TotalEnergies has introduced its Very Low Linear Density Polyethylene (VLLDPE) grade, named Advanced Supertough 12AST05 and designed to address a wide range of film applications.
Apparently, the new grade extends the company’s range of metallocene polyethylene grades, going from very low-density grades (0.912 g/cm³) up to high-density grades (0.960 g/cm³). Total Energies says the grade has ‘excellent mechanical and optical properties’ (haze = 5% gloss 45°= 70), ‘very good’ sealing behaviour and can be used in formulations aiming for the replacement of Ethylene-vinyl Acetate (EVA) grades to enhance the recyclability of stretch hood applications.
Advanced Supertough 12AST05 is said to be suitable for flexible packaging welding applications due to its sealing initiation temperature - reportedly 2 degrees below market standard – which the company states reduces production costs by lowering the quantity of plastomers in the welding layer.
“This new grade is a great demonstration of our innovative developments supporting our customers to improve packaging recyclability. The end goal is to bring more qualitative product on the market that is then used as feedstock for the recycling industry.” said Olivier Greiner, vice president of Polymers Europe & Orient at TotalEnergies.
In April, TotalEnergies Lubrifiants and BERICAP partnered to incorporate 50% post-consumer recycled plastic into a closure for 20-litre lubricant packaging, a move intended to reduce virgin plastic consumption. The companies planned to apply the can closures to 20-litre premium lubricant cans made in France and Belgium.
More recently, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announced a new chemical process which claims to ‘essentially vaporize’ polyethylene, polypropylene, and mixed-plastic waste into building blocks for repolymerization into new plastics. If scaled up, the process is set to reduce the fossil fuels required to make new plastics and unlock circularity for various single-use plastics.
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