Use of plastics’ strengths
Plastics bring unique benefits to many applications that often extend their lifespan. This is particularly important for future technologies, such as the production of green hydrogen. For example, Ultrason S3010 (PSU: polysulfone) enables the production of larger, more robust and durable parts like frames in stacks for alkaline electrolyzers developed by Stargate Hydrogen.
In high-performance household appliances like the latest Thermomix by Vorwerk Elektrowerke, BASF’s engineering plastics, Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE), and testing capabilities support complex applications. Several parts are made of either Ultramid Advanced N (PPA: polyphthalamide) or Ultramid A (PA66: polyamide 66), selected for their high temperature stability and mechanical strength respectively.
In the eMobility sector, BASF has developed a next-generation battery demonstrator featuring advanced plastic material solutions to enhance lightweighting, thermal management, safety and performance.
Recycle is the new Make
As part of its commitment to a circular plastics economy, BASF is scaling up complementary recycling technologies to give waste a second life. Across various industries - packaging, furniture, appliances, textiles and vehicles - new solutions demonstrate how recycling becomes an engine of innovation.
To support efficient recycling processes, BASF subsidiary trinamiX provides a handheld tool for fast and reliable identification of different plastic and textile types. The trinamiX Mobile NIR Spectroscopy Solution facilitates cleaner sorting and improved recycling outcomes.
For paper-based food packaging, BASF extends the end-of-life options to organic recycling. Its tailored certified home and industrial compostable ecovio allows coating on paper food articles to achieve necessary barrier properties, especially for liquid and fatty ingredients.
As a leader in the polyurethanes (PU) business for more than 60 years, BASF is committed to demonstrating PU’s versatility and recyclability:
- Together with its long-standing partner Vitra, BASF is showcasing the world’s first economically recyclable flexible foam for furniture.
- In collaboration with Krauss Maffei, Rampf and Liebherr, BASF is also developing an efficient chemical recycling process to return polyurethane to the same material cycle. In a stable, continuous industrial depolymerization process, recycled polyols are produced, which can be used to manufacture new PU rigid foams as insulation material in refrigerators. By using post-consumer waste from end-of-life refrigerators as feedstock, the consumption of fossil resources can be significantly reduced.
Thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) also enter the circular economy: the new Elastollan® RC grades include up to 100% recycled content with close to virgin performance by re-using post-industrial and post-consumer TPU waste.
With loopamid, BASF has developed an innovative solution to improve circularity in the fashion industry and recycle post-industrial and post-consumer polyamide 6 textile waste over multiple times.
Finally, BASF is advancing numerous projects in the recycling of automotive plastics via mechanical recycling, solvent based recycling, depolymerization and high temperature recycling such as gasification.
Join the conversation
BASF’s booth at K 2025 will also host live sessions such as #OurPlasticsDialogues - bringing together industry voices, partners, and customers to explore challenges and opportunities ahead.
This year’s K-Fair theme, “The Power of Plastics!”, aligns perfectly with BASF’s vision to lead purposeful transformation across the plastics value chain.
For over seven decades, BASF’s booth at K has been a central hub for materials, innovations and co-creations and a platform for personal exchange. This year, BASF will be present with six different teams: Performance Materials, Monomers, Styrenic Foams, Plasticizers, Plastic Additives and trinamiX.
