Milliken, PureCycle launch concentrate made with recycled PP resin

A partnership between Milliken & Co., Spartanburg, South Carolina, and PureCycle Technologies, Orlando, Florida, has yielded the first fully sustainable concentrate for polypropylene (PP) on the market, the companies say.

Based on PureCycle materials, the companies say the new concentrate will allow for expanded use of 100 percent recycled content and, when used in combination with PureCycle’s recycled PP, it produces a formulation with a carbon footprint approximately 35 percent lower than that of virgin PP.

The new concentrate has been formulated using Milliken’s Millad NX 8000 ECO clarifier. The company says that an added benefit of using that clarifier is that the certified energy savings it allows gives brand owners the ability to display the UL Environmental Claim Validation label on their injection-molded parts.

To produce the concentrate, Milliken supplied additives that played a critical role in reinvigorating recycled PP. PureCycle used its patented recycling process—licensed by The Procter & Gamble Co.—to separate color, odor and other contaminants from PP material feedstock to transform it into pure, virgin-like resin. The companies say that the concentrate enables the production of parts that are free of odor and color, making the use of recycled PP a more attractive option for converters, who could use it in various applications.

“Milliken has been a steadfast partner for PureCycle since the very early days,” PureCycle CEO Dustin Olson says. “For a startup company like ours with groundbreaking technology, we needed their help to set our technical foundation. Their expertise and commitment to understand, grow and develop our product is a differential factor in this partnership.”

At a press panel at the K 2022 fair in Dusseldorf, Germany, Olson added that customers using PureCycle’s product should not need to adjust their operations to accommodate it, offering a distinct advantage compared with using alternative recycled material, which typically requires the customer to make color or formulation adjustments to get an acceptable end result.