Green shoots of recovery: Inside PureCycle’s partnership with Milliken

07 Nov 2019 --- Never has the notion of sustainability and a circular economy been more in the public mindset. As a result, it seems like the “3Rs” of “reduce,” “reuse” and “recycle” have become a new mantra for brand owners. For example, Nestlé, the world’s biggest food and beverage company, has already committed to making 100 percent of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.

But there’s a long road ahead. For example, today, just 20 percent of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is commonly used to make plastic bottles and other consumer goods, is recycled. Polypropylene (PP) plastic fares much worse, with less than 1 percent of PP currently being recycled. While in the US, PE and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) may sometimes be pooled for recycling, the vast majority of PP gets sent straight to landfill, since there is no economic model or sorting structure in place to deal with it.

Often limited by poor recycling infrastructures, brand owners are having to look down their supply chain to see where green gains can be made. Fortunately, there are green shoots of recovery, with additive technologies definitely part of the answer to manufacturing more sustainable plastics. This is why at K 2019 in Düsseldorf, Milliken presented examples of how its additives are reducing energy use, enabling the substitution of more environmentally friendly materials and promoting the recyclability of resins such as PP or the use of a higher percentage of recycled PP in end products.PureCycle Technologies Partners with Milliken, Nestlé to Accelerate Revolutionary Plastics Recycling.

Milliken’s philosophy relates to working together to make sustainable solutions a reality. This is why its partnership with PureCycle Technologies to accelerate its revolutionary plastics recycling process was such a key story at K 2019. PureCycle’s patented recycling process, developed and licensed by Procter & Gamble (P&G), separates color, odor and other contaminants from plastic waste feedstock to transform it into virgin-like resin. At the Düsseldorf show last month, a joint press conference outlined the progress made since the collaboration started earlier this year.

Inside the partnership
Milliken began its partnership with PureCycle Technologies and Nestlé back in March 2019. Progress has come thick and fast since. PureCycle is now in the midst of building the first plant in Lawrence County, Ohio, which is set to start production in 2021. The first plant has a capacity of 50k MT recycled PP, with subsequent plants likely capable of producing 65k MT. Such has been the initial customer interest that the output for the yet to be opened Ohio plant is already presold for the next twenty years.

PureCycle is now in the upscaling process and the next stage will be in getting production moving in other parts of the world and meeting the demand that’s out there. The company is already evaluating potential sites in Europe together with partners, following initial interest in several countries.

The goal of PureCycle’s technology from inception was to deal with the issue of recycling PP so that it could be used interchangeably with virgin materials without any compromise of quality or aesthetics.Pushing sustainability boundaries Milliken introduces Millad NX 8000 ECO in Europe at K 2019.

“Very little PP is recycled today and the percentage that is is usually turned back to an unappealing gray or black colored PP, via a mechanical recycling process,” explains Mike Otworth, Chief Executive Officer, PureCycle Technologies. “Most waste stream plants are separated by optical scanners and cannot discern products that are black. The issue is that once it has been recycled once and turned gray or black, it can no longer be recycled again,” he adds. PureCycle technology changes that through the use of a non-mechanical process based on physical separation and purification.

“From the very beginning we realized that the real need in the marketplace is for a recycled PP that can be used without compromises; not only at low percentages but also at 100 percent PCR content. Understanding that that was the global market need was the reason we made this product,” he adds.

Going to the next level
A lot of the initial customers for the first PureCycle plant are active in the CPG industry. Since these companies need to offer food contact grade materials, they have generally been limited to using a filler layer between two layers of virgin resin in their packaging. That limits the total amount of recycled content that they can use. PureCycle technology overcomes this problem and makes 100 percent recycled content a real possibility.

Milliken’s Millad NX 8000 clarifier can be used to produce clear, durable, reusable plastic products from NX UltraClear PP resin that help to minimize the use of single-use plastics.“This technology really opens up a world of possibilities for brand owners to have a much higher percentage of recycled content without losing the brand equity of bright vibrant colors,” Otworth notes. But scaling up requires a consortium of partners, with the experience to offer advice on where to go next and which further collaborators to work with.

“We want to build capacity globally and that takes a lot of expertise and know-how. We are new players to the resins industry and the experience of companies like Milliken has made a world of difference for us,” he adds.

Technically, the use of Milliken’s clarifiers in the feedstock means that brand owners do not need to compromise on their brand equity when going recycled.

As Allen Jacoby, Senior Vice President, Plastic Additives Business at Milliken explains, the company brings additives as well as technical support to the partnership.

“We offer support in adjusting the raw materials and ensuring that the product is up to virgin quality, both aesthetically but also in terms of performance. In technical support, we are helping PureCycle on both the processing of the recycled material and on the applications side and on ensuring that the quality of the finished parts is the same as virgin materials,” he notes. 

Sustainability and partnership
The collaboration with PureCycle is a great example of how Milliken is partnering on sustainability, but there’s so much more that the company is involved in.

A mono-material bottle made from lightweight, durable NX UltraClear PP resin, featuring a compatible, in-mold PP label that helps its recyclability.Milliken recently took part in The Pacific Northwest Secondary Sorting Demonstration project, for example. The 60-day recycling demonstration project managed by the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) involves installing a portable secondary sorting system where selected materials from four regional materials recovery facilities (MRFs) are further sorted. “Together with several US organizations, we are trialing a technology where we are separating plastics by grade to optimize the economics of these sorting facilities so that the plastics can be kept out of landfill,” Jacoby explains.

Earlier this year, Milliken joined the not-for-profit organization The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which focuses on bringing together industry, government, communities, and civil society in the fight to end plastic waste. One major aim of this partnership is tackling waste management and collection in the Asia-Pacific region where a lot of plastic waste will ultimately end up in the oceans.

As Jacoby concludes, Milliken’s approach to sustainability is two-fold: “We are a performance additive business who is really focused on the additive side and how we can enhance recycling and recycled content.”

But he adds that collaboration with partners like PureCycle is also key. “To get true circularity so that the big brand owners can achieve their goals, we need to create product that is of virgin quality. But a lot of problems need to be solved to get there. We all need to invest in partnerships and work with the right people so that we can solve problems one step at a time,” he adds.

Everyone wants to go green, but we cannot get there alone. This is why sustainability partnerships such as the one formed between Milliken and PureCycle is so reassuring. Innovation across the value stream will be needed for major CPG companies to meet their ambitious 2025 sustainability goals.

By Robin Wyers