Savings Throughout the Value Chain

How One Milliken Product Can Have an Exponential Impact

Milliken’s additive portfolio–helps redefine the role of plastics as we look toward a more circular plastics economy. Imparting clarity, strength, barrier resistance, and enhanced overall performance, Milliken additives can fundamentally change the way plastics function for any number of applications. But one additive in particular, Millad NX 8000 clarifier, can also improve the sustainability of the value chain itself for polypropylene products.

Benefits of polypropylene

Polypropylene (PP) plastic is a highly recyclable option that, when utilizing specially formulated resins, is well suited for applications ranging from packaging to medical containers and devices to housewares and home goods. PP can be diverted from landfills and into recycling pathways to close the plastic loop and reintroduce that PP waste into new materials.

Clarified PP

Millad NX 8000 is a Milliken additive that brings hazy PP to a glass-like clarity state. Increasing the transparency of PP makes it a viable option for food storage and packaging needs, given the market’s expectation of product display. Many brand owners and resin manufacturers are seeing the value of clarified PP, and across our additives business, Milliken has seen the demand for clarified PP rise globally.

Clarifying agent that offers value-chain energy savings

Using Millad NX 8000 also results in significant savings. Millad NX 8000 can decrease the carbon footprint of the entire value chain, thanks to its average of 10% energy savings during clarified PP part manufacturing, a savings certified by UL. With lower energy use comes lower production costs. Millad NX 8000 enables lower temperatures during processing for lower carbon emissions and energy usage. The clarifying additive also helps streamline and increase efficiency during manufacturing, with less off-quality resin produced. When resin manufacturers realize these savings, the benefit cascades down the value chain in the form of lower carbon emissions, lower production costs, and greater energy and manufacturing efficiencies.

This value-chain-defining savings is indicative of Milliken’s overarching approach to sustainability. To act FOR HUMANKIND, Milliken advances solutions and practices that result in impactful sustainability gains. The Millad clarifier is just one product that illustrates this attitude, and Milliken doesn’t stop at product impact.

Reducing Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions

The Blacksburg, South Carolina, plant where Millad NX 8000 is manufactured used to rely on coal for its energy needs. In 2021, Milliken invested more than $25 million to transition the plant to a cogeneration, coal-free energy operation, resulting in a 20% increase in energy efficiency at the plant and a 9.2% savings company-wide in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions toward Milliken’s 2025 GHG emissions goal. The steam/power cogeneration project has also resulted in large scope 1 emission reductions that are assisting with our journey toward achieving our SBTi-verified near- and long-term net-zero targets.

While these gains are encouraging, we know it will take our collective expertise and cross-industry collaboration to achieve our ambitious net-zero targets, which have us reaching net-zero for scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 2050. Milliken is working to do its part in reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions, and we are engaging our value chain to reduce scope 3 emissions. Down the line, our customers can benefit from our work, given our scope 1 and 2 emissions account for our customers’ scope 3 emissions. By working together, we can reach new heights of sustainable manufacturing.