Weekly Roundup: Braskem adds PCR to “I’m green” portfolio, Clariant and Polymateria bring biotransformation to South East Asia

18 Oct 2019 --- In industry news this week, Braskem announced the addition of a fully circular post-consumer resin (PCR) product range under the umbrella of its “I’m green” brand. In South East Asia, Clariant and Polymateria have joined forces to tackle plastic waste with new biotransformation technology. With the release of Ferrero’s annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, the company pledged to make all its packaging 100 percent reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. While Waitrose experimented with eliminating plastic wrap from its bulk canned goods, PepsiCo celebrated raising US$25 million in funds for plastic recyclability initiatives.

In brief: Launches
Biopolymers production giant Braskem will be launching its sustainable “I’m green” brand for global use. The brand will be extended to Braskem’s full circular economy product range as part of its commitment announced last year to help transform the linear economy into a circular economy. The company's “I'm green” portfolio includes several bioplastic solutions made from sugarcane. Now, this sustainable products portfolio is being expanded to include products containing PCR resins. These types of resins are made from products that have already been recycled and continue to be recyclable.

Clariant launched a product range of Near Infrared (NIR)-detectable black pigments and dyes to enable more efficient sorting and recovery of black plastics at recovery and recycling facilities. Providing an alternative to carbon black, which prevents NIR sorting scanners from identifying individual plastic types, Clariant’s set of NIR black colorants preserves the NIR identifiability of common plastics packaging as well as those used for housing and components in computers, TVs and other consumer electrical and electronic (E&E) equipment.

Waitrose has launched a plastic wrap removal trial to its aluminium cans in bulk.The Ferrero Group released its tenth CSR Report and announced a commitment to make all packaging 100 percent reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. The company is investing further in R&D to eliminate unnecessary plastic packaging, maximize the use of recycled materials within its product lines and explore projects to test new compostable packaging materials for targeted applications, with a focus on marine compostable solutions.

In brief: Trials
UK supermarket Waitrose is trialing the removal of plastic on thousands of multibuy tomato, beans and corn cans as it continues to remove and reduce single-use plastic. The company’s initiative aims to entirely remove the plastic wrap keeping cans in bulk from some of the retailer’s canned vegetables. The move will save 18 metric tons of plastic annually that cannot currently be recycled, says the company. If this project proves successful, the company will remove the wrap from further canned products. This initiative comes as a move to make all Waitrose own-brand packaging widely-recycled, reusable or home compostable, with a projected target to reach by 2023.

In brief: Partnerships
Bloom & Wild's boxes are designed to fit perfectly through the standard door mailslot. Polymateria, a UK-based business developing a new standard in biodegradable and compostable plastics, has announced a partnership with specialty chemical company Clariant to bring its new Biotransformation technology to market in South East Asia. Polymateria and Clariant have decided to focus on South East Asia as this is the main source of “fugitive,” plastic escaping the circular economy and leaking into the natural environment. In order for the circular economy to work, “Good Cycling” ensures the materials used are able to return to nature when the technical cycle fails without causing any ecotoxicology issues. Any plastic that is unable to demonstrate this, whether degraded or not, is categorized as “Bad Cycling” by the companies.

In cooperation with the US nonprofit organization The Recycling Partnership, The PepsiCo Foundation has announced their joint “All In On Recycling” challenge, the largest ever industry-led residential recycling challenge in the US, has successfully raised US$25 million in the 15 months since its launch in July 2018. This initiative invests in new infrastructure and education to double the number of recyclables recovered as well as increase awareness on the importance of recycling, says the company.

Inventor of mailbox flowers Bloom & Wild has sought out the assistance of DS Smith to develop a new decorative box for hand-tied flowers. The latter equipped said box with sustainable packaging using litho and digital printing processes. This allows for a high-quality print without the corrugated flute being compressed. DS Smith prints both the interior and exterior designs on the roll before the flute is placed between the layers and they are laminated together. The mailbox flower packagings deliver an aesthetic experience for customers, therefore a “fully personalized approach” was necessary for business, notes Kerry Dowse, Supply Operations Lead at Bloom & Wild.

Production facility at Agr International.In a bid to reduce virgin plastic creation, UK-based PZ Cussons under its Carex brand has teamed up with recycling expert TerraCycle to launch the Carex Recycling Programme, a free nationwide recycling program for hand wash pumps and refill pouches in the UK. Through the new Carex Recycling Programme, consumers will now be able to recycle these materials by sending them for free to TerraCycle. Doing so, consumers can earn points which can be redeemed as a monetary reward for a non-profit organization of the collector’s choice. Once the plastic products are received at the TerraCycle warehouse, the pumps and refill pouches will be separated by composition and sent for processing. The plastics are shredded and melted into pellets to be remolded into new recycled products, such as outdoor furniture and household items.

KHS has developed Unit Mold Control in cooperation with US company Agr International. This digital, automated process control system, connected with the KHS controller, now individually regulates the respective blow stations in KHS’ InnoPET Blomax series, thus minimizing any fluctuations in quality during stretch blow molding. As a result, the bottle’s stability is improved, coupled with lower perform weights. 

Smurfit Kappa has worked with Belgian specialty brewer Kasteel Brouwerij Vanhonsebrouck to produce a sustainable packaging concept that eliminates the need for shrink film. The latter was seeking to implement a completely circular supply chain and made a number of changes. These included using recyclable cans instead of glass to provide an additional more future-proof packaging solution, and removing the plastic. The 100 percent recyclable pack was also attractively designed and featured an in-built handle to facilitate easy transportation for the consumer.

By Anni Schleicher