Ahead of K 2019, Clari­ant Reveals the Theme ​‘Sym­phony of Col­lab­or­a­tion’ to Tackle Plastics Waste Challenge

As action to tackle the chal­lenge of plastic pol­lu­tion gains momentum, includ­ing a new inter­na­tion­al frame­work signed by G20 min­is­ters to address mar­ine plastic waste, spe­cialty chem­ic­al com­pany Clari­ant (mem­ber of IBB net­work) announces pro­act­ive steps to foster part­ner­ships and cre­ate a more sus­tain­able plastics industry through a ​“Sym­phony of Col­lab­or­a­tion”. Whilst plastic has been described as the ​‘suc­cess story of the 20^th cen­tury’, its sus­tain­ab­il­ity is increas­ingly under the spot­light. Every year, about 200-mil­lion tons are dis­posed of in land­fills and about eight-mil­lion tons leak into our oceans. Respond­ing to con­sumer-led con­cern around this waste, Clariant’s ​“Sym­phony of Col­lab­or­a­tion” recog­nizes that reg­u­lat­ors, industry and soci­ety have a respons­ib­il­ity to work more closely to drive design for, and innov­a­tion in, the reduc­tion, reuse and recyc­ling of plastics. At K 2019, Clari­ant will shine a light on col­lab­or­at­ive sus­tain­ab­il­ity pro­jects and the products behind them, sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of solu­tions that will be adop­ted in the mar­ket. This includes the launch of a major new com­pany-wide ini­ti­at­ive spe­cific­ally focused on plastics’ recyc­ling. It aims to change the cur­rent take-make-dis­pose con­sumer atti­tude, mov­ing towards a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy for post-con­sumer and post-indus­tri­al plastic through three key ele­ments: the devel­op­ment of product and sys­tem solu­tions for recyc­ling; part­ner­ships with play­ers across the recyc­ling eco­sys­tem to draw on dif­fer­ent per­spect­ives and devel­op new solu­tions; achiev­ing a vast and diverse under­stand­ing of the chal­lenges by shar­ing know­ledge across dif­fer­ent recyc­ling tech­no­lo­gies and the value chain of recyc­ling. Already, one import­ant part­ner­ship has delivered some break­through res­ults. Togeth­er with the Finnish oil refin­ing com­pany, Neste, which is pas­sion­ate about giv­ing fat residues and dis­carded cook­ing oils a second life, Clari­ant has been explor­ing oppor­tun­it­ies to use renew­able hydro­car­bons, derived from this waste. More will be revealed at K, includ­ing new products for plastic applic­a­tions based on mass-bal­ance cer­ti­fic­a­tion for usage of renew­able poly­ol­efins. With a part­ner for Near Infrared (NIR) scan­ners , Clari­ant developed new col­or­ants for the black col­or­a­tion of plastics that can be iden­ti­fied by NIR sort­ing devices. This new range of black col­or­ants can be used for vari­ous poly­mers (e.g. Poly­ol­efins, PET, PA) and applic­a­tions such as pack­aging and E&E. This offers brand own­ers and mas­ter­batch pro­du­cers new oppor­tun­it­ies. In line with mak­ing recyc­ling a viable option, Clari­ant announces a sup­port boost for effect­ive mono-mater­i­al con­sumer solu­tions. A key pri­or­ity here is ensur­ing the attract­ive­ness of vir­gin PET for pack­aging. At K 2019, Clari­ant will launch its new mas­ter­batch for PET destined for the food and bever­age mar­ket. The pat­en­ted oxy­gen scav­enger is based on a new molecule that goes bey­ond exist­ing solu­tions for PET in pro­tect­ing con­tent shelf life and taste. It’s prov­ing a real suc­cess in ini­tial cus­tom­er tri­als, offer­ing the poten­tial to address a num­ber of chal­lenges for pack­aging pro­du­cers in one solu­tion. In a fur­ther drive for col­lab­or­a­tion, Clari­ant is also tak­ing its Eco­Tain® label, cur­rently awar­ded to a port­fo­lio of more than 200 products that show out­stand­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity advant­ages, to the next level. Eco­Tain is being expan­ded to include Eco­Tain Part­ner­ships that will foster col­lab­or­a­tion between at least three part­ners in the value chain to cre­ate con­crete sus­tain­ab­il­ity and busi­ness impacts, and advance envir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion and the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy. At K 2019, Clari­ant will issue an open invit­a­tion to com­pan­ies to come togeth­er and col­lab­or­ate spe­cific­ally on one par­tic­u­larly chal­len­ging aspect of recyc­ling. Clariant’s Richard Haldimann, Head of Innov­a­tion Excel­lence and Busi­ness Incub­at­or, said that the com­pany is proud to be fos­ter­ing these part­ner­ships across the value chain, from pro­du­cer to recycler: ​“Clari­ant has been provid­ing solu­tions to reduce the use of plastics, extend their life­time to enable reuse, and sup­port­ing recyc­ling for years. But we’ve learned from exper­i­ence that the wider prob­lem can’t be solved at an indi­vidu­al com­pany level. It’s a sys­tem prob­lem and col­lab­or­a­tion is key.” The Sym­phony of Col­lab­or­a­tion has begun, and will con­tin­ue, to open dia­logs, devel­op and deploy pro­jects that min­im­ize and man­age plastic waste and pro­mote plastic post-use solu­tions, help­ing to turn brand own­ers’ and man­u­fac­tur­ers’ sus­tain­ab­il­ity com­mit­ments into achiev­able goals. Advan­cing plastics in these dir­ec­tions through ded­ic­ated cooper­a­tion is the chosen way for­ward. Clari­ant believes it will more effect­ively find the optim­al solu­tions for the recyc­ling chal­lenge of its cus­tom­ers, increas­ing the attract­ive­ness and func­tion­al­ity of post-con­sumer and post-indus­tri­al recyc­late. And ensure addit­ives such as flame retard­ants or pig­ments don’t stand in the way of an application’s recyc­lab­il­ity or bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity or the adop­tion of renew­able-based plastics. With EU, and oth­er nation­al plastics reg­u­la­tions, set to come into force with­in the next five years, it’s clear that col­lab­or­a­tion, innov­a­tion and solu­tions to plastics waste are not only neces­sary, they must begin now. Clari­ant is set to reveal sev­er­al fur­ther excit­ing col­lab­or­a­tions and the sus­tain­able products behind them as well as its plans for Eco­Tain at K 2019, Octo­ber 19 – 23, Düs­sel­dorf, Ger­many (Hall 8a Booth J11). Insights and updates are avail­able ahead of the show at www​.clari​ant​.com/​K2019. Source: Clari­ant, Media release, 26.06.2019