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Blockchain supply chain use cases now include plastics

Blockchain supply chain use cases now include plastics

Marubeni, a large Japanese conglomerate, has announced that it has partnered with Dutch Blockchain start-up Circularise to track chemicals and plastics in their supply chain. 

Blockchain will be used as a tool for Marubeni to achieve its goal of making its business processes more sustainable. 

Circularise has already attracted another big partner in plastics traceability, in the form of Porsche. A similar objective saw Circularise employed to trace the plastics used in car production and to make sure that these materials were sustainable. 

Terumasa Watanabe, Senior Operating Officer, and Head of Plastics Business at Marubeni said: 

Circularise’s digital technology has the potential to provide visibility and enable improved decision making when it comes to sustainable raw material sourcing,” 

Privacy is an important aspect and needs to be counterbalanced with the transparency achieved by Blockchain. Suppliers of materials will use sub-contractors who will also have data that needs to be validated.  

Given the relationship between the supplier and their sub-contractors, it may well be that the supplier may not want to provide details about who they work with. Circularise has developed a solution for this issue called “Smart Questioning”.  

Using this technology, Circularise is able to query whether a material contains any toxic ingredients, such as mercury for example. In order to protect the identity of the supplier all that is needed is a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. 

Other Blockchain use cases for validating the provenance and sustainability of materials are expanding. Rio Tinto unveiled their START Blockchain solution for sourcing sustainable aluminium only a week ago, and BASF, a Canadian plastics recycler is using their reciChain to sort different types of plastics. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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