Sulzer facilitates creation of building panels from Tide ocean plastic

The Basel-based company Tide Ocean SA can now also offer sustainable products for the packaging and construction industries. Sulzer, an industrial group based in Winterthur in the canton of Zurich, and the University of Applied Sciences for Eastern Switzerland (OST) have proven that Tide’s ocean plastic can also be converted into high-quality foams. A press release from Sulzer on this states: “ This development will help #tide to accelerate its work in addressing pollution and increasing the adoption of recycled polymer-based products.”

Tide states that it has already taken 25 million bottles out of the ocean over the past two years. Tide makes its award-winning #tide ocean material from this. It is already used in various products as a granulate or as fibers. Tide agreed on a collaboration with the retailer and wholesaler Coop in November within the context of the Kickstart program. The two companies are aiming to develop the first luggage and the first packaging for cosmetics and residential care from plastic taken from the sea. Major brands including Tom Ford and Yamamay have already brought products with #tide ocean material to market.

In its search for new processes to recycle plastic waste from the sea, the University of Applied Sciences for Eastern Switzerland turned to Sulzer Chemtech. According to a press release, its pilot system has been used to prove that it is possible to use recycled granulate to manufacture new, expanded PET foam panels (XPET).

Tide also announced on December 2 that it has been selected by the world’s largest innovation platform, Plug And Play, which is headquartered in California and has a new branch in Arlesheim in the Swiss canton of Basel-Landschaft, to participate in the first Sustainable Fashion Batch. This makes Tide one of twelve startups to be able to present its innovations to fashion empires like Nike, PvH (Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein), and Inditex (Zara, Massimo Dutti).