MOSCOW (MRC) -- Avient Corporation, formerly PolyOne, has recently announced the official opening of its new CycleWorks facility in Pogliano, Italy, according to GV.
The new lab and plant will conduct chemistry testing and evaluations to help customers meet the challenge of plastics recycling and advance the goal of a circular economy. The demonstration plant mimics real-world recycling conditions in a research environment, said Avient.
Avient has opened its CycleWorks Innovation Center in Pogliano, Italy. (Source: Avient)Avient has opened its CycleWorks Innovation Center in Pogliano, Italy.
“We have established CycleWorks to study and meet the challenges of plastic recycling while furthering its viability. This high-tech facility will allow our dedicated team to understand the chemistry of polymers in the mechanical recycling process, and to see how and where problems occur. For example, why and where are polymer chains degrading? What role do colour and additives play in recyclability? It is our goal to find answers to these questions and to understand the science behind recycling,” said Dr. Jan Sultemeyer, global head of innovation & sustainability at Avient.
CycleWorks has already started producing useful data. The company will use this data to develop masterbatch formulations with proven science behind how they perform during recycling processes, offering customers a portfolio that’s essentially field-tested for recycling. Avient expects to introduce solutions throughout 2021 as new data is generated.
Walter Ripple, vice president of sustainability at Avient, said: “As one of the founding members of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), Avient is committed to doing our part in advancing a circular economy through partnerships and innovation. CycleWorks further strengthens our recycling focus and ability to enable our partners’ recyclability goals.”
To facilitate industry partnerships, CycleWorks includes a collaboration platform to ensure input from across the plastics value chain. Avient said it expects this to improve the ability of new technologies to be implemented in recycling processes and to assist brand owners in raising the sustainability of their products.
On 1 July 2020, PolyOne and Clariant Masterbatches joined together as Avient, a company focused on specialised and sustainable material solutions with projected 2020 pro forma revenues of approximately USD 3.7 billion. Avient has approximately 9,100 employees and is certified ACC Responsible Care and a founding member of the AEPW.
As MRC reported earlier, in December 2019, Clariant (Muttenz, Switzerland) agreed to sell its entire Masterbatches business to PolyOne Corp. (Avon Lake, Ohio). The transaction values the Masterbatches business at USD1,560 million, representing about 12.2 times the last twelve months reported EBITDA (ending September 2019) on a cash and debt free basis.
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
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