Essentra PLC, the global manufacturer of essential industrial components, is accelerating the development of new bioplastic materials to create more sustainable product ranges following a series of successful trials since opening its new global Centre of Excellence at the start of the year.
In the first six months of operation, teams within the Centre of Excellence at its UK headquarters in Kidlington have completed 19 trials from 14 different materials, resulting in 52 individual product samples (i.e a different part with a different material) and nine individual SKUs.
A particularly exciting innovation is the ongoing trials utilising seaweed, in collaboration with business start-up FlexSea, to create flexible, seaweed-derived bioplastics that can in turn be the source of a new range of products, rather than being used to substitute existing raw materials. This novel material, is 100% bio-based and truly home compostable, raising standards within the bioplastics industry.
Other materials being tested are different types of bio-woods, Polylactic Acids (PLA) and nylons, including post-industrial recycled (PIR) nylons and a variety of different Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) from both PIR and post-consumer recycled (PCR) sources. It is also trialling industrial and consumer products that have already been recycled once, thus completing the full circularity of a product material.
Significant investment is being made pre-trial to ensure the ethical sourcing and procurement of new materials, as well as their technical viability and safety in the moulding process. Materials that then subsequently enter the trial process are tested for their product performance (and repeatable consistency of performance) prior to a more detailed evaluation of commercial viability, including validation of the future supply chain and analysis of true sustainability and environmental impact.
Jennifer Spence, ESG Director at Essentra PLC, says that customers are very much focused on the detail of the materials they are using: “We continue to receive requests from customers around the sustainability aspects of our products,” she explains, “which is why we go into so much detail before the start of any trials into where the products have come from and how a material performs at the end of its life.
“The Centre of Excellence is not only driving the development of new and more sustainable products, but also directly contributing to our scope three emission targets in line with our Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) responsibilities and ambition towards achieving net-zero in our operations by 2040 and across our value chain by 2050.”
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