As the world grapples with the challenges of a growing population and finite resources, a transformative approach is crucial to ensure a sustainable future. BASF recognizes the urgent need to revolutionise the way we use and reuse resources, and is championing the circular economy as a beacon of hope.
By embracing this paradigm shift, BASF is committed to redefining the way business is done, prioritizing resource efficiency, product innovation, and sustainable production methods to create a closed-loop system that benefits both people and the planet.
In an exclusive interview with Elizabeth Osayande, the Chief Executive officer, CEO, BASF West Africa, Dr Jean-Marc Ricca gives insights on the innovations BASF is bringing into the Circular economy.

What is BASF’s understanding of a circular economy?

As the world’s population grows, so does demand for limited natural resources. At the same time, many recyclable materials end up in landfill or waste incineration. Using resources responsibly and closing loops are crucial for our business and achieving our climate targets.

The circular economy approach involves developing new business models and product designs that prioritize the use of recycled and renewable resources – this is important. It also involves implementing ‘closed-loop’ systems that enable the efficient recovery and reuse of materials as opposed to ‘open-loop’ or ‘linear’ systems that only lead to waste.

BASF is committed to supporting the transition to a circular economy through ambitious targets, a roadmap, and a comprehensive Circular Economy programme focused on resource efficiency, product innovation, and sustainable production methods. By prioritising the principles of the circular economy, BASF is working to create a more sustainable and resilient future for both its business and the planet.

What does this look like in practice? By adopting recycled and renewable feedstocks, shaping new material cycles, and creating new business models, we aim to leverage the power of chemistry for a more circular economy. Today, we already use biomass balance and chemical recycling to save fossil resources by using already existing materials in production.

By 2025, BASF plans to use 250,000 MT of recycled raw material to manufacture customer products – enabling our customers to directly drive the circular economy. By 2030, BASF aims to double sales from circular economy solutions to €17 billion – ensuring that the business case for the circular economy to thrive is firmly established.

This is what a circular economy means to us. BASF, leading the chemical industry by making the most of the planet’s finite resources and empowering others to do the same, maximizing the value of resources while minimizing waste.

What are the benefits of adopting a circular economy?

It is critical to understand that any existential threat to the quality of the natural environment is an existential threat to humanity. We already know, for instance, that the linear economy is responsible for about 70% of greenhouse gas emissions that directly contribute to climate change. By adopting the circular economy to become more resource-efficient, we reduce the current pressures of climate change on natural systems. This in turn creates a healthy environment for humans and businesses to thrive together.

Let’s take 3 examples from the BASF portfolio, for instance. First is our certified compostable plastic ecovio®. Farmers can now switch away from agricultural films that end up as microplastics in soil, to this biodegradable option from BASF that improves soil health over conventional plastics. Another example is battery recycling, where we have developed a highly efficient closed-loop process that lessens the industry’s dependence on harmful extraction while offering significant CO2 reduction in the production of electric vehicles.

As a third example (bearing in mind that there are many more success stories in BASF), we have developed a high-performance form of Polyester that is based 100% on post-consumer PET bottles.
As BASF has begun adopting circularity in our approach, we have even gone further to demonstrate the impact of the circular economy on the lives of people. Today, underprivileged communities currently bear a disproportionate burden of the consequences of waste.

But as we chip away gradually at the problem in West Africa and around the world, I have seen daily how much we can empower at-risk communities by involving them in newer, more sustainable business models accessible through the circular economy.

If we hope to have a decent chance at surviving the existential threats from the linear economy, there is no choice but to do things differently and leverage the circular economy as a vehicle for true sustainability – environmental, social, and economic.

Can you discuss some of the projects that BASF is involved in to promote circular economy practices?

