Eastman Chemical Co.'s Tritan copolyester has been one of the rare materials that consumers know. Reusable water bottles, food containers, baby bottles, small appliances and other items on store shelves today are marked with labels identifying the clear plastic as Tritan, by name.
The Tennessee chemical company had the fortunate timing to introduce Tritan to the market just as BPA broke into the news as a material to avoid, and brands such as Nalgene and Camelbak promoted their use of Tritan to buyers.
But while all those water bottles were reusable, copolyester had a more complicated story when it came to the recycling stream. Now Eastman has a recycling-friendly update to Tritan.
The new Tritan Renew uses Eastman's Advanced Circular recycling technologies to use recycled plastic as a raw material.
"Our goal was to use waste plastic and to prevent single-use polyester from going to a landfill," Eastman Chairman and CEO Mark Costa said in a June 25 interview with Plastics News' Frank Esposito. Tritan "has been a phenomenal success for us for a decade as a BPA-free alternative to polycarbonate, and now we can add recycled content through molecular recycling."