In line with its growing commitment to strengthening and building the circular economy, Braskem has launched Wenew, its new circularity ecosystem. From now on, the company's polymers and chemical products with recycled content in their composition, educational initiatives on conscious consumption and proper disposal, and technologies that support Braskem in its journey towards the circular economy will be identified by it, which is represented by a new logo.

Wenew is a concept that represents and consolidates Braskem's efforts on this front. It embraces four pillars - products, education, technology, and circular design - and will bring the company closer to a more circular future by investing in jointly building, with the production chain and society, an increasingly circular and sustainable world.

The creation of Wenew was the result of Braskem's recognition of the dimension and importance that the circular products and its own commitment to the cause have been gaining internally and externally, combined with the development, and increasing availability of such products and the need to further leverage the concept of circular economy across the chemical and plastic production chain. As such, it was necessary to rethink the existing structure and hence Braskem developed a model that considers both products and initiatives and which has the potential to embrace other circular fronts.

"Wenew emerged from our insatiable desire to do something new to build an increasingly sustainable world that values collective efforts," explains Edison Terra, vice president of Olefins and Polyolefins at Braskem in South America.  "Wenew is more than just a brand. It was born to further drive the efforts towards promoting the circular economy by showcasing Braskem's initiatives and by engaging and inspiring our stakeholders to take collective action for a better world. This initiative will have a tremendous impact on Braskem's growth strategy and on the achievement of its targets to reduce plastic waste. In other words, it is a big step taken by the company towards the circular economy."

Currently, Braskem has over 40 grades of post-consumer recycled resins in its global portfolio and about 42 grades under development. The circular products include those that are produced from mechanical recycling and advanced recycling, as well as chemicals, such as solvents and specialties resulting from the company's traditional production processes.

Apart from these solutions that will be part of the new ecosystem, Wenew will include, through Wemove - a term representing the notion of collective effort that guides Braskem's thoughts and actions to promote the circular economy - initiatives on environmental education, conscious consumption and proper disposal, targeted at the public, such as support for cashback companies and the Disposable Cups Reverse Logistics Program in Brazil;  Plastianguis in Mexico;  and its partnership with Philadelphia Eagles football in the United States, among others.  Wemove will also deploy innovative technologies developed by Braskem that are capable of transforming industrial processes, accelerating the plastic circular economy and fostering sustainable development, such as the next-generation solution being developed for advanced recycling of plastic waste and other circular design initiatives.

Plastic waste elimination targets

Eliminating plastic waste is one of Braskem's ESG commitments and, through Wenew, the company is reaffirming this goal. Braskem advocates and believes that the practice of recovering waste through recycling can help build the circular economy by preventing waste from being sent to sanitary landfills or improperly disposed of in the environment.  In this regard, Braskem plans to supply to the market 300 kton of products with recycled content by 2025 and 1 million tons by 2030.  By 2030, the Company will also strive to prevent 1.5 million tons of plastic waste from being sent to incineration or landfills or deposited in the environment.