MOSCOW (MRC) -- Trinseo (Berwyn, Pennsylvania) has partnered with Coexpan (Madrid, Spain) to validate technologies for the production of recycled polystyrene (PS) suitable for use in form-fill-seal (FFS) dairy applications, according to Chemweek.
Using materials and input supplied by Trinseo, Coexpan will perform testing at Innotech, its innovation technology center. Trinseo and Coexpan expect industrial volumes to be in production by the third quarter of 2022.
“The dairy FFS packaging market, which has historically preferred the use of polystyrene due to its technical superiority over alternative polymers, has recently seen greater interest in alternative materials owing to misperceptions regarding the circularity and recyclability of PS,” the companies say in a joint statement. “PS offers a unique potential for not only closed-loop recycling, but also a lower carbon footprint and extended life cycle due to its simplicity and ease to fully recycle, giving polystyrene a major competitive advantage versus all alternatives.”
Coexpan, a division of Grupo Lantero, specializes in the manufacture of rigid plastic sheets and thermoformed products for the packaging industry. The company has 13 production plants in 8 countries in Europe and Latin America.
As MRC informed before, Trinseo, a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders, and synthetic rubber, and its affiliate companies in Europe, have announced a price increase for all PS, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer (SAN) in Europe. Effective August 1, 2020, or as existing contract terms allow, the contract and spot prices for the products listed below rose as follows:
- STYRON general purpose polystyrene grades (GPPS) -- by EUR30 per metric ton;
- STYRON and STYRON A-Tech and STYRON X- Tech and STYRON C- Tech high impact polystyrene grades (HIPS) - by EUR30 per metric ton;
- MAGNUM ABS resins - by EUR50 per metric ton;
- TYRIL SAN resins - by EUR40 per metric ton.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics was 225,870 tonnes in the first half of 2020, down by 8% year on year. PS consumption increased by 2% year on year in June 2020, totalling 39,590 tonnes.
Trinseo is a global materials company and manufacturer of plastics, latex and rubber. Trinseo's technology is used by customers in industries such as home appliances, automotive, building & construction, carpet, consumer electronics, consumer goods, electrical & lighting, medical, packaging, paper & paperboard, rubber goods and tires. Formerly known as Styron, Trinseo completed its renaming process in 1Q 2015. Trinseo had approximately USD3.8 billion in net sales in 2019, with 17 manufacturing sites around the world, and approximately 2,700 employees.
MRC