Israel’s Keter Group, the world’s leading manufacturer of resin-based household and garden consumer products, on Monday announced a three-year partnership with Tel Aviv-based UBQ Materials, whose revolutionary technology turns landfill-destined household waste into thermoplastic.
More than two billion tons of household waste is dumped into landfills every year, and UBQ, the material that the company produces, is a unique construct that breaks down all organic and artificial waste to create an eco-friendly alternative to wood and oil-based plastics.
“In the case of conventional plastics, they are made out of oil,” UBQ Materials CEO and co-founder Tato Bigio told The Jerusalem Post Monday. “We are a completely different story because we start from municipal household waste in its original form.
“Organic material, cardboard, papers, the mixed plastics in waste, everything that goes into your garbage bag, is the raw material for this new thermoplastic that we call UBQ,” he said. “We take all the waste, and we convert all these materials into one homogeneous thermoplastic.”
The company was established in 2019, but it is already making an environmental difference. Every ton of UBQ material used saves about 12 tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere, Bigio said, adding that the recycling of organic material can also reduce methane emissions, which can be between 86 to 105 times as powerful as carbon dioxide at affecting climate.
New products made out of UBQ will include between 15% and 60% of the bio-friendly material, Bigio said.
“Landfills create enormous harm – the space that they take up, the smell they produce and the effect that they have on wildlife,” he said. “Today, companies are looking to drop their carbon emissions. When you use UBQ, you are saving carbon emissions.”
Keter’s use of UBQ’s thermoplastic is part of its effort “to achieve its sustainability goal of incorporating 55% recycled content in its manufactured products within five years,” Keter said in a press release.
“To reach our climate goals, we are going far beyond the classic recycling method by incorporating climate-positive UBQ™,” said Iftach Sachar, managing director of global sustainability, marketing and innovation at Keter. “This partnership will allow us to differentiate ourselves in the market, bringing a new level of sustainability to consumers and retailers without compromising on quality or competitive pricing of our products.”
The new partnership follows UBQ’s announcement of a new facility in the Netherlands, which will produce an estimated 72,000 tons of UBQ annually.
Alongside already having deals in place with McDonald’s and Daimler, among others, Bigio said he hopes for more climate-friendly consciousness activity from big industries in the future.
“The power has to come from the consumers,” he told the Post. “Then the pressure is on the companies, the financial markets, governments [and] regulators. And when you have that type of awareness, everyone wants to follow.
“Education is very important,” Bigio concluded. “Education is very environmentally minded now – and I’m very optimistic.”