Milliken & Company has joined the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, an industry collaboration established by The Recycling Partnership to improve polypropylene (PP) recovery and recycling in the United States. Milliken will help fund the coalition’s efforts to enhance the PP recycling infrastructure nationwide, establish consumer education programs that encourage curbside recycling, and help enable a robust supply of high-quality recycled PP for packaging producers through the company’s own product portfolio.

 

According to The Recycling Partnership’s 2020 State of Curbside Recycling report, as much as 1.6 billion pounds of PP may be available per year from single-family homes for potential recycling into new products. The Polypropylene Recycling Coalition aims to improve PP recycling in the United States by awarding grant dollars for sorting equipment and supporting consumer education programs and research. Through these efforts, the coalition will help make it easier for people to recycle PP and ensure that more recyclers can effectively sort the material in their facilities.

 

“Milliken’s partnership with the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition illustrates our goal of convening thought leaders within the plastics industry to help create meaningful solutions to address the plastics end-of-life challenge,” shares Halsey Cook, president and CEO, Milliken & Company.

 

Milliken’s DeltaMax Performance Modifiers, UltraFit Solutions and Millad NX 8000 clarifying agent promote recyclability of PP packaging. DeltaMax Performance Modifiers optimize the physical properties and processability of recycled PP resins, particularly their impact resistance and melt flow. UltraFit Solutions allow converters to use recycled PP resins to produce parts with consistent dimensional tolerances. Millad NX 8000 clarifier received Critical Guidance Recognition from the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR) in 2019. This recognition for innovative materials validates that Millad NX 8000 clarifier is compatible with plastic packaging recycling and does not adversely affect the recyclability of PP parts.

 

“Milliken strongly supports industry engagement to solve problems like plastic recycling that are larger and more complex than one organization can handle,” said Allen Jacoby, Senior vice president, Plastics Additive, Milliken & Company. “Collaboration not only sparks new ideas, it can also generate practical solutions to tough challenges. We are actively participating in initiatives that support broader use of polypropylene—especially recycled content—in packaging and other industries. Our additives already help enhance the quality and performance of recycled polypropylene, and membership in the coalition will add a new dimension to our multi-pronged approach to circularity.”

 

Polypropylene offers important sustainability advantages in food and non-food packaging applications, including high-performance mechanical properties that reduce the amount of material required in an application, compared to other resins. Because it can be used in containers, closures and labels, PP helps avoid multilayer constructions that are traditionally difficult to recycle. Milliken clarifiers, nucleating agents, performance modifiers and other additive solutions help ensure that PP can be successfully recycled and made available for reuse in a variety of applications, including packaging. These additives preserve PP’s value and extend its useful life.