Jokey, Henkel and Akpol cooperate to promote circular economy in Poland

The Jokey Group has launched a cooperation in Poland together with Henkel Adhesives Technologies and Akpol, a Polish specialist in plastics recycling.

The collaboration aims to advance the circular economy in both the plastics industry and the construction sector and further solidify sustainability along the entire value chain. The three companies have already been active in a pilot project with fully recyclable packaging since 2021. The project explores the possibilities of closed loops, where raw materials are kept in strictly closed cycles. To ensure this, Henkel as brandowner, Jokey as a specialist in sustainable packaging solutions and Akpol as an expert in plastics recycling work closely together: Henkel fills construction products for the Polish market in recyclate buckets from Jokey, to which Akpol supplies the raw materials recovered through recycling. These come from a customized collection system. In this process, used Jokey buckets are specifically collected from construction sites and delivered to Akpol for recycling. The company recovers high-quality post-consumer recyclate from it through mechanical recycling and supplies it back to Jokey for the production of new recyclate buckets. After the test phase, the project will be analyzed and expanded if the closed loop is successful.

“For us, this project is significant in several ways,” emphasizes Lukas Heller, Key Account Manager Jokey, “because we launched the first buckets made from post-consumer recyclates back in 1991 – for our customer Henkel! At the time, these were considered 'drab eco-buckets'. Today, on the other hand, they are seen as a clear statement in favor of the circular economy. This is precisely what our successful 'Gray is the New Green' campaign is aimed at. We are therefore pleased that this renewed collaboration closes the circle in two respects: on the one hand, with regard to our early joint sustainability ambitions, and on the other hand, with regard to plastics cycles.”

Henkel also sees sustainable packaging solutions as an important pillar of the company’s commitment to sustainability: “Henkel is intensively committed to driving the circular economy across all industries, including in our construction business,” affirms Adrian Orbea, Corporate Director Global Marketing, Digitalization and Sustainability for the Construction Business at Henkel. “We invest and collaborate to develop energy-efficient solutions as well as sustainable building materials, focusing on the three key areas of CO2 reduction, safe housing and circular economy. As part of our commitment to this last pillar, we are now launching new sustainable packaging that is fully recyclable and maximizing the amount of recycled content in the packaging.”

And Rafal Topolski, sales manager for regranulates at Akpol, is pleased to be able to participate in this project together with Henkel and Jokey: “We recycle the used buckets we receive and produce pure post-consumer recyclates from polypropylene for the production of new recyclate buckets. So all three of us can help close the loop.”

Jokey has long been committed to the further development of the circular economy – in Germany, Europe and worldwide. The Jokey Eco Concept contains the complete sustainability program and provides a clear orientation to further adapt Jokey products to the requirements of a circular economy, lower the CO2 footprint and achieve the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement. This also includes constantly exploring new ways of completely closing plastic loops in various pilot projects together with selected partners. In addition to established collection systems, customized disposal concepts also play a role. This is because the more homogeneous the sorted materials from the collection systems are, the more specifically they can subsequently be fed into the recycling loop.