KIVO earns ISCC PLUS MBA certification

KIVO earns ISCC PLUS MBA certification

Ever since its establishment, KIVO has proven itself through developments that help its customers. This is evident not only in our quality, but also in cost savings and sustainability. A new recent development in the field of sustainability is the achievement of the ISCC PLUS MBA certification. ISCC, which stands for International Sustainability and Carbon Certification, is an advanced programme and the first globally recognised certification scheme for biomass and bioenergy.

The system is based on 4 pillars:

  • reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
  • protection of land with high biodiversity
  • deforestation-free supply chains
  • environmentally friendly production to protect soil, water and air

In the case of plastics, it only concerns products whose raw material comes from sustainable sources. This may include raw material obtained from mechanical recycling (read: what is mechanical recycling?) and chemical recycling (read: what is chemical recycling?) of plastic waste, but also from oil from other sources such as wood waste or used frying oil.

The volumes are still too small to run production plants on. As a result, granulate producers are forced to mix those volumes with the fossil flows. In this way, it is impossible to produce granules with a fixed share of ‘green’, but because it is certain that there is a share of green in the chain, you can buy that share as a user. The supplier must keep a proper record of how much green material has entered the system and how much green material is sold on paper. These two flows must remain in balance.

This way of working, which we also know from the Green Power Certificates, is called the Mass Balance Approach (MBA). This system can be rolled out throughout the supply chain, with the most important condition for any system user: import and export of green material must be in balance. See figure 1 for an illustration.

iscc mass balance

Figure 1: The mass balance approach through the supply chain. Source: ISCC

ISCC ensures that this process from monomer to end product is carried out correctly. Each system user is audited separately and very strict conditions are attached to the certification. Green really must be green, and false claims or unexplained differences between import and export must be avoided. KIVO has demonstrated that it meets these conditions and will work to make this wonderful circular development a success.

After the wonderful developments in the use of recycled materials, this is a new step that fits in with our aim to eventually produce flexible plastics that are the most functional AND environmentally friendly alternative for many applications.

For more information on ISCC and the possibilities of using sustainable flexible films and packaging, please contact us.