This is the PDF of the Case Study by GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) of the Unilever failed experiment in Indonesia to #recycle #sachets using solvolysis. CreaSolv® Process. Between 2017 to 2020, Indonesia had counted on the CreaSolv technology to bring value for sachets and thereby create an economic incentive to collect multilayer-multilateral flexibles and keep them out of the environment. Environmental organizations had warned that it would not be feasible for Unilever to process enough supply of sachets given the challenges of collection, sorting, cleaning, processing costs and residue sludge treatment.
As reported in the GAIA investigation:
The CreaSolv facility needed to produce three tonnes of plastic pellets per day to stay operational and had plans to expand the capacity to five tonnes per day. However, after the initial stage of the pilot operation, the maximum amount of clean dry pellets that the facility was able to produce was only around five tonnes per month. At this rate, it would take 12,800 years to be able to process the amount of sachet waste annually generated in Indonesia. Even with Unilever’s ultimate target for the commercial processing of 27 tonnes of waste per day, it would take more than 77 years to process the sachet waste generated in one year.
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