Clariant works to help brand owners and packaging producers realize their objectives for creating more environmentally friendly packaging. Clariant’s comprehensive additive masterbatch portfolio, together with unparalleled expertise and collaboration with other industry organizations, offers solutions in developing packaging that is designed to be highly recyclable, plastics packaging that can be re-used easily, bio-based polymers, and compostable packaging.
Clariant helps for more sustainable packaging to answer customer demands and underline that ‘sustainability’ and ‘circular economy’ are no longer just buzzwords
Clariant Masterbatches Initiative Seeks to Help Make Plastics Packaging More Sustainable
More than any other material, plastic has driven the innovation in, and transformation of, consumer goods packaging develops to protect our health and welfare by delivering products in optimal conditions; increase the shelf life of food and other products; be sized for individual use and convenience; and, to help brands create a unique aesthetic and identity with customers.
Plastic is lighter than glass and metal and, because of this, generates fewer carbon emissions during transportation. It takes less water and energy than other packaging materials to make and has a high recycling potential. It’s also hugely convenient, reflecting the needs of modern life. However, it’s also become evident that for all of the benefits that plastic packaging brings it also presents some key end-of-life and sustainability challenges.
In the last half century, plastic production has increased more than 20-fold, from 15 million tons in 1964 to almost 350 million tons in 2017. Every year, about 200 million tons are disposed of in landfills and about eight-million tons leak into the oceans uncontrolled.
Prompted by consumer led concern companies are stepping up to the challenge in many ways. Figures show that along the entire value chain, an estimated $200 billion dollars has been invested in the past twenty years refining packaging for reduced environmental impact.
But some are thinking much bigger, beyond single packaging challenges. Clariant, one of the world's leading specialty chemical companies, has been imagining the future, understanding that the packaging market will change dramatically within the next decade. The company is fundamentally transforming its entire business model through a trailblazing concept known as ‘Design for the Environment’. Taking a step back to look forward, Design for the Environment puts sustainability at the core of everything the company does.
Design for Environment
Listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for six years, Clariant has revolutionized the way it thinks about developing new products. Every potential new product must go through both sustainability and circular economy filters, in addition to traditional performance and aesthetic related ones, and if it doesn’t pass, it doesn’t make it to market. Packaging end-of-life and reduced littering are key parts of this thinking.
“Design for the Environment takes a holistic approach, starting from the foundation of Clariant’s sustainability values, including the reduction of energy consumption, cutting CO2 emissions, decreasing water waste and valuing social responsibility,” says Alessandro Dulli, Global Head of Packaging and Business Development at Clariant Masterbatches.
These principles guide Clariant’s internal manufacturing processes, as well as the chemistry the company develops, to create products that care for the environment and Clariant has established several important innovation centers to support the daily activity of its Color and Additives Lab Network to help achieve these goals: the Clariant Innovation Center in Frankfurt, ColorWorks® Design & Technology Center, Project House Packaging, the recently launched EcoCircle and the Cross-BU Network.
Building on these focus areas, Clariant’s MB segment packaging future activity will be based around four pillars, representing the different solutions a brand owner has available today to deliver packaging solutions for tomorrow.
Design for Recycling (D4R)
Recycling is the foundation of a Circular Economy and represents a solution that can have a substantial impact in terms of volume, recovering vast amounts of waste as a new raw material. In Europe the recycling of Post-Consumer Resin or PCR is expected to increase, as cradle to cradle applications grow, but there are still major challenges around the capabilities of proper sorting of waste to produce a high-quality PCR, and around issues related to coloration, stabilization, product safety and process stability.
Clariant is establishing a dedicated team called EcoCircle, to understand these dynamics and reduce these risks, to remain at the forefront of products and technologies that increase the quality of PCR, reduce complicated multilayer structures, increase sorting quality and use product stewardship to support and encourage cradle to cradle applications.
Amongst other technologies under investigation are: supporting shelf-life extension in mono-material applications through CESA® ProTect, a best-in-class performance oxygen scavenger, that allows packaging producers to avoid complex multi-material unrecyclable structures; and, maintaining color identity when using PCR. Clariant’s famous design center ColorWorks®, as well as its Color Lab Network, have developed the expertise to mitigate this impact and maintain a high level of consistency and brand recognition.
Maintaining sufficient product performance is another challenge when using Post Consumer Resin and with chain extenders, polymer protection, processing aids, the smart use of liquid technology, and other products, Clariant’s additives can help to find the right solution for increasing PCR content.
Finally, another major future problem will be the availability of good quality PCR. Clariant’s Project House is helping to increase the detectability of standard resins with products such as a black color transparent to IR detection or improve color consistency with innovative online coloration technologies, improving PCR quality and allowing customers to be more flexible with multiple PCR grades from different suppliers.
Reuse
All colors and additives used in plastic packaging must be stable throughout the entire lifetime of a finished good. Currently, most packaging meets existing specifications to complete its life cycle up to product delivery, but parameters need to be re-set if products must survive for longer.
