waste that is certainly being generated and collected and sorted and ultimately recycled. You need to know at both of those points. If you're a producer of packaging, you'll be expected to conform. You'll have to know. Again, there is a requirement for information to flow. You will need to know certainly downstream exactly how much of your packaging is finding its way back as secondary recycled materials versus disappearing to somewhere else.
There is still quite a bit of detail to work out, but it is an important point to note that recycled at scale for packaging categories will be very much part of PPWR. The third point, extended producer responsibility schemes. There is nothing new here. We have some of these schemes in operation. I think under the current waste directive by 2025, it is mandated for member states to have brought these schemes into place. Perhaps what is interesting here with PPWR is that it will, and that is a strong statement, will reward producers that have a very high recyclability score or performance. The higher your recycling performance is, so if we are designing for recycling, the package is easier to recycle perhaps than other packaging formats, you will have less financial consideration or less fees to pay at end of life of that packaging.
The extended producer responsibility is all about a fee structure that says, well, at end of life, there is still a liability for producers. You still have to pay to bring that packaging around. Will is a very strong statement, but it is part of PPWR. We can see that this is going to influence. The last point is really captured in Article 7. Using a minimum percentage of post-consumer recycled material or recyclates within packaging. This does not directly influence the design of the packaging, but it certainly does provide a big impetus for boosting demand of recycled materials. It is a little bit complex in the sense that it depends a little bit upon which resin you are talking about, so PET versus other plastics. It also depends on the application.
If we're talking about contact-sensitive applications and excluding PET for a moment, we look at levels of, say, 10%. If we're talking about non-contact-sensitive, so we're talking now secondary packaging where you don't have direct contact, then you're talking about much higher percentages, I think 35% in that case, and excluding, once again, the polyester PET. One final point, and perhaps just to bring the infographic back into play, is 2038. What happens as time progresses? You can see with the recycling performance, as we move further down the road in time, it becomes actually more stringent. Packaging that perhaps was placed on the market with a recycling performance of C, now it is technically recyclable because we've been doing it. Come January 1, 2038, it cannot be placed on the market. This is, again, a licensed-to-operate territory.
It's not that it cannot be recycled, but it is not allowed to be recycled. The progression that we see here is it will get tighter, more stringent as time goes on. In terms of a little bit of how are we thinking about this, we do not have that much time. We are really in line with ourselves focusing on innovation now. We want to get this moving. That is, I guess, part of the impetus for doing this webinar, to really share that feeling, that need for a little bit of urgency here to start positioning, even ahead of, let's say, bolting down every single aspect in the secondary legislation. That will come out certainly in time and with reference and consultation with the European standards organizations, the working groups. We are getting ready now is where we are going. Okay.
I don't want to be repetitive, but let me just take you through. Certainly, it really sort of highlights where we would like to go. That is to say, we want to be best in class here. When we look at, well, how can we address design for recycling? How can we provide solutions that are compliant? Not only compliant, but excel. We want to be best in class. We want to achieve the top tier. Recycle at scale, I mean, this will speak to, in some ways, to investments and infrastructure development. Again, the chain of custody. We're certainly taking part in that. We are investing upstream. I think that's something. We have those investments, if you look at QCP or Tifago, so recycling mostly rigid polymers.
We have recently announced a further investment, which is Source One Plastics in the German neighborhood. We are really moving down this pathway. Recycle content, again, I think we bring the Circulen brand here. Whether it is mechanically recycled materials or advanced recycling, we can do that. Hopefully, if we bring this together in the right way, we can achieve the sort of top-tier status. That is really what we are trying to get to. I do not have every single solution. When it comes to talking to really the in-depth details of our lighthouse, this innovation, some of the products that we are developing, I really would like to hand over, again, to my good friend and colleague, Gianni, who has more experience in this field than I can ever hope to. With that, I will hand the floor to you, Gianni.
Thank you, Ivan. Good morning, good afternoon, or evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to show some samples of LYB solution that we are developing, or in some cases, we are already implementing for a more sustainable solution. Let's say that these are targeted to fit with the PPWR concept. The first case I would like to show is the example of what we call dry pouches. Dry pouches are normally pouches that even contain foodstuff, but also can contain detergent powder or something that can be, let's say, damaged by humidity, for instance. In this case, we have already developed and we are already introducing in the market some types of pouches that are replacing heterogeneous composition. You can see that the typical packaging is normally made by a structure made by a film of polyethylene or polypropylene.
