Braskem’s renewable plastic to be used in the production of seats for the Amsterdam ArenA

By the end of the next two years, all 54,000 seats will be made of plastic from 100 % renewable raw material, using Braskem technology. The announcement was made on 11 November 2011, the day the Netherlands celebrate its national Sustainability Day.

The installation of the “sugar seats” – as these seats are being called – is part of a strategy to turn the Amsterdam ArenA into a landmark of the world's most sustainable capital. The stadium was inaugurated in 1996, and its remodel will not adversely affect the events. The entire remodelling project follows sustainability guidelines. In 2015, the stadium is said to be ecologically neutral, producing no carbon footprint.

Braskem produces Green Plastic since September 2010, when the company inaugurated the world’s largest plant of ethylene made from ethanol in the city of Triunfo (Rio Grande do Sul state), Brazil, with annual production capacity of 200 kt of polyethylene. According to the company, unlike fossil plastic, Green Plastic presents a positive environmental result: each tonne of plastic produced is said to avoid the emission of 2.5 t in carbon dioxide.

The project of the green ethylene plant, which was developed with Braskem’s proprietary technology, received investments of BRL 500 million (~EUR 209 million). The product is supplied to clients in Brazil and abroad, such as Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Toyota Tsusho, Natura, Tetra Pak, Danone and Chanel, among others.

According to Braskem, the company is the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in the Americas. With 35 industrial plants in Brazil, the United States and Germany, the company has the capacity to produce over 16 million t of thermoplastic resins and other petrochemical products per year.