Having already teamed up with Fibertex Personal Care to introduce the first nonwoven fabrics created from post-consumer mixed plastics, SABIC has now partnered with Microsoft to introduce the Ocean Plastic Mouse.

Microsoft began this project with the aim of creating a plastic resin made from at least 10% recycled ocean plastic. SABIC joined the project to source the recycled material and to formulate a resin that satisfied Microsoft’s demanding quality standards.

The Microsoft design team collaborated with technologists at SABIC to provide feedback on prototypes made with the new resin, resulting in several rounds of reformulation prior to arriving at a final version that exceeded Microsoft’s initial 10% goal. The final product contains 20% recycled ocean plastic by weight in its external casing or shell.

SABIC’s new new Xenoy resin for the Microsoft product is now part of the Trucircle portfolio which spans a range of products and services. These include design for recyclability, mechanically recycled products, certified circular products from feedstock recycling of used plastic, certified renewables products from bio-based feedstock and closed-loop initiatives to recycle plastic back into high quality applications.

The project also provided a blueprint to demonstrate that recycling and reusing valuable plastic resins that have been recovered from the ocean is achievable when value chain partners use their knowledge and expertise and work together.

“SABIC faced a unique challenge in overcoming the degradation of ocean plastic to create this solution – due to exposure to sunlight and water, the plastic loses many of its original properties,” said general manager Abdullah Al-Otaibi. “Our collaboration with Microsoft represents an exciting development in recycling and reusing ocean plastic to create high-quality consumer electronic products.”

 “We hope that this first step on recycled ocean plastic will spur further action in our industry and we are excited for customers to be able to experience the product,” added Donna Warton, VP of supply chain and sustainability at Microsoft.

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