Two companies — one in North America, one in Australia — have combined forces to develop a bioplastic clean room mat.
Purus International Inc., based in Indio, Calif., started working with Melbourne, Australia-based Secos Group Ltd. in 2016 to develop the mats.
Purus, founded in 2002, specializes in industrial mats for clean rooms, hospitals and other industrial uses.
Secos owns the Cardia BioHybrid brand of bioplastic resin, which contains a mix of renewable thermoplastics.
The new Purus mats contain some virgin low density polyethylene, but Secos Chairman Richard Tegoni would not provide details.
The mats remove and contain dirt and dust from foot traffic and equipment wheels.
Purus and Secos claim the mats are a world-first contamination-control product containing renewable plant-based materials. Traditional clean room mats are manufactured from 100 percent LDPE.
Dennis Baldwin, president at Purus International and a director of Purus Cleanroom Solutions Ltd., said that based on Purus's current annual production volume, the BioHybrid mats will save 135 metric tons of CO2 emissions.