What is sustainable polymer compounding? Europe’s leading supplier compounder, Benvic, believes that it has a clear blueprint for the way ahead.
Benvic’s definition of sustainable compounding is something that - above all - gives our customers a competitive advantage: Our customers interface more directly with the consumer – and are therefore more subject to the market’s changing trends. They help lead the way in their efforts to develop, supply support the circular economy and our role is to support that development with materials fit-for-purpose and – additionally – with the lowest environmental impact.
Insight
ISO 14001 is fast becoming a minimum condition for manufacturers and businesses to trade and win business, and customers, specifiers and users are all looking to use sustainable materials. These can be described in various ways - 2nd life enabled, filled with recyclate to certain percentages or simply bio based.
In the case of the latter Benvic now has our Plantura range of PLA compounds competing successfully in the area of technical parts and, for example, entering automotive production via our BioBoom partnership with BASF