The Plastics Industry Association has announced the winners of its 2023 Re|focus Sustainability Innovation Awards. The awards, which have been presented annually since 2019, recognize companies for environmental advances in product design, sustainable materials and the end-of-life recovery of plastics.
The five winners of the 2023 Sustainability Innovation award are:
Avient says its entry is the first digital tool of its kind that can illustrate the color possibilities or limitations of certain types of recycled resins (PCR) prior to laboratory trials. That work can help shorten the time-to-launch of new product ranges, allowing fast and reliable checks prior to initiating sample development and simplifying the overall decision-making process for brand owners and technical colorists
The tool was adopted for use by major cosmetics brand L’Oréal for its global Redken launch in 2022.
“As early adopters of our PCR Color Prediction Service, L’Oréal achieved consistent colors across various PCR grades in different countries, enabling them to launch with fewer color iterations and color trials thereby reducing complexity and increasing speed,” said Mayendran Pillay, director of marketing for color and additives, U.S. and Canada, at Avient.
EcoPrime, a food-contact approved recycled material made from post-consumer food containers, leverages Envision Plastics’ post-extrusion and chemical-free devolatilization process to decontaminate and clean recycled resin. The company says the process eliminates odors, volatiles and semi-volatiles from the resin, enabling it to be reused for direct food contact applications.
“We are proud to be partnering with and enabling brands around the world as they work to achieve their sustainability goals, meet legislative requirements, and contribute to the circular economy," said Khosrow Hallaji, senior director of technology and innovation for Envision Plastics.
ExxonMobil says its Exxtend technology for advanced recycling works by breaking down plastics to the molecular level, creating building blocks for new virgin-quality plastic and other valuable products that can be put back into the value chain.
The capability to process plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled wide offers a complementary path to widening the availability of recycled polymers and "helping to meet growing customer demand for plastics circularity," said Melanie Bower, head of external and regulatory affairs for advanced recycling at ExxonMobil.
Solvay’s Amodel is a partially bio-sourced long-chain polyphthalamide (PPA) made from nonfood competing biomass, produced using 100 percent renewable electricity. The materials company says it has the lowest global warming potential (GWP) of all PPA resins. The material is targeted at the automotive and electronics industries, and is particularly suitable for e-mobility and electrical applications such as surface mount devices, connectors, circuit breakers, switches and fluid connectors.
This award goes to the company with the best overall score across the three categories. Amcor submitted three entries, each of which marks the company's development of more sustainable packaging solutions for customers while "advancing the circular economy for plastics’, said Terry Patcheak, vice president R&D, sustainability and program management at Amcor Rigid Packaging. These innovations were:
Quantum Premium lightweight finish technology, a two-step lightweighting technology that eliminates unnecessary material — more than 50 percent of the weight in the finish of a PET bottle. The technology reduces manufacturing costs and GHG emissions, resulting in energy savings and lower carbon emissions compared with bottles with a traditional finish.
PowerPost lightweighting technology for hot-fill beverages. This technology delivers a fully recyclable bottle that is up to 30 percent lighter and can be made with up to 100 percent recycled material. The technology enables a 30 percent energy reduction and 30 percent carbon savings over most 20-ounce (600-millilimeter) bottles available today.
PepsiCo 2.5 L PET returnable, reusable and refillable bottle is a 100 percent recyclable and refillable 2.5-liter PET bottle created in partnership with Gepp, PepsiCo’s exclusive bottler in Mexico. These bottles are made from a tailor-made PET designed to allow hot filling and carbonated soft drink (CSD) packaging and to be washed and refilled multiple times. Amcor’s life cycle assessment from cradle (raw material) to gate (production) of the PET returnable bottle against a common glass bottle demonstrates that non-renewable energy consumption is reduced by 57 percent and water consumption is reduced by 49 percent, ultimately leading to an overall carbon footprint reduction of 78 percent.
In a statement, Patrick Kriegar, vice president of sustainability for the Washington-based Plastics Industry Association, said that the "plastics industry is innovating every day to find new ways to keep plastic in the circular economy and out of the environment. I congratulate our winners and am proud to be part of an industry that is committed to sustainability and advancing the circular economy.”
This year’s Re|focus event will take place May 1-3 in Minneapolis. The awards will be presented during a ceremony on May 2.
Karen Laird, editor of Sustainable Plastics magazine, was one the judges of the Re|focus awards.
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]