Understanding the appropriate requirements, Clariant’s Lab Network for Colors and Additives, as well as its Project House, help to support stretched lifetime product targets.
Environmental stress cracking and brittleness can be reduced by the right initial formulation of additives as well as helping to reduce friction on filling lines, prevent yellowing, discoloration, scratching and other aging evidence, protecting product finish in the long run.
Clariant co-creates solutions with customers thanks to its specialized labs, the ColorWorks® network, and its Application Labs, to test material in simulated aging conditions and reach targets based on life-cycle timelines. The company’s expertise supports complex global projects to safeguard brand identity and it also offers support with regulatory issues around extending product lifecycles.
Clariant Masterbatches Initiative Seeks to Help Make Plastics Packaging More Sustainable. (Photo: Clariant)
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Clariant Masterbatches Initiative Seeks to Help Make Plastics Packaging More Sustainable. (Photo: Clariant)
Design for the Environment
Listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for six years, Clariant has revolutionized the way it thinks about developing new products. Every potential new product must go through both sustainability and circular economy filters, in addition to traditional performance and aesthetic related ones, and if it doesn’t pass, it doesn’t make it to market. Packaging end-of-life and reduced littering are key parts of this thinking.
“Design for the Environment takes a holistic approach, starting from the foundation of Clariant’s sustainability values, including the reduction of energy consumption, cutting CO2 emissions, decreasing water waste and valuing social responsibility,” says Alessandro Dulli, Global Head of Packaging and Business Development at Clariant Masterbatches.
These principles guide Clariant’s internal manufacturing processes, as well as the chemistry the company develops, to create products that care for the environment and Clariant has established several important innovation centers to support the daily activity of its Color and Additives Lab Network to help achieve these goals: the Clariant Innovation Center in Frankfurt, ColorWorks® Design & Technology Center, Project House Packaging and the Cross-BU Network.
Building on these focus areas, Clariant’s future activity will be based around four pillars, representing the different solutions a brand owner has available today to deliver packaging solutions for tomorrow.
Design for Recycling (D4R)
Recycling is the foundation of a Circular Economy and represents a solution that can have a substantial impact in terms of volume, recovering vast amounts of waste as a new raw material. In Europe the recycling of Post-Consumer Resin or PCR is expected to increase, as cradle to cradle applications grow, but there are still major challenges around the capabilities of proper sorting of waste to produce a high-quality PCR, and around issues related to coloration, stabilization, product safety and process stability.
Clariant is establishing a dedicated team to understand these dynamics and reduce these risks, to remain at the forefront of products and technologies that increase the quality of PCR, reduce complicated multilayer structures, increase sorting quality and use product stewardship to support and encourage cradle to cradle applications.
Amongst other technologies under investigation are: supporting shelf-life extension in mono-material applications through a best-in-class performance oxygen scavenger that allow packaging producers to avoid complex multi-material unrecyclable structures; and, maintaining color identity when using PCR. Clariant’s famous design center ColorWorks, as well as its Color Lab Network, have developed the expertise to mitigate this impact and maintain a high level of consistency and brand recognition.
Maintaining sufficient product performance is another challenge when using Post Consumer Resin and with chain extenders, polymer protection, processing aids, the smart use of liquid technology, and other products, Clariant’s additives can help to find the right solution for increasing PCR content.
Finally, another major future problem will be the availability of good quality PCR. Clariant’s Project House is helping to increase the detectability of standard resins with products such as a black color transparent to IR detection or improve color consistency with innovative online coloration technologies, improving PCR quality and allowing customers to be more flexible with multiple PCR grades from different suppliers.
Reuse
All colors and additives used in plastic packaging must be stable throughout the entire lifetime of a finished good. Currently, most packaging meets existing specifications to complete its life cycle up to product delivery, but parameters need to be re-set if products must survive for longer.
Understanding the appropriate requirements, Clariant’s Lab Network for Colors and Additives, as well as its Project House, help to support stretched lifetime product targets.
Environmental stress cracking and brittleness can be reduced by the right initial formulation of additives as well as helping to reduce friction on filling lines, prevent yellowing, discoloration, scratching and other aging evidence, protecting product finish in the long run.
Clariant co-creates solutions with customers thanks to its specialized labs, the ColorWorks® network, and its Application Labs, to test material in simulated aging conditions and reach targets based on life-cycle timelines. The company’s expertise supports complex global projects to safeguard brand identity and it also offers support with regulatory issues around extending product lifecycles.
Biogradable Polymers
Biodegradable polymers for packaging represent a small, but growing, market, capturing the attention of brand owners responding to the positive consumer image of this material.
Biodegradable polymers are often held up as a solution to the problem of littering particularly in, for example, Asia, where recycling infrastructure is either non-existent or far less developed than in Europe and North America. They may also represent an interesting solution for food applications. Food contaminated packaging is unable to be recycled, therefore biodegradable polymers may be the answer to ensure that contaminated waste can be composted.