We have very often polyamide, and then we have aluminum, and then we have once again another layer of polymer that would be polyamide or PET or polypropylene. This clearly is a material that is heterogeneous, in principle heterogeneous, and it is impossible to be recycled efficiently. The concept we have developed and we are still developing further is to use the monomaterial concept, the wide concept among the polyethylene range we have that includes top brands like Luflexen. Luflexen are a brand that covers some grades of what we internally call high-tech polyethylene grades that match together very broad processing latitude, possibility to be processed on newer and even older machinery, very easy, material with the high stiffness combined with high density, but at the same time have good welding properties and mechanical properties along also with optical properties.
Petrothene is the family of linear polyethylenes that are used in our case to improve particular, some mechanical properties and sealing properties. We do not have to forget that along with this top brand, we also have, let's say, cornerstone grade family, let's say that Hostalen, that are many, let's say, typical high-density grade with superior properties in terms of packaging and accessibility. We also have LDPE grade that is the basis for some or for most of the type of packaging that include a very broad range in terms of index and density for generation of tailored film. By matching together in this particular case, Luflexen and Petrothene in a given ratio and given recipe, we can produce a package that is made only of three types of polyethylene composition, where we have a sealing layer that ensures the perfect adhesion and the tightness of the package.
We have a core or functional layer that normally is working as a barrier or functional barrier. In the case of moisture, the material very often is enough like this. We can use high density that have a very good barrier itself. In the case of gas barrier, it is required beside the conditional systems normally based on other reasons, but we are moving away from them possibly. The preferred way is to use the metal oxide deposition, some type of lacquering, some type of treatment, some of them also under development that assure with the minimal margin of negligible thickness over this core layer film can maximize the barrier either to water vapor and oxygen and gas in general.
Third, we have a rigid layer that is normally made by a combination of Luflexen or Petrothene or even Hostalen that can be produced by the means of a different technology. We have a material that can reach very high rigidity by simple blown film extrusion, and we can boost it if we stretch in monoaxial direction, the so-called MDO. There is also the extreme process that is the B orientation. In that case, we can more than double, more than triple increase the stiffness of the natural material as it is. With this combination, at the end, we have a very satisfactory package that can be fully recyclable. In the other case, we consider pouches for material that have to be submitted to thermal treatment, or maybe they have to be filled with hot material, liquid material.
In this case, the typical solution is made by a polypropylene material along with an aluminum layer and a PET layer that brings stiffness, that brings barrier, that brings accessibility and weldability. This type of material, once again, it works, but it is not recyclable because the three materials are incompatible with each other. For this type of application, when we have a recording, for instance, we have developed the combination of different layers of polypropylene grade where we have, for instance, a BOPP film, BOPP layer that is made by rigid polypropylene with high modulus. At the same time, we can also use in combination with sealing layer, with very efficient sealing layer that is able also to have very low sealing temperature. We have a functional layer. In this case, the concept is pretty similar to the slide before.
We optimize the composition of the core layer. We also include treatment like metal oxide or, again, special lacquering or special treatment that allows the barrier when it is needed. Instead of using a PET layer, we use a cast polypropylene layer with the most advanced and also using some of the well-known used since the case molten grade, combination of them. We can obtain a cast polypropylene film that can assure also the mechanical along with some stiffness and to provide the integrity of the wall system when especially we have to do torquing or filling case. The other lighthouse example is the cup. Let's say in this particular case, we have a wet cup for ice cream.
In the market, you can find a much increased quantity of polypropylene formed material, but also, let's say, the material that was used for the case is the formed polystyrene. In this case, you can find a situation where we have two leads of aluminum. We left it as it is, even if lead can be made also with polypropylene if you want. We focus on the core of the structure where we have formed polystyrene. We replace it with formed polypropylene. You may say that we change the 101. In reality, the advantage is much higher because when we move to recycling frame, let's say the recycling of even the small amount of polystyrene has a great impact on the recycling of wall mass of plastics, in particular polypropylene.
