INEOS Styrolution closes loop for Midea's home appliances

INEOS Styrolution, a global leader in styrenics, announced that its ABS ECO grades, manufactured from PCR ABS produced by GER, have been successfully validated by Midea for its range of sustainable household appliances, including air conditioners, refrigerators and water dispensers.

Established in 1968 and headquartered in Southern China, Midea is the global leader for household appliances and air conditioners; while GER is a world-leading waste recycling enterprise based in China’s Jiangxi province.

At a recent event held at their site located in Foshan, China, Midea demonstrated the production of the pilot product using the new recycled material provided by INEOS Styrolution and was satisfied with the ease of processing and the quality of the final product.

Midea, INEOS Styrolution and GER collaborate to create large scale home appliance closed-loop circular economy system.

This first step is an important milestone for the establishment of a closed-loop circular economy system, by which INEOS Styrolution will produce ABS ECO and PS ECO grades using Midea’s products at their end-of-life, after being dismantled and recycled by GER.

These ABS ECO and PS ECO grades, specially tailored made for Midea, will then be used as a drop-in solution to manufacture Midea’s ECO home appliances.

The next steps are for Midea, GER and INEOS Styrolution to validate the use of PS ECO grades on a commercial scale at Midea’s production facilities, finalizing an integrated supply chain solution starting from Midea’s finished goods, to recycling after their end-of-life, and turning them into PS ECO and ABS ECO grades exclusively for Midea.

Durante Lin, Director of Systems and Resources, Midea Group Supply Chain Management, commented, “With the successful commercialization of INEOS Styrolution’s ABS ECO grades for our household appliances, we have set a new benchmark in the circular economy for the industry and a step closer to realizing our goal in creating the first large-scale home appliance closed-loop circular economy system in the world.”

“We are really excited to be able to collaborate with such an innovative and creative company like Midea,” stated Alexandre Audouard, Vice President Standard Polymers Asia-Pacific, INEOS Styrolution. “Midea shares our passion for sustainability and we are fully committed to providing high quality products and sustainable solutions to help them achieve their sustainability ambitions.