Clariant (Muttenz / Switzerland; www.clariant.com) has opened a new regional packaging centre in Thailand. It has also announced a series of collaborative projects aimed at boosting plastics recycling.

The Swiss speciality chemicals company said the regional packaging centre, located at its Phanthong manufacturing facility, is already operational, and upgrades and equipment additions will continue be added through Q1 2020. The centre houses formulation, process and analytical experts, together with analytical equipment and processing machines. It will also provide access to the company’s regional network of application-development laboratories in Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. Chris Hansen, head of Clariant Masterbatches, Asia Pacific, said the new centre will allow the company to engage with customers in a co-creation process to develop concepts and solutions in masterbatch products and processes tailored to their aesthetic and functional needs.

Separately, Clariant said it is developing initiatives aimed at boosting plastics recycling, with more details to be announced at the "K" trade fair in October 2019. Initiatives include the development of product and system solutions for recycling through partnerships with players across the recycling ecosystem.

One partnership, with Finnish oil refining company Neste (Espoo; www.neste.com), involves the use of renewable hydrocarbons derived from waste such as fat residues and discarded cooking oils. Another partnership involves the development of new colourants for the black colouration of plastics that can be identified by near infra-red (NIR) sorting devices. The new black colourants can be used for polymers such as polyolefins, PET and polyamide, in applications such as packaging and E&E.

Clariant’s head of innovation excellence and business incubator Richard Haldimann said, “Clariant has been providing solutions to reduce the use of plastics, extend their lifetime to enable reuse, and supporting recycling for years. But we’ve learned from experience that the wider problem can’t be solved at an individual company level. It’s a system problem and collaboration is key.” The aim is to help customers find solutions to their recycling challenges, increasing the attractiveness and functionality of post-consumer and post-industrial recyclate. In addition, Clariant said it wants to ensure that additives such as flame retardants or pigments stand neither in the way of an application’s recyclability or biodegradability nor the adoption of renewable-based plastics.

As part of its bid to make recycling a more viable option, Clariant said it is supporting mono-material solutions by ensuring the attractiveness of virgin PET for packaging. At K 2019, Clariant will launch its new masterbatch for PET destined for the food and beverage market. The company also plans to expand its “EcoTain” range of products, developed to provide sustainability advantages, by forging collaborations between at least three partners in the value chain to create sustainability and business impacts.