We developed a number of formulations that could be based on simply monopolymers material with some fillers and also with some degree of foaming, or most advanced, depending also on the final packaging requirement, coax structure where we can use monopolymers, skins, and a core of impact polymer with a given level of foaming. This allows to produce material that has a good balance of impact, but also at the same time, we can have a good breakage for a single portion in case we have a multiple part. The last example I would like to show you is about our Circulen Revive brand. It is the brand that, let's say, indicates the grades that are coming for what we call advanced molecular recycling. Very often, it is also called generically chemical recycling.
This is, in particular, the case where we used our technology for that, the more effective. In the Circulen Revive, we have a material that can be turned back to the elementary molecule. We can polymerize it, and then we obtain material that, even if it's coming from scraps, is like brand new. In this specific case, we have a personal care packaging tube, okay, where we have a tube that is normally made by polyethylene, where we have a cup that could be made in aluminum, but in some cases, we may have different resin, very stiff resin, like very rigid ones, different from polyethylene.
With this solution, we can obtain a couple of grades from Circulen Revive brand where we use polyethylene with the same characteristic of the virgin polyethylene used for the previous example, as well the possibility to use a Circulen Revive grade suitable to generate caps. These caps, all caps and tubes are polyethylene, and so they can be recycled in the same frame. As we have mentioned, our Circulen Revive brand is a fundamental part of the strategy of LyondellBasell. We have seen the figures that Ivan showed at the beginning, and the visual structure we have. We just want to remind or recall you what are the brand, the individual brand on the top of the Circulen Revive. We have Circulen Recover that are polymers made from plastic waste by means of mechanical recycling process.
We have the Circulen Revive. We make polymers by converting plastic waste into new feedstock to produce a new polymer using advanced molecular recycling process. There is also a third family of Circulen, the Circulen Renew, which are not directly linked to recycling, but are more linked to renewable stock. Our polymer is made by renewable feedstock, such as vegetable oil, in particular case, used cooking oil, that can be used to generate monomers and polymer for thermal. I think that, let's say, for what regard the example I've given, the example we were willing to show, I let the floor to Ivan for the conclusion. Thank you for your attention.
Yeah, thanks, Gianni, for that very interesting in-depth coverage of the lighthouses.
What I would like to do is perhaps hand back to our moderator, Ses, and then we can—I think we have nine minutes if I look at the clock—and we can go straight into Q&A and try and pick up as many of the questions as we can in that time.
Yes, thank you, Ivan and GIanni, for your informative presentations. Let's dive into our live Q&A session. A quick reminder for our audience to ask questions that simply use the questions widget. Just type them into the box located at the top right-hand corner of your screen and click submit. I see a lot of great questions coming in. Let's kick things off with this first question. It's a bit of a long one, so I'll ask it slow. All right.
Can you share with more detail the performances and features of product families that you mentioned as being particularly suitable to generate packaging, which match with PPWR requirements?
Sure. Let's say, for instance, come back to one of the previous slides. The case of the polyethylene, for instance, we were mentioning an example where we use a combination of Luflexen and Petrothene, but this is just one example. As mentioned before, the Luflexen family that is our front runner in polyethylene grades is, let's say, is a so advanced grade that can allow an extremely broad processing latitude and also in application. This means that, for instance, we can reduce sharply the thickness and the weight also of the package. That is one, let's say, more and more requested requirement right now. It does not matter PPWR; it is still a matter of fact.
The Luflexen, for instance, can replace film where before we were using 120, 140, 100 microns for a given application. Now we have halved or even less the amount of, let's say, the thickness of these items produced with this resin. Let's say also, the particular case is the fact that this is an HDPE, which is, let's say, not common because it is also transparent even at the higher density. It is white as transparent. And this is a special feature. The other case is that, for instance, when we speak about other polyethylene like Hostalen, we have grades that, despite being studied even decades ago, we are still working on better and better processing technique and improving so. We have done things that were not possible before.
Let's say there is a lot of possibility once you have a good base to work on. In this case, the polyethylene has certainly a lot of technical content and advantage. The same could be applied also to polypropylene family. Here, clearly, in this presentation, I cannot enter into too much details for every single application. Here we have, for instance, products like Adstif that have the 20% or the 30% higher stiffness than conventional polypropylene, along with the material still ranked polypropylene, but they are extremely, let's say, suitable for sealing properties. They have a so broad latitude that we can use by different balance. We can use in BOPP process, but we can use also in cast. We use more and more in the blown film technology.
