Already ranked by Corporate Knights as the world’s most sustainable corporation 2021, Schneider Electric has further enhanced its credentials in this area with the introduction at CES 2022 of what the company claims are the first home energy solutions to be made from upcycled ocean plastic. Schneider Electric now supplies a number of products in its Merten range of frames, sockets and switches that have been produced from recycled polyamide from fishing nets collected from the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The products come in 100% recyclable packaging that has been designed to eliminate all single-use plastic and non-recyclable materials from the packaging process.
The Merten Ocean Plastics family of products has been recognised by CES as a 2022 Innovation Award honoree in the Sustainability Category. Schneider Electric itself is not physically attending the Las Vegas event, which runs this year as a hybrid show from 5-7 January, due to concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant. The Merten product range is also the first in the industry to receive the international Cradle to Cradle Silver certification for responsible product design and steps taken towards a continuous circular economy. Ghost fishing gear, as the abandoned or lost fishing equipment polluting the oceans is known, makes up around 10% of all marine plastic waste. The new ocean plastic products contribute to reducing the 640,000 tons of discarded fishing nets each year and mark the first step in making this range of products more sustainable.
Schneider Electric partnered with Netherlands-based DSM, to convert the fishing net waste into high-grade technical plastic that can be used in electrical devices. DSM collaborates with several local communities in India to recover and collect discarded fishing nets, providing a significant benefit to the local economy and environment.
The abandoned fishing nets are then cut up, cleaned, extruded, and inspected for quality before being sent to DSM for processing into Akulon Repurposed compound. The carbon footprint of this new compound is 82% lower than the traditional virgin material used in similar products, reducing the potential impact on global warming, air acidification, and photochemical ozone formation in its manufacturing process. The final material also contains 15% glass fiber to enhance the products’ durability and to ensure all necessary electrical safety requirements and standards are able to be met.
