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Sustainable Solutions
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Our Sustainability Commitment: Understand Your Needs. Overcome Your Challenges. Deliver Solutions.
Our journey begins with understanding your sustainability needs. Whether it involves reducing part weight, improving operational efficiencies or specifying sustainable thermoplastics, we identify the best solutions for you, your application, and our planet.
Nexeo Plastics is committed to helping you achieve your sustainability goals. We work continuously with our suppliers to offer and promote a growing portfolio of sustainable thermoplastic resins, including biobased, biodegradable, post-consumer, post-industrial, recycled, and reclaimed plastic resins. Our portfolio includes a wide variety of sustainable resins with properties such as:
Our portfolio of sustainable thermoplastics include materials that meet:
These alternative materials help reduce carbon footprint, cut down on environmental plastic waste, mitigate the impact of climate change, and contribute to a thriving society for our employees, our communities where we operate, and the people who depend on our products.
Biobased plastics are made in whole or in part from renewable sources such as corn, potato skins, sugarcane, grapeseed, and other wood- or plant-based materials, often blended with PLA, Bio PE, or nylon.
Some biobased resins are 100% recyclable and will not be a contaminant if they enter the recycle stream.
According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, a plastic can only be labeled as biobased if it meets the ASTM D6866 standard, which is the standard test method for determining the biobased content of a solid, liquid, or gaseous sample using radiocarbon analysis. Similar standards are in effect in other regions of the world.
Read our blog post: De-Bunking Misconceptions about Bioplastics
Compostable plastics are derived from renewable materials like corn, potato, tapioca starches, cellulose, soy protein, and lactic acid.
Typically, when customers ask for a biodegradable material, they are looking for a compostable material. Compostable materials biodegrade within a specified period of time and leave no toxic residue in the soil. In the United States, ASTM D6400 is the standard specification for solid material biodegradation (by composting) required for the labeling of plastics designed to be aerobically composted in municipal or industrial facilities.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires companies that market their products as compostable to show reliable scientific evidence that all materials in the product or package will safely break down into, or become part of, usable compost in the same amount of time as the materials with which it is composted.
Read our blog post: Biodegradable vs. Compostable: What’s the Difference?
Post-consumer recyclate plastics are derived from finished products that have reached their end use and are then recycled. The obsolete finished products are collected, sorted, cleaned, shredded, melted down and pelletized. Using PCR resins helps divert materials from landfills and reduce dependency on fossil fuels.
Recycled-content resins can include polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polycarbonate (PC), nylon (PA 6 and PA 66) and other materials sourced from recycled plastics and commercial fishing nets.
Many governing bodies across the globe are mandating the use of recycled content in plastic applications, specifically in packaging applications. To help strengthen mechanical properties in PCR resins, modifiers and/or fillers can be added to the base material to mimic the characteristics of their virgin counterparts.
Post-industrial recyclate is plastic waste generated during the production process and include industrial scrap material with varying melts and processing aids. PIR’s mechanical properties can closely resemble the properties of their virgin counterpart, and their feedstock is generally cleaner and more consistent than that of post-consumer resin.
Our team of experts at Nexeo Plastics primarily evaluates sustainability goals in three areas:
Design Requirements: Can we engineer parts to use less material while maintaining functional performance requirements?
Production and Manufacturing Processes: Can we optimize your production processes and reduce your carbon footprint by reducing energy consumption and material scrap rate?
Material Selection: Can bio-based, recycled or renewable thermoplastics meet your current and future application requirements?
We have the technical resources and the materials expertise to help your company meet and even exceed your sustainability goals. We can also assist with the development of recycling/reclaiming strategies based on material selection and can help find a second life for your scrap materials. This approach helps ensure that products that would have ended up in a landfill can be used in future applications.
Watch Our Webinar: Nexeo Plastics and Envalior Lead the Way Towards a Sustainable Future
Nexeo Plastics has obtained ISCC PLUS certification in North America and across all our European affiliates. ISCC PLUS is a certification system that promotes ecological and social sustainability, traceability, feedstock identity, and compliance with laws and international treaties.
The ISCC Association, which currently has over 180 members, promotes the sustainable production of biomass, circular and bio-based materials, and renewables.
