Solutions towards a circular plastics economy

Plastics are behind many technologies and products that make our lives safer and easier every day but it’s true that a large percentage of plastic still ends up landfilled, incinerated or leaked in the environment. From design and materials choice to sorting, recycling and reprocessing, there is enormous scope for innovation to solve the plastic waste problem and move towards a plastics circular economy. This considers every stage of a product’s journey before and after it reaches the customer, and with a holistic mindset Milliken is working on multiple fronts to help make this happen for polypropylene and polyethylene packaging. 

On Recycling

Many of our efforts are geared towards advancing recycling as well as actively participating in industry efforts to advance plastics circularity. 

To provide more tools for improving the utility of recycled polypropylene, Milliken recently acquired Germany’s Zebra-chem GmbH, whose masterbatches and modifiers help manufacturers to incorporate up to 100% recycled content into new plastics.

Milliken has a close partnership with PureCycle Technologies, which is now on track to commercialize its novel technology in 2022. PureCycle employs a patented recycling method that restores virgin-like quality to waste PP resin. All color, additives, odor and other contaminants are removed. This will enable the recycled material to become truly circular and be reused in its original application. As well, the PureCycle technology can take non-traditional or non-packaging recycle streams to upcycle their use as packaging. The company plans to scale production to around 500-thousand tonnes of virgin-like recycled polypropylene by 2025. Our exclusive supply relationship with PureCycle will help solve the plastics end-of-life challenge. 

Milliken is involved in the collaborative efforts of the Association of Plastics Recyclers in the U.S., RecyClass in Europe, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, and The Recycling Partnership’s Polypropylene Recycling Coalition. These organizations are doing essential work to ensure that any recycling solutions are broadly applicable, widely adoptable and that the appropriate infrastructure is in place to keep packaging out of the landfills and environment.

On Design and Materials

Polyethylene (PE) is an important packaging material. Barrier packaging has traditionally consisted of polyethylene and other materials in a multilayer construction to deliver the performance characteristics that preserve sensitive products. Unfortunately, such constructions are not easily sorted and recycled, as the layers cannot easily be separated, meaning that the package usually ends up in an incinerator or a landfill. 

Milliken’s UltraGuard Solutions are helping to address this materials challenge, first in the chemistry lab and then at the design phase. In the case of barrier packaging, designing for circularity means finding a way to make more of these packages using mono-material constructions that are more easily recyclable. UltraGuard nucleation technology, when used with polyethylene, serves to improve the barrier properties to such an extent that the resulting PE resin can be used to reduce or replace polyamide and EVOH (ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer) barriers in flexible packaging. 

Reducing the amount of material needed in the first place is another highly efficient approach to improving sustainability. To that end, Milliken has worked with Alltrista and Dow, to fine-tune an UltraGuard-modified HDPE resin that will help GlaxoSmithKline to reduce the weight of its Advil bottles by over 225 tonnes a year, while still meeting strict performance requirements. Once used, the bottles will be fully recyclable in the HDPE waste stream. 

A Circular Future

With a clear priority to help create a circular economy for plastics, the market will continue to guide our partnerships and research and development of advanced polymer additives that can help us achieve this and create a positive impact on the world. How can Milliken help you achieve your circular plastics goals?