Company launches first plastics research centre

29th November 2019 By: Halima Frost - Senior Writer

Company launches first plastics research centre

BACK TO GREEN The EcoCircle center of excellence brings with it support of the reduce, reuse and recycle concept

Specialist chemicals company Clariant last month announced the inception of its EcoCircle centre of excellence, based on its plan to offer significant support to reduce, reuse and recycle.

The first such centre will be based at Clariant’s Masterbatches Business Unit in Pogliano, Italy, and aims to be fully operational by the second quarter of 2020.

“The centre of excellence will, firstly, focus on the development of masterbatch solutions supporting the recycling process. However, it will also drive innovation and meet the requirements from the recycling industry. Further, this will be a platform for joint developments with clients and value chain partners,” says Clariant executive committee member Hans Bohnen.

He notes that these partnership efforts will ensure that the value of plastic is not wasted, but instead retained, recovered and reintroduced without negatively impacting on the environment.

EcoCircle brings together Clariant’s businesswide competencies and offers technologies of relevance to mechanical and chemicals recycling, enabling Clariant to screen and develop products with notable circular advantages.

Making it Known

Clariant launched its four sustainability designators, which enables clients to recognise particular sustainability attributes within Clariant’s products.

The four suffixes – aqua, terra, circle and vita – will be applied to the end of product names to make it easy for customers to identify products with key advantages.

The designators are being introduced in a step-by-step approach, depending on market and business needs, and will start with the Clariant Additives business.

Aqua describes water-saving products that support clients and/or the value chain in saving at least 20% of water in the direct use or end-use of their products.

Terra denotes products with a high renewable content, including a minimum 50% renewable carbon index (RCI) based on mass balance certification or real renewable content.

Circle will align to products with the primary purpose of supporting clients and/or the value chain in the reduction, reuse or recycling of plastic products, showing a beneficial performance that is validated in the market.

Vita will refer to products from natural origin, with at least 98% RCI real renewable content.

The first of Clariant’s product portfolio featuring these designators include AddWorks Circle, Licocare RBW Vita and Exolit OP Terra as well as Licocene Terra.

Through the introduction of the suffix system, as well as the centre of excellence, Clariant will be able to build up its know-how and the technical capabilities and jointly work with customers and partners along the value chain.

“We realised that to develop sustainable and innovative solutions, and solve issues in the recycling process, we need to have the expertise in-house and be able to reproduce the process on a smaller scale,” concludes Bohnen.