PFNonwovens, a leading player in the global hygiene market, has announced that it has opted to use Borealis’ Bornewables PP resins for the production of its nonwoven materials for the personal hygiene market.
Demographic developments - population growth, aging - are resulting in rising demand for absorbent products in everyday personal hygiene, from baby diapers to feminine hygiene products and incontinence care.
PFN has teamed up with Borealis to use that company’s more sustainable PP resins for the spunbond and meltblown solutions it delivers.
“Anticipating the growing demand for more sustainable nonwoven solutions, we have focused our development resources over the past several years on the circular sphere to accelerate our journey towards climate neutrality,” explains Tonny De Beer, Chief Product, Technology & Sustainability Officer at PFNonwovens Group. “For PFN’s nonwoven products, fossil-based resins are today the main contributor to the carbon footprint. Therefore, using the Borealis Bornewables instead of standard fossil-based resins will significantly reduce the carbon footprint, even enabling products with a carbon footprint under zero.”
The portfolio of Bornewables consists of direct drop-in replacement materials manufactured with second-generation renewable feedstock derived solely from waste and residue streams, for example, from vegetable oil production, the paper and pulp industry or used cooking oil.
The renewable content in all Bornewables products is mass balance accredited under the ISCC Plus certification standard. This means these waste and residue streams are traceable back to their point of origin, following the ISCC Plus chain of custody, confirming their authenticity. The resins offer a reduced carbon footprint, enabling Borealis’ customers to meet their sustainability targets while maintaining existing quality standards. For PFN this means that for every tonne of certified Bornewables PP used in production, a maximum equivalent amount of nonwoven material can be claimed as certified renewable. And as drop-ins, no adjustments are required to be made to the existing manufacturing process
“Together we are reducing both waste and fossil depletion while delivering cost-efficient products for the hygiene market with a premium look and feel,” said Peter Voortmans, Global Commercial Director Consumer Product at Borealis.
Headquartered in Vienna, Borealis has grown into a leading provider of advanced and circular polyolefin solutions. Its circular economy solutions portfolio comprises proprietary mechanically recycled grades marketed under the name Borcycle M, the chemically recycled grades known as Borcycle C, the renewable feedstock Bornewables grades, and solutions for mono-material flexible packaging.