Case study: Dow Brings Circular Solutions to GLBI
Value chain partners tee up circular solutions at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational
As a GEO-certified event, the hallmark of the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational (GLBI) in Midland, Mich. is its commitment to sustainability. The 2022 tournament minimized water, waste and greenhouse gas emissions, also helping advance circularity. Since 2019, Dow has worked with key partners across the value chain to reuse and recycle plastic mesh fencing—equivalent to one ton of plastic—to create useful golf tools as part of Dow’s GLBI Closed Loop Initiative.
Dow, recycler KW Plastics, molder Core Technology Molding Corporation and sustainable golf leader Evolve Golf came together to find a new life for the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic mesh fencing from the previous year’s GLBI in the form of 20,000 ball markers and 5,500 divot tools for this year’s event.
Undeniable impact
“As the world’s largest plastics recycler, finding innovative ways to recycle used HDPE and PP plastics with partners like Dow is at the core of what we do best,” said Scott Saunders, GM, KW Plastics. “Finding new life for last year’s plastic mesh fencing was an exciting challenge and a continuation of our collaboration to create more sustainable solutions.”
Each company plays a vital role in recycling and reusing critical materials from the annual tournament, from collecting and cleaning the used plastic mesh, to pelletizing the HDPE and molding the recycled plastic into useful tools. And this type of collaboration leads to big impact. For example, last year’s closed loop initiative recycled over 1,500 pounds of plastic mesh fencing molded into more than 20,000 golf tees.
Committed to the future
“Our partners at KW Plastics, Evolve Golf, and Core Technology Molding Corporation went above and beyond to create the ball markers and divot tools for this year’s Dow GLBI,” said Toby Smith, Senior Customer Manager, Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics. “It’s only by working together with other like-minded organizations like these that we’ll continue to discover and scale sustainable solutions that extend the useful life of materials and the resources that go into making them. I can’t thank them enough for the collaboration.”
As the first-ever GEO-certified Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) event, the GLBI is planned and executed with sustainability in focus. GEO certification requires a five-year sustainability plan and commitment to establish sustainability initiatives and best practices. Previous tournaments recycled or reused 77% of waste generated, 80% of signage was reusable in the future and 26% of Dow GLBI shirts were made from recycled Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic.
Learn more about Dow’s sustainability initiatives and goal to collect, reuse and recycle one million metric tons of plastics by 2030.
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