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K 2022 was all about pioneering innovations and developments in the plastics industry focused on the goal of greater sustainability towards a circular economy. As part of this vision, Milliken’s TechTalks brought together industry leaders to present their future perspectives and solutions.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of the 21^st century and one key TechTalk was focused on Milliken’s commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In line with the Science Based Targets Initiative, we have set targets for 2030 and 2050 against a set of standardized criteria. Deidre Sandrock, Director of Sustainability and Innovation and Scott Trenor, Milliken’s Principle Scientist provided an overview of planning and key examples of progress made.

Another TechTalk focused on the work of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, a global non-profit committed to ending plastic waste in the environment. We lead The Alliance to End Plastic Waste’s Design for Circularity thematic expert group, which aims to increase the circularity of plastic usage through enhanced front-end product and packaging design solutions.

Several TechTalks explored the work underway to achieve more effective recycling streams. A key objective is to achieve larger scale production of packaging materials with post-consumer content, necessary for a circular economy.

Participants heard the latest from leading recycling management company, PreZero, working in partnership with Milliken to produce polypropylene (PP) from previously sorted, washed and shredded post-consumer material. PreZero can guarantee the unique quality of its recyclate for demanding, customized applications. Milliken’s Hyperform HPN upgrades the recycled PP by improving the material’s physical properties while also reducing the cycle time needed to process it. The efficient use of HPN performance additive brings the performance of rPP closer to that of virgin PP, giving waste material a new life.

Another innovation that is converting recycled PP to a like-new PP resin is PureCycle Technology’s polypropylene. Our latest joint effort involves the launch of a concentrate for PP based on Purecycle‘s recycled PP carrier containing our Millad® NX® 8000 ECO, resulting in a fully sustainable PP concentrate that will produce parts free of odor. This will enable 100% recycled content and, when used in combination with PureCycle’s recycled polypropylene (rPP), produces a formulation that has approximately a 35% lower carbon footprint (GHG) than virgin PP.

Highlighted at K 2022 in one of our other TechTalks we also collaborated with ExxonMobil to combine our DeltaMax® performance modifiers with their Exact™ plastomers in a formulation that delivers improved impact while maintaining stiffness. As an added bonus, it also results in better melt flow for faster injection molding.

Digital watermark technology is another innovation covered in our TechTalks. It will revolutionize the industry’s approach to sorting, leading to greater accuracy and higher-quality recycling. Milliken is a proud member of the Digital Watermarks Project, a large-scale initiative testing barcodes imperceptible to the human eye, but detectable with a camera for computing devices, that add a ‘digital recycling passport’ to packaging. Participants heard how this exciting initiative is advancing to a semi-industrial scale in Europe.

‘Making tubes recyclable’ was the focus of another TechTalk where Huhtamaki’s Detlev Schulz and Milliken’s Tugce Asici outlined the development of monolayer tubes with Milliken UltraGuard™ Solutions. To help achieve a circular economy, Huhtamaki is applying Milliken’s additives to improve barrier performance of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to create mono-material tubes with a better shelf life and enhanced recyclability.

‘Advancing the Growth of PHAs via Formulation and Nucleation’ was a topic that addressed the combination of science and design insights to generate products more sustainably. Participants heard from the CEO of Helian Polymers/Pharadox, Ruud Rouleaux, and Milliken’s Principle Scientist, Scott Trenor on scaling this unique family of materials.

The session ‘Automotive ‘’Orange is the New Black‘’’ covered solutions for high voltage EV connectors with Milliken's RESIST™️ Orange XTR 9798. This talk showed how customers can formulate RAL 2003 shade using RESIST XTR Orange 9798 with multiple high-performance polymers such as Polyamide 6, Polyamide 66, PPA’s, PBT and PSU.

These TechTalks were future focused snapshots into how Milliken is an innovative creator with partners across the plastics value chain. This innovation and collaboration will help the entire industry to advance towards a circular economy for a better tomorrow.

View or recap Milliken’s inspiring K 2022 TechTalks here.