The newest film designs developed by Nova Chemicals Corporation have been formulated with post-consumer resin, the company has announced.
Their development is one of several initiatives the company is undertaking to make incorporating PCR into new packaging and products easier, said Greg DeKunder, vice president, polyethylene marketing, Nova Chemicals.
For example, last year, Nova Chemicals entered into agreements with Merlin Plastics and Revolution to its ready-to-recycle resins in 2019, which, in their virgin state, are designed to compensate for the potentially degraded physical performance of recycled content in film structures.
The company’s new film structure designs are easily customisable, and can be tailored to meet the demands of various film applications, from heavy-duty sack, collation shrink and stretch film to food packaging and protective packaging for e-commerce, such as bubble wrap and air pillows.
The recycled content in the designs is derived from post-consumer low-density and linear low-density polyethylene. Developed to meet the rising demand for packaging films containing recycled content, they will also help consumer brands meet their sustainability goals, according to Monika Kleczek, circular economy market manager, Nova Chemicals, next to accelerating commercialisation of these packages.
“The PCR teams at our Innovation Centres are working closely with film producers, converters and brand owners to design high-performance PCR-content consumer packaging,” she said. These innovation centres are staffed PCR experts and equipped with production, conversion and testing equipment in order to be able to provide support to customers on the use and processing of PCR materials.