Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Notable Leaders in Sustainability
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics Caps + Closures: A Global Online Event
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Bioplastics Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • PFAS Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Resin Prices Overview
    • Commodity Thermoplastics
    • High Temperature Thermoplastics
    • Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Thermosets
    • Europe - Virgin
    • Europe - Recycled
    • Europe - Feedstock
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
June 17, 2016 02:00 AM

Dow hits 'Holy Grail' with pouch recycling breakthrough

Jim Johnson
Senior Reporter
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Dow Chemical Co.
    Dow Chemical Co.'s RecycleReady technology alllows one type of pouch design to be easily recycled, with more developments expected.

    Miami — Calling it a breakthrough, Dow Chemical Co. has cracked the code to recycling certain multi-layer pouches that would otherwise typically be thrown away.

    The company's new RecycleReady technology works for one particular type of pouch design, but Lamy Chopin, global development leader for packaging and specialty plastics at Dow, expects this to be the basis for a long line of new pouch recycling developments.

    With RecycleReady, Dow uses its Retain brand of compatibilizer to allow polyethylene and ethylene vinyl alcohol to be reprocessed together to create a useful recycled film.

    This popular combination of PE and EVOH — until now — has given recyclers headaches because the EVOH barrier layer sandwiched between PE layers essentially gummed up when reprocessed, causing holes to develop in the recycled PE film.

    “It's a huge deal. It's a game changer for them. It's never been done before. It's kind of like the Holy Grail. If we can have everything, have the barrier properties and even have the recycling, that would be awesome. What it does is it serves a lot of different people in the value chain,” said Stacy Fields, North American director of packaging solutions for packaging and specialty plastics at Dow.

    “For the converter, we've given them options to have an offering now that meets a sustainability claim for themselves and even for the brand owner or retailer. For the recycler, we've given them now a recipe that's already self-made. They don't have to do anything additional. They just get it and process it,” Fields said.

    “It also gives the customer an option where they can also participate in the recycling program,” he said at the Global Pouch Forum in Miami.

    Dow originally developed Retain to help post-industrial recyclers reuse their PE and EVOH film, dosing it in with scrap material to allow EVOH to become compatible with PE during recycling.

    Jim Johnson

    Chopin

    “When we started the RecycleReady program we realized we would be able to take Retain and incorporate that directly into that recyclable film at the beginning when it's made rather than dose that in after it's made. And this allows us to design a fully recyclable film that also has the barrier properties that EVOH brings,” Chopin said.

    Adding Retain to the original film design allows for a ready-made resin combination that can be accepted at used film drop-off locations, such as those commonly found at grocery stores, without worry of EVOH contamination.

    Both the Sustainable Packaging Coalition and the Association of Plastic Recyclers, which keeps a close eye on the technical aspects of plastic recycling, accept Dow's recyclability claim.

    Users of the RecycleReady technology will be able to display the coalition's How2Recycle label on their packaging. That label will signal consumers that it's OK to put those pouches in film recycling drop-offs.

    “Now the recycler doesn't have to worry about what he's seeing. It's already compatible with the polyethylene stream. This is really focused on the store drop-off recycled stream which is already attuned to flexible material and it's also attuned to the idea of it being a polyethylene rich stream,” Chopin said.

    “We think this is the first of many developments we will take down this pathway now that we've established the concept and who to work with and how to get things done. We anticipate bringing a variety of new compatibilizers for other materials like polypropylene and other things that might enhance the performance of the stand-up pouch and still allow us to take it through the recycling stream,” he said.

    Pouches, which come in a variety of different resin types and combinations, are touted for many reasons: their light weight, portability, and lesser use of raw materials compared to other containers, for example.

    But the packaging segment has struggled to address its end-of-life story. Because of their complex design, sometimes including a metal layer, many pouches simply head to the landfill. Dow is hoping that will change through RecycleReady.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    US Merchants opens curtain on growing injection molding operations
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Ohio PET jar maker closes, auctioning off equipment
    2
    An 8,000-ton dream for Milacron, 20/20 Custom Molded Plastics
    3
    Nova declares force majeure for PE resin at second Ontario site
    4
    Preventing pellet pollution focus of expanded Operation Clean Sweep, congressional push
    5
    PS resin prices continue their climb
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Find more newsletters at plasticsnews.com/newsletters.

    You can unsubscribe at any time through links in these emails. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Notable Leaders in Sustainability
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Videos
      • Podcasts
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics Caps + Closures: A Global Online Event
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Bioplastics Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • PFAS Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Resin Prices Overview
      • Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temperature Thermoplastics
      • Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Recycled Plastics
      • Thermosets
      • Europe - Virgin
      • Europe - Recycled
      • Europe - Feedstock
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified