Milliken at K 2022: Are partnerships the best additive?

At K 2022, Milliken & Company will showcase new measures to advance the circular economy through chemistry as part of the company’s 2025 Sustainability Goals.

Milliken is including the ‘chemistry’ inherent in its partnerships in its showcase of its more than 30 partners in purposeful collaborations, including its ongoing partnership with PureCycle Technologies, whose patented technology turns recycled polypropylene into virgin-like material.

Wim Van De Velde, Global VP of Plastic Additives, said: “Together, we solve the challenges our customers face. We are partnering and working with many throughout the value chain to make plastics more reusable, more recyclable and more efficient.”

The additives on display at Milliken’s booth (Hall 6, Booth A27) include Millad NX 8000 ECO, a clarifying agent for polypropylene (PP) that boosts clarity, enables faster production rates and reduces energy use; DeltaMax performance modifiers for both virgin and recycled PP; DeltaFlow Viscosity Modifiers designed to help PP recyclers increase the melt flow rate of recycled polypropylene (rPP) for extrusion and injection moulding; Hyperform HPN performance additives for PP that deliver an improved balance in properties between stiffness and impact resistance; and UltraGuard Solutions that enable downgauging to reduce material usage and part weight while improving barrier properties in PE, allowing designers to create more mono-material products, improving recyclability.

Many of Milliken’s products are designed to yield sustainability benefits. These qualities include: reduced energy consumption and lightweighting, better reuse potential, increased net use of recycled content, improved recycling and recyclability, and the replacement of less-sustainable resins.

Through its future-focused attitude towards partnerships and chemistry, Milliken solutions aim to enable the entire plastics industry to advance circularity and boost recyclability. The company is engaging in several industry-spanning initiatives, including the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, The Recycling Partnership, the Association of Plastic Recyclers, the HolyGrail Project, and the RecyClass recycled-content certification programme for packaging.