ExxonMobil (Baytown, Texas / USA; www.exxonmobil.com) has launched three new polyethylene products that incorporate recycled material. The products – heavy duty sacks, stand-up pouches and collation shrink film – have been developed in separate collaborations with other industry partners.

In the first partnership with Reifenhäuser (Troisdorf / Germany; www.reifenhauser.com), the companies have developed heavy duty sacks using up to 37% multi-recycled PE from prior sacks in combination with ExxonMobil’s virgin performance polymers “Exceed” XP and HDPE. For example, for a five-layer heavy duty sack film, the formulation contains rPE in the core and Exceed XP in the skin-layers, retaining the film’s properties while also delivering high-efficiency processing. ExxonMobil said tests to date have proven that the material is well suited for heavy duty sacks that hold semi-dry or dry goods.

The second project was undertaken with Hosokawa Alpine (Augsburg / Germany; www.hosokawa-alpine.com), Erema (Ansfelden / Austria; www.erema.at) and Henkel (Düsseldorf / Germany; www.henkel.com). The newly created flexible pouches combine 30% recycled PE with 70% virgin PE and are said to be well suited for non-food applications, such as detergents. ExxonMobil said the full PE stand-up pouch films based on its polymers deliver comparable performance to multi-polymer structures that contain BOPP, BOPET or BOPA, making them particularly suitable for food applications. The films incorporated Henkel’s “Loctite” Liofol solvent-free adhesives and were fabricated on Hosokawa Alpine’s mono-axial film orientation (MDO) lines using its patented trim reduction for in-line orientation (TRIO) technology. Erema’s Intarema “TVEplus” extruder technology was employed to recycle the used pouches so that the rPE could be included in new laminated stand-up pouch packaging for non-food applications.

In the third collaboration, ExxonMobil worked with Windmöller & Hölscher (W&H, Lincoln, Rhode Island / USA; www.whcorp.com), its partner of nearly 20 years, to create a 40-micron, five-layer polyolefin collation shrink film that includes 30% rPE. The films include Exceed XP and “Enable” PE as well as LDPE, which ExxonMobil said gives the film its toughness, holding force and shrink performance for high-integrity packaging and storage stability at thinner gauge. Leading plastic film and packaging producer Grupo Armando Alvarez (Torrelavega / Spain; www.armandoalvarez.com) has validated the polyolefin shrink film for packaging 6 x 1.5L bottles.