The Plastics Industry Association - PLASTICS - has announced the winners of its 2023 Re|focus Sustainability Innovation Awards. The awards, which have been presented annually since 2019, recognise companies that are driving environmental advances in product design, sustainable materials and end-of-life recovery of plastics.
The five winners of the 2023 Sustainability Innovation award are:
Avient’s entry stood out as the first digital tool of its kind that can illustrate the colour possibilities or limitations of certain types of recycled resins (PCR) prior to laboratory trials. This 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 colourists.The tool has been adopted for use by major cosmetics brand L’Oréal for their global Redken launch in 2022. “As early adopters of our PCR Color Prediction Service, L’Oréal achieved consistent colours across various PCR grades in different countries, enabling them to launch with fewer colour iterations and colour trials thereby reducing complexity and increasing speed,” saidMayendran Pillay, Director of Marketing for Color & Additives, U.S. and Canada, at Avient.
EcoPrime, a food-contact approved recycled material made from post consumer plastic food containers, leverages Envision Plastics’ patented, post-extrusion, and chemical-free devolatilization process to decontaminate and clean the recycled resin. The process eliminates odours, volatiles, and semi-volatiles from the resin, enabling it to be reused for direct food contact applications.
As prominent experts in fit for food contact HDPE and PP PCR solutions, Envision Plastics are excited to receive the Re|focus Sustainable Innovations award in the Materials category, said Khosrow Hallaji, Senior Director of Technology and Innovation for Envision Plastics. “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.”
The winning entry in the end-of-life category was submitted by ExxonMobil. Their 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. This 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 PPA made from non-food competing biomass, produced using 100% renewable electricity and hence featuring 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 truly celebrates our efforts and initiatives to pioneer the sustainability focus on the industry today,” said Brian Baleno, head of Marketing Automotive at Solvay Materials. “It is great to see appreciation for a solution that reduces environmental impact, without compromising on material performance!"
This award, which honours a company with the best overall score across the three categories, went to Amcor Rigid Packaging. Amcor submitted three entries, each of which underscores the company’s ongoing commitment to develop and deliver novel and more sustainable packaging solutions for its customers, while ‘advancing the circular economy for plastics’, said Dr. 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% - 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 to bottles with a traditional finish.
PowerPost lightweighting technology: the most advanced lightweighting technology for hot-fill beverages. This technology delivers a fully recyclable bottle that is up to 30% lighter and can be made with up to 100% recycled material. The technology enables a 30% energy reduction and 30% carbon savings over most 20 oz - 600 ml - bottles available today.
PepsiCo 2.5 L PET returnable, reusable, and refillable bottle is a 100% recyclable and refillable 2.5 L polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle created in partnership with GEEP, 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% and water consumption is reduced by 49%, ultimately leading to an overall carbon footprint reduction of 78%.
In a statement reflecting both respect and praise for the winners, PLASTICS’ vice president of Sustainability, Patrick Krieger, 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 from 1-3 May in Minneapolis, MN. The awards will be presented during a ceremony on 2 May.
The Plastics Industry Association is the only organisation that supports the entire plastics supply chain. Since 1937, PLASTICS has been working to make its members, and the sixth largest U.S. manufacturing industry, more globally competitive while supporting circularity through educational initiatives, industry-leading insights and events, convening opportunities and policy advocacy, including the largest plastics trade show in the Americas, NPE2024: The Plastics Show.