Dr Ingo Jeschke, Technical Marketing Manager, Wacker
Every month, we present 5 facts about a member of European Bioplastics. This time, Dr. Ingo Jeschke, Technical Marketing Manager at Wacker, shares some interesting insights on the company.
5 facts about Wacker Chemie AG
WACKER is a globally active chemical group with its headquarters in Munich, Germany. With a wide range of state-of-the-art specialty products, WACKER is a leader in numerous fields and industries. WACKER products are essential in countless high-growth end-user markets, including photovoltaics, electronics, pharmaceuticals and the household/personal-care sector. Founded in 1914, the Group operates 27 production sites today, supplying over 3,200 products to thousands of customers worldwide. WACKER is represented by subsidiaries and sales offices in 32 countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia. WACKER’s operations are divided among the following business divisions: WACKER SILICONES, WACKER POLYMERS, WACKER POLYSILICON and WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS.
For more than 100 years, WACKER has been successful in the marketplace with a strategy geared toward customers, markets, and products. As part of this process, the company has changed and realigned itself again and again, and 2022 marked one such a strategic turning point – one where growth and sustainability go hand in hand. WACKER wants to grow their business profitably while significantly reducing their absolute greenhouse gas emissions.
This long-term strategy – the compass that will guide the company between now and 2030 – is influenced most of all by the conviction that WACKER’s solutions are creating a better world for future generations. While WACKER is intensifying its investment in capacity expansion to meet strong demand from its customers, they are, at the same time, systematically working on their own sustainability goals, aiming to achieve net zero by 2045.
Silicon-based products account for about 70 percent of WACKER sales, and products that are primarily ethylene-related for 30 percent. WACKER’s customers come from virtually every major sector, with demand for their products particularly strong in the construction and automotive industries. More than two-thirds of WACKER’s portfolio are already based on sustainable solutions. WACKER has several tools at their disposal for evaluating and rating the sustainability of their products throughout their life cycles, and each of these tools has a different focus.
WACKER’s products help to optimise the production process of bioplastics and their property profile. Bioplastics, in particular biopolyesters, are highly promising, sustainable alternatives to petrochemical products. They are based on renewable raw materials and, ideally, they are biodegradable. In packaging especially, many end products – such as films, blister packs, bags, or shaped trays – can be made from biobased polymers or polymer blends. VINNEX®, a polyvinyl-acetate-based additive from WACKER, not only allows biopolyesters and other additives to be combined more readily, it also optimises their processing and property profile. Furthermore, these high-performance blends can be processed using conventional machines.
To reduce the carbon footprint of its products, WACKER also offers VINNEX® eco-grades, which are based on renewable resources. VINNEX® eco is based on the mass balance approach and complies with ISO 14040/44.