There are a lot of possibilities with the grades that are developed with intrinsic high value inside.
Thank you, Johnny. Fantastic question from the audience and fantastic answers too. I see another interesting question from our attendees, and it's about the same topic. Is PPWR actually starting by 2030? If so, what about from now to 2030? Are each country's rules for recycling remaining as such, or will there be some alignment towards 2030?
Yeah, I'll take that one a bit. It's okay, Gianni. Yeah. On the clock, when does PPWR really come into effect? Subject to the secondary legislation, there are a lot of different clocks with different provisions. If you look at, say, recycling at scale, it is anticipated to be at 2035.
In terms of the main criteria, so we're talking about the design for recycling, the recyclability gradings, if you like, the A, B, C, and technically not recyclable, that is anticipated for January 1, 2030, or 24 months after adoption of the secondary legislation. What is happening in between? I think we're all getting prepared. PPWR will effectively replace PPWD, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. We will see EPR schemes implemented under the waste directive. That will happen by 2025. We're not left in a vacuum, but I think as a packaging value chain, you can see what's coming ahead. In terms of recycling and infrastructure, there is still some time. When you look at how they define, say, recycling at scale, there is some element there to say of the installed infrastructure within the EU.
There are sort of further considerations of technological development. Just because a packaging cannot be recycled at scale now, we are not ruling out, or the EU is certainly not ruling out in the future, with technology and innovation that is possible. I see member states. We are not deviating that much from the existing set of directives. By 2030, let's call that as really sort of a line in the sand as to when many of these provisions will start to come in and take effect. As I mentioned, PPWR will have an effect, an impact on extended producer responsibility fees. There is a direct linkage. Whether that happens, let's say, before 2030 is a really interesting question. I do not know because it is really going to depend on what specific member state has in mind. PPWR does not set the fees.
There's nothing in the text that you can find an annex or a table of fees. That doesn't exist. It will affect. That's certainly something we need to look at. How it affects, to what extent, is a little bit unknown. Hopefully that answers the question. Just in the interest of time, we'll hand back so maybe we can pick up one or two more questions.
Thank you very much, Ivan. We're close to our scheduled time, but I'll ask this final question to end our live Q&A session. Is LYB investing in the collection and sorting of waste and thereby influencing recyclability at scale?
Yes, yes. I'll grab the one if that's okay, Gianni. Yes, yes, we are. Very good question. We are absolutely looking at both through joint ventures and wholly owned assets.
I think, yeah, QCP is one of our, I think, our first facility that was originally a partnership with SUEZ. It's now 100% wholly owned by LyondellBasell. We have mostly rigids, but both for polyethylene and polypropylene products. We continue to invest. We see this as very much part of unlocking both access to resource waste, which is, frankly, post-consumer waste. We see that as a resource, and we see that it has significant value. Downstream of this, we invest into, let's say, technologies that can bring this collected and sorted waste back around for another turn as a secondary raw material. In the case of advanced recycling, we're really dealing with very, very difficult, very challenging to recycle streams. Mechanically, they're difficult.
Through the use of pyrolysis, we can—and Moratech is all about using catalytic systems, which is low energy, high yield, not so much after treatment of the pyrolysis oil. Ideally, and maybe it's a step too far, but ideally, the ideal scenario would be at the back end of pyrolysis, you can take that straight to a steam cracker, a decarbonized steam cracker. That would be the ideal scenario. Whether we get that far or not, I'm not 100% sure. Certainly, recycling or sorting, I should say, facilities and investment in those are certainly absolutely within scope, and we're active in that space. I'll hand back to you, Ses.
Thank you so much. Thank you, Ivan. And thank you so much, Gianni, for your excellent responses.
As we're slightly over our time, we'll have to conclude our Q&A session, but please don't worry if your questions haven't been addressed yet, as our speakers and team will follow up with you. That brings us to the end of our Q&A session and webinar. I'd like to express my heartfelt thanks to Ivan and Gianni for their outstanding presentation and to our sponsor, LyondellBasell, for making this session possible. To our attendees, keep an eye out for instructions for accessing the on-demand version of this webinar. You can also find it on our website at www.pmi-live.com. Stay connected with us for more exciting webinars and follow us on X at BLWebinars. Follow our LinkedIn company page at Business Review Webinars. Thank you once again for joining us, and I wish you all a wonderful day ahead.