Trinseo SA and German plastic packaging specialist Fernholz have joined forces to develop a high-quality polystyrene (PS) product composed of 25% recycled material.
Expected to reach the commercial phase by mid-2020, the project involves the chemical recycling of post-consumer polystyrene waste through a dissolution process, Trinseo announced 11 Dec.
As part of the process, PS waste is dissolved in a solvent followed by a series of purification steps, separating the polymer from additives and contaminants.
“This project with Fernholz highlights that partnership along the value chain is key to showing polystyrene’s position as a highly sustainable, fully recyclable material for every end market,” said Nicolas Joly, global business director, polystyrene and feedstocks at Trinseo.
The project marks a key milestone in Trinseo’s stated ambition to offer PS packaging materials with an average of 30% recycled content to customers in Europe by 2025.
Commenting on the collaboration, Uwe Fernholz, managing director and owner of Fernholz Verpackungen said polystyrene was a key plastic material and a “state of the art product for the FFS (form-fill-seal) market”, with high use in the dairy industry.
“We do see a great potential not only for this traditional FFS market but a rebound to other markets if we can prove the specific advantages of polystyrene in regard to recycling,” Fernholz added.
In addition to this initiative, Trinseo is also engaged in other PS circularity programmes including a depolymerisation scheme and clean mechanical recycling.
The Berwyn, Pennsylvania-based materials supplier is a founding member of Europe-based Styrenics Circular Solutions, a consortium that explores new methods for PS recycling.
In North America, Trinseo company AmSty has formed a joint venture partnership with formed chemical recycling technology company Agilyx – under the Regenyx LLC – to study the full recycling of post-consumer PS materials back into new PS products.
Trinseo, Fernholz to develop high quality rPS
