Interface Polymers has been awarded a £638K Innovate UK ‘Plastics Innovation: towards zero waste’ industrial research grant to reduce mixed plastic waste by recycling multi-layer flexible plastic packaging back into high value uses.
Using this Innovate UK grant funding, Interface Polymers intends to develop commercially viable, sustainable solutions to the costly and environmentally flexible plastic packaging waste problem.
The R & D project team will be using Interface Polymers’ patented Polarfin chemistry to create new Polarfin-Blue additive materials which will enable compatibility between currently incompatible target thermoplastics used in multi-layer packaging (primarily polyolefin/ polyamide/ polystyrene/ EVOH).
The objective is to develop new commercial grade Polarfin-Blue compatibilised polymer alloys which will not require a costly, complex, recycling infrastructure to separate multi-layered films, thus providing a viable recycling solution.
Interface Polymers
Interface Polymers (IPL) Chief Scientific Officer and Founder, Dr. Christopher Kay, in the IPL laboratory at Loughborough University, UK
“The complexity of modern current multi-layer plastic packaging makes separation for recycling extremely difficult,” said Dr. Christopher Kay, Interface Polymers’ Chief Scientific Officer.
“Our new Polarfin-Blue polymer alloys will make it possible to manufacture new mixed plastic packaging products which can be recycled multiple times by existing separation processes. Additionally, recycled material from Polarfin-Blue polymer alloys will retain mechanical property levels for high value uses and save cost by requiring less virgin material to be used.”
“Using our unique Polarfin technology, we are looking to develop game changing new products that will create a new and exciting market stretching across and beyond the flexible packaging industry into multiple industrial, construction and consumer markets,” added Simon Waddington, Interface Polymers’ Business Development Director.
“We believe that it will provide an opportunity to expand the polyolefin market, which is currently constrained by limitations around compatibility and specific barrier properties, creating an estimated £200m opportunity in the UK alone.”