Our work here is centred on leveraging our technical expertise as an enabler for the circular economy in West Africa, against the backdrop of an estimated 800,000 MT of annual plastics waste generation in Nigeria. In 2019, we started with our flagship project, Waste-to-Chemicals, targeted at maximizing the value of difficult-to-recycle waste plastics by converting them into chemical building blocks that can be used as feedstock for the chemical industry. In partnership with local social enterprises such as WeCyclers, we began to empower women and youth to join the cause while earning a decent wage.

Once we began to look at the average pile of waste with our ‘chemistry goggles’, we found more and more opportunities to create even more value. For instance, Polystyrene food packs that quickly disintegrate into microplastics. It was on this basis that our second initiative, Project STAR, was born. Through our global chemical network, we are demonstrating that there is a business case in capturing and recycling a material that previously had no real end-of-life solution.

We did not stop there. Yet another challenge we are addressing is the fate of End-Of-Life Insecticide-treated Nets; our project EOLIN has unlocked new sources of recyclables (rPET and rPE) from used mosquito nets, giving a new future to the history of over 200 million nets that have been donated to at-risk communities across Nigeria.

Another way we support local entrepreneurs to drive the circular economy is to provide the technology, such as chemical additives, to develop circular end products that can be recaptured over and over again.

We intend to keep going. All that we do is captured in our ethos – we create chemistry for a sustainable future. Nigeria, West Africa, and Africa have a role to play in that sustainable future. This is why our projects here are based on local needs while remaining connected to the big picture of global impact.

What are the opportunities and challenges related to the ban on Styrofoam by the Lagos State Government?

This is a very important question. For us, the ban presents a rare opportunity to establish the case for what we have been doing since 2019, which is to bring the full power of chemical expertise to the table in addressing unsolved waste problems.

The ban in Lagos is representative of what is to come. According to the 2020 Nigerian policy on plastic waste management, single-use plastics are to be phased out from 2025 onwards.

However, we can unlock new resources from many single-use plastics such as Polystyrene. By demonstrating that Polystyrene food containers are indeed recyclable, we are providing a basis to reclassify PS from being single-use to being a valuable resource that can boost the local economy. This will turn a waste problem into a new economic resource, and we are therefore continuing to create value.

Can you provide some insight into the collaboration between BASF and the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA)?

As an enabler, we are committed to playing our part in making Lagos State a better place. This shared goal of a better Lagos makes us a natural collaborator with LAWMA. First and foremost is our ability to provide the technical basis for creating new value from materials, in line with LAWMA’s vision to maximize the value of waste generated in Lagos State. Lagos State has so much potential, including that to be an advanced hub for the circular economy. With the majority of our projects headquartered here and directly plugged into systems overseen by LAWMA, we are jointly advancing the circular economy in Lagos State.

Given Nigeria’s current reliance on oil, do you think a circular economy could be a viable alternative?

The circular economy is so much more than recycling. It starts long before materials are discarded, even from when their raw materials are selected.

One way we describe our Waste-to-Chemicals project is that we are giving Nigeria’s crude oil a second chance. When petroleum resources are extracted to produce items such as plastics, you cannot necessarily put them back in the ground in their original form. What you can instead do is ensure that those resources are maximized by keeping them in circulation for as long as possible.

It is the same for current consumption patterns. As we scale our circular businesses and enable others in the ecosystem, we will make room for needed transitions while even stimulating the local economy along the way.

How is BASF addressing the issue of youth unemployment?

As an enabler, we can catalyze far-reaching effects wherever we operate. These effects include real impact on real people, the likes of which I have previously described.

One organization alone cannot employ all the unemployed youth – it would be unsustainable to even try. But one organization can drive ripple effects across the entire value chain that can create new jobs. By creating the local demand for higher-value skills through the circular economy, we lay the foundation for greater youth employment and empowerment across Africa.

To further bring home the world-class BASF experience in developing Africa’s future leaders, we also have relationships with other organizations such as the Lagos Business School, where we take on the best and brightest MBA graduates for three-month internships and some of them have been fortunate to join us as permanent full-time employees within Nigeria and Africa.