Düsseldorf, Germany — Avient Corp. is working to help customers meet sustainability goals in multiple markets.
"There's a lot of external pressure on brand owners from retailers to be part of the circular economy," Sustainability Vice President Walter Ripple said at K 2022 in Düsseldorf. "Brand owners are doing their part, but those 2025 or 2030 [sustainability] goals are coming up fast. That's where we come in.
"Customers want to lower their carbon footprint, and we can do that with recycled content or with biopolymers," he added. "We can help them deal with those challenges."
At K 2022, Avon Lake, Ohio-based Avient showcased its success in working with beauty products giant L'Oreal on developing colors with recycled resin for its packaging. The French firm used Avient's Post-Consumer Recycled Color Prediction Service on that project. The PCR Color Prediction Service is a digital tool for polyolefins and PET resins. It allows brand owners to understand what colors are achievable based on the amount of post-consumer content used.
"This means fewer color iterations, fewer color trials and fewer plastic bottles traveling from one time zone to another," L'Oreal product development manager Chantal Nestor-Saury said in a news release. "L'Oreal's Redken launch would not have been possible without this service."
New at the show were improved grades of Maxxam REC and Maxxam BIO materials. The REC line is polyolefins made with 25-100 percent resin from post-consumer and post-industrial sources. The BIO line is formulated with 15-100 percent bio-based resin and/or natural filler from renewable plant sources. Ripple said the new Maxxam materials "offer a balance of performance and processability."
Avient debuted new reSound Ultra-Low Carbon Footprint TPEs, which can achieve a negative, neutral or near-zero product carbon footprint. The new materials are aimed at applications in personal care, household appliance, consumer electronics and consumer packaging.
Also at K 2022, Avient offered Cesa Nox-brand polyolefin antioxidants for recycling. Officials said these sustainable materials are designed to improve the customer experience of working with post-consumer content for materials used in packaging. The new additives are based on a special formulation that protects post-consumer polyolefins against oxidation, which can lead to defects like black spots, gels and discoloration.
Avient has added two new grades of reSound REC-brand TPEs. Both grades are formulated with polyvinyl butyral recycled from automotive glass by Shark Solutions of Denmark. Applications for the new materials include automotive exterior and under-hood components.
On Sept. 1, Avient closed its acquisition of the Protective Materials business of DSM — including Dyneema high-strength fiber — for almost $1.5 billion. The business includes six production facilities, four R&D centers and approximately 1,000 employees.
Avient is one of the world's largest concentrate makers and one of North America's largest compounders. The firm employs more than 8,000 worldwide and posted total sales of $4.8 billion in full year 2021.