SABIC and NOVA Chemicals both recently released new resins made with recycled content, and INEOS Styrolution and TOMRA announced plans for commercial-scale PS recycling for food-contact packaging.
Polystyrene
INEOS Styrolution, TOMRA and recycling company EGN Entsorgungsgesellschaft Niederrhein partnered on a commercial-scale project to recycle post-consumer PS for food packaging applications.
Under the partnership, EGN will build a mechanical recycling facility with a processing capacity of 40,000 tons of post-consumer PS annually. EGN will handle sorting and washing, INEOS Styrolution will handle the purification process, which will comply with the European Food Safety Authority requirements for food-contact applications, and TOMRA will provide the sorting technology, as well as collection and transportation of the feedstock.
The facility is slated for a mid-2025 start-up in Krefeld, Germany, according to a press release.
Steve Harrington, CEO of INEOS Styrolution, said in the press release that the three companies bring “complementary expertise to this project, and because of this unique collaboration, we will be able to provide customers high-performing circular polystyrene produced at a significantly lower carbon footprint.”
Polyethylene
Pregis and NOVA Chemicals worked together to create a film from NOVA’s SYNDIGO recycled PE resin that “delivers on the market need for high-quality, food-safe recycled content solutions without compromising on performance.”
“The outcome of this joint development effort is a sustainable solution that delivers on film clarity, printability and processing performance,” a press release noted.
Pregis invested more than $100 million to build blown film extrusion operations and will now manufacture the new film offering, along with its other Performance Flexibles Renew series of films.
Alan Schrob, director of mechanical recycling at NOVA Chemicals, said the company has “a long history as a supplier to Pregis and see them as an ideal partner in delivering solutions.”
Flame-retardant PCR resin
SABIC launched a post-consumer polyphenylene ether (PPE) NORYL resin technology that can be used in more than 200 existing NORYL resin grades and new custom grades. It can handle 25% or more PCR, according to a press release.
Luc Govaerts, technology director of specialties at SABIC, said developing PPE-based engineering resins with high percentages of recycled material “is not trivial and poses a range of technical challenges.”
The new resin is SABIC’s first flame-retardant NORYL material. It could be used in electrical applications such as heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC) enclosures and photovoltaic/solar junction boxes.
