Braskem and Acinplas sign partnership

08-03-2009: Braskem and Acinplas have signed a partnership for supplying green polyethylene from a 100% renewable source. The resin will be used to manufacture plastic films that will be transformed into a licensed product called Sistema Unisold®, used by companies run by Acinplas - Suzuki, Koba, Plasa, Voti and Tashiro&Takata. This system helps consumers when purchasing fruits and vegetables in the produce sector of the main supermarkets in Brazil and Europe because it provides perforated bags for accommodating food, offering practicality, hygiene and resistance.

This partnership was possible thanks to the companies’ focus on sustainable practices, especially in relation to the environment, since the consumer market increasingly demands ecologically correct products produced by socially and environmentally responsible companies.

Braskem recently announced the laying of the foundation stone that will produce green polyethylene in Rio Grande do Sul. The event symbolized the beginning of works at the first industrial unit in the world to use sugarcane ethanol to produce ethylene and polyethylene from a 100% renewable source on a commercial scale.

Total investment will be around R$ 500 million. The project foresees construction of an ethylene plant - polyethylene’s raw material - from ethanol. The unit will have the capacity to produce 200 thousand tons/year of ethylene, which will be transformed into an equivalent volume of polyethylene at already existing industrial units at the Triunfo Complex. Start-up of the new plant is projected for the fourth quarter of 2010 and commercial operations are scheduled to begin early 2011.