Kingspan meets target to recycle one billion PET bottles per year into its manufacturing processes

This milestone marks the achievement of one of Kingspan’s Planet Passionate environmental sustainability programme targets, one year ahead of schedule
The achievement was made possible via a collaborative effort with Synthesia Technology – a subsidiary of Kingspan Group
Stacked on top of one another, one billion PET bottles would reach over halfway to the moon[1]^,[2]

Kingspan Group, a global leader in high-performance building solutions, today announces it has achieved its ambitious Planet Passionate target to recycle one billion PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles per year into its manufacturing processes by 2025.[3]

The achievement is part of a collaborative effort with Synthesia Technology (Synthesia), the subsidiary of Kingspan Group which specialises in chemical products, polyester polyols and polyurethane systems for thermal and acoustic insulation.

At its sites in Barcelona, Spain, Synthesia uses post-consumer waste PET as a raw material to create polyester polyols that are used in the manufacture of a variety of thermal insulation and insulated panel products, largely across the Kingspan Group. This recycling process not only helps to reduce the volume of waste PET that ends up in landfill or oceans, but also lowers dependence on virgin raw materials. With buildings and infrastructure accounting for 38.8 billion tonnes of global raw material consumption annually [4], such technologies will play a critical role in transforming how resources are used and managed within the construction sector.

Increasing its use of recycled, bio-based and renewable input materials is an important facet of Kingspan’s circularity strategy. The recycling of one billion PET bottles [5] by 2025 was a key element of this strategy and is fundamental to Kingspan’s ambition to help accelerate the transition to a circular economy, part of its wider Planet Passionate environmental sustainability programme, which was launched in 2019.

“Achieving our target to recycle one billion PET bottles[6] into our manufacturing processes is a critical milestone in our Planet Passionate programme, and we are immensely proud to have hit our goal one year ahead of schedule. This is testament to the dedication of teams around our organisation and the development of innovative recycling technologies by our Synthesia Technology business.” said Holly Loughman, Head of Sustainability at Kingspan Group.

Vittorio Bonapersona, Corporate R&D Manager at Synthesia Technology, added: “The demand for solutions that help tackle plastic pollution will only increase, and we are delighted to offer technology that contributes to this global effort while also supporting the construction industry’s transition to a circular economy. This milestone is an excellent indicator of what is possible when we commit to transforming how the world’s finite resources are used. For us at Synthesia and across the Kingspan Group, this is just the beginning; we are also leveraging our advanced technologies to recycle insulation waste, which will help us make further important headway as an organisation towards our circularity ambitions.”

For more information on Planet Passionate, visit Kingspan’s website here: https://www.kingspangroup.com/en/sustainability/planet-passionate/ Find more information about Synthesia Technology, visit the company’s website here: https://www.synthesia.com/en/