Nova Chemicals Shares Original Research Demonstrating Viability of Film-to-Film Recycling

At this year’s International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) Forum in Denver, held May 13-16, Nova Chemicals’ PE and EPS business teams showcased their combined expertise. They demonstrated how their resins and expertise are enabling the development of tougher and more sustainable packaging for transport applications, including abuse-resistant, recyclable film structure designs for ships-in-own-container (SIOC) compliance and lightweight Arcel advanced EPS resins that protect fragile goods in transit. Both businesses have been focusing on plastics sustainability and packaging requirements of the e-commerce supply for several years and have a deep understanding of the impact these market trends have on the transportation industry. 

A key highlight is original research that demonstrates the viability of film-to-film recycling of flexible packaging for transportation applications. Product development research scientist Monika Kleczek presented a paper titled, “Polyethylene Packaging Repurposed as Value-Added E-Commerce Consumer Packaging.” The presentation showed how PE packaging film can be mechanically recycled multiple times into high-value flexible transportation packaging materials, including machine-stretch film, vacuum-pack protective film, collation shrink film and dunnage film, before being ultimately recycled into durable rigid consumer or industrial products.

Said Kleczek, “This research highlights Nova Chemicals’ commitment to advancing a circular plastics economy. The transportation industry, brand owners and the plastic industry at-large have established aggressive sustainability targets that include making flexible packaging products more recycle-ready. While the research we’re presenting at ISTA focuses primarily on flexible packaging for the transportation industry, it will show that our PE resins have potential for broad application across a number of industrial and consumer packaging markets.”