US speciality polymers producer Kraton (Houston, Texas; www.kraton.com) has launched its “CirKular+” performance enhancement and compatibilisation additives on the Additives Selector platform of Germany’s Plastship’s (Waldems; www.plastship.com). The Texas company introduced the product line in 2020 by its own account to support the plastics industry’s commitment to sustainability and circularity through reuse, reduction and recycling initiatives. Kraton touted the line’s ability to enable plastics upcycling and circular economy solutions while facilitating compatibilisation and performance enhancement of versatile multi-resin post-consumer and post-industrial plastics waste streams.

Collaborations such as the one with Plastship, a subsidiary of German recycling scheme operator RIGK (Wiesbaden; www.rigk.de), “are key to making a positive difference on our path to enhancing circularity”, said Anissa Brahmi, Kraton’s director of speciality polymers sales for Europe. The CirKular+ products, she noted, support the plastics industry’s need to meet tightening European regulations for sustainable products with improved environmental impact as they provide innovative, cost-efficient solutions to recyclers, converters and brand owners for increasing and optimising recycled stream usage and achieving recyclable design.

Plastship said other partners in its Additives Selector online service are BASF unit Chemetall (Frankfurt / Germany; www.chemetall.com) and Baerlocher (Unterschleissheim, Germany; www.baerlocher.de).

The operating model of Plastship, which brands itself a leading European platform for recyclate, is to leverage its supplier network and online platform to simplify and increase recyclate procurement. While allowing converters and recyclers to find suitable recycled materials and additives, it also focuses on ensuring product quality and certifying the recyclability of packaging and products.

Plastship’s platform showcases plastics additives that can further improve recyclate performance based on a selected material while predicting the effects of the material-additive combination, MD Andreas Bastian explained. Noting that the platform was developed together with industry leaders, he said the company sees this type of collaboration as a long-term alliance and “only the beginning of a promising journey.”