But there are challenges. There is not yet a clear understanding of the different grades of biodegradability that will be required – home, industrial and soil compostable - and a lack of a proper collection streams and “circularity” raise big questions on the future of this solution.
Clariant is working hard to improve the (already good) shelf life of biopolymers, such as PLA, and the aesthetic of these materials, with a range of vibrant colors that help to preserve and enhance brand identity. With more than 20 years’ experience in manufacturing masterbatches suitable for compostability and certified by Technical Inspection Associations, such as TÜV, Clariant ensures that all necessary parameters are met.
Bio-based Polymers
Bio-based polymers, referred to commonly a bio-plastics, are made from renewable biomass or micro-organisms as an alternative to petroleum plastics. They are increasing in popularity, due to their lower carbon emissions, but because they are produced using crops, there is a growing debate around whether arable land should rather be used to grow food.
These resins normally have the same polymeric structure of conventional plastics and can usually be treated using all the good practices Clariant is applying to the conventional D4R process. In addition, for customers that dream of offering a 100% bio-based product Clariant is looking to develop colors and additives based on renewable feedstock.
The Future
Amid increased regulation, and consumer demand for more sustainable packaging, it’s clear that ‘sustainability’ and ‘circular economy’ are no longer just buzzwords and the industry will continue to face growing pressures from the beginning to the end of the value chain, as well as from government regulators, to evolve and innovate.
Just as there was no single driver that influenced the past development of packaging, a variety of forces will continue to create packaging of the future.
Clariant’s Alessandro Dulli believes that is why it is so important to be leading a broader, rather than single issue, approach to transforming the market, “we are proud to be imagining the future, driving sustainability and developing practical solutions to the challenges we face because, at the end of the day, Designing for the Environment is really just about designing for us all”.
Clariant portfolio related to the Design for the Environment include amongst others: CESA® ProTect, and HYDROCEROL® as part of CESA® additives, REMAFIN® and RENOL® colors product range, HiFormer™ liquid masterbatches. Excellence in Color Design is supported by ColorWorks®. Discover more about our products and services at www.Clariant.com/masterbatches
Clariant’s ‘Symphony of Collaboration’ to tackle plastics waste challenge
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Clariant’s ‘Symphony of Collaboration’ to tackle plastics waste challenge
Biogradable Polymers
Biodegradable polymers for packaging represent a small, but growing, market, capturing the attention of brand owners responding to the positive consumer image of this material.
Biodegradable polymers are often held up as a solution to the problem of littering particularly in, for example, Asia, where recycling infrastructure is either non-existent or far less developed than in Europe and North America. They may also represent an interesting solution for food applications. Food contaminated packaging is unable to be recycled, therefore biodegradable polymers may be the answer to ensure that contaminated waste can be composted.
But there are challenges. There is not yet a clear understanding of the different grades of biodegradability that will be required – home, industrial and soil compostable - and a lack of a proper collection streams and “circularity” raise big questions on the future of this solution.
Clariant is working hard to improve the (already good) shelf life of biopolymers, such as PLA, and the aesthetic of these materials, with a range of vibrant colors that help to preserve and enhance brand identity. With more than 20 years’ experience in manufacturing masterbatches suitable for compostability and certified by Technical Inspection Associations, such as TÜV, Clariant ensures that all necessary parameters are met.
Bio-based Polymers
Bio-based polymers, referred to commonly a bio-plastics, are made from renewable biomass or micro-organisms as an alternative to petroleum plastics. They are increasing in popularity, due to their lower carbon emissions, but because they are produced using crops, there is a growing debate around whether arable land should rather be used to grow food.
These resins normally have the same polymeric structure of conventional plastics and can usually be treated using all the good practices Clariant is applying to the conventional D4R process. In addition, for customers that dream of offering a 100% bio-based product Clariant is looking to develop colors and additives based on renewable feedstock.
The Future
Amid increased regulation, and consumer demand for more sustainable packaging, it’s clear that ‘sustainability’ and ‘circular economy’ are no longer just buzzwords and the industry will continue to face growing pressures from the beginning to the end of the value chain, as well as from government regulators, to evolve and innovate.
Just as there was no single driver that influenced the past development of packaging, a variety of forces will continue to create packaging of the future.
Clariant’s Alessandro Dulli believes that is why it is so important to be leading a broader, rather than single issue, approach to transforming the market, “we are proud to be imagining the future, driving sustainability and developing practical solutions to the challenges we face because, at the end of the day, Designing for the Environment is really just about designing for us all”.
Clariant portfolio related to the Design for the Environment include amongst others: CESA® ProTect, and HYDROCEROL® as part of CESA® additives, REMAFIN® and RENOL® colors product range, HiFormer™ liquid masterbatches. Excellence in Color Design is supported by ColorWorks®. Discover more about our products and services at www.Clariant.com/masterbatches
