Last month Dow Polyurethanes, a division of Dow, announced a pilot to use the ChemChain blockchain to help with the recycling of mattress foam. Recyclers need to have reliable information about the chemical composition of any product they’re processing. Hence by using blockchain to share data, it’s possible to identify the composition at every stage of the mattress’s life cycle.
The pilot is part of the mattress recycling program for Dow’s RENUVA brand.
“What if we could ensure transparency in a circular product without compromising confidentiality?” asked Jihane Ball, director of global product safety and compliance at Dow. “Our engagement with recyclers and customers on circular solutions has led us to pose this crucial question. Ensuring that the necessary compositional information can be shared at every step in the value chain is critical to enable circularity at the end of product life.”
ChemChain was created by the team behind the regulatory platform Chemycal and uses the Hyperledger Fabric enterprise blockchain. It recently announced another pilot trial with Belgian chemicals firm Solvay.
Blockchain is increasingly being used for recycling and the circular economy. Earlier this week, Mitsui Chemicals and IBM Japan said they would explore blockchain for recycling plastics.
Other firms in the sector exploring the technology are BASF with its reciChain, and Circularise, which is working with German plastic firms DOMO and Covestro, as well as Porsche and Marubeni.
