Oslo, Norway – October X, 2025 – Aker BioMarine and Aker QRILL Company are scaling up their collaboration with AION, Aker BioMarine’s circular design & operations partner, to improve the performance and efficiency of bulk packaging used across their global operations. The model ensures that critical packaging products are optimally used, recovered, and where possible reprocessed into new industrial products — reducing waste and cutting emissions.
The initiative builds on several years of work to close material loops within Aker BioMarine’s supply chain. Under the new framework, AION will manage the full lifecycle of a range of bulk packaging products — from sourcing and quality control to increasing the collection, recycling, and reintegration of materials. The partnership aims to significantly increase the share of plastic that stays in circulation by installing data-driven circular processes and by working with suppliers to apply mono-material design principles.
Matts Johansen, CEO of Aker BioMarine and Chair of Aker QRILL Company, said the collaboration represents a tangible step toward making circular systems standard practice across the business.
“With AION managing the process end to end, we can ensure that more of the plastic from our operations is recovered and reused — turning what was once waste into a resource.”
The most voluminous product under AION’s management are polypropylene (PP) “big bags”, which are an essential part of the logistics chain for krill-based products. AION has experience recycling big bags into new industrial goods such as pallets and secondary packaging — cutting the need for virgin plastic and reducing CO₂ emissions across the value chain.
Johansen added that the company’s broader sustainability efforts in Antarctica follow the same principle of circularity.
“For us, circularity doesn’t stop at packaging,” he noted. “Our work in Antarctica is built on the same principle — that sustainable use and protection must go hand in hand. From supporting high-protection areas in the Southern Ocean to reducing our operational footprint, we’re committed to showing how ocean industries can grow responsibly.”
AION’s CEO, Ed Dehnert, said the collaboration shows how innovation and circular thinking can turn industrial waste into new value.
“By offering specialized data, design, and operational support, we’re transforming the way packaging is managed for Aker BioMarine and Aker QRILL Company, that means fewer risks, smarter use of materials, and less plastic waste at every step of production.”
The approach reduces operational complexity and waste-handling costs while improving control, transparency, and environmental performance. It also underscores how synergies within the Aker group can accelerate industrial sustainability through practical, scalable solutions.
For Aker BioMarine, which launched AION in 2020 to scale circular solutions across industries, the partnership marks another step in the company’s commitment to decoupling growth from environmental impact.