Dow adds to recycled plastic products

Petrotahlil - US chemicals firm Dow has developed and commercialized a formulated post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic resin in Asia-Pacific.

Such initiatives threaten virgin plastic demand, but it will take time for recycling to scale up enough to make a significant difference in the short term.

The resin designed with 40pc PCR content creates a film with performance comparable with virgin resins, Dow said. Using recycled plastics collected domestically in China, the product is made at Dow's external manufacturing site in Nanjing. The resin is designed to be used as 100pc of the core layer of collation shrink applications and will enable the development of film with 13-24pc recycled content.

Petrochemical firms have been stepping up their recycling and sustainability initiatives in recent years.

Kuwaiti petrochemical producer Equate this year announced its first production of food-grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate. Austrian chemical company Borealis last year signed an agreement to buy Austrian plastic recycling firm Ecoplast Kunststoffrecycling to expand its mechanical recycling capability.

Consumer firms like Unilever and Proctor & Gamble are also making sustainability pledges to reduce virgin plastic for packaging. Unilever in October last year said it intends to use more recycled plastic and reduce its absolute volume of plastic packaging by 100,000 t/yr to halve its use of virgin plastics by 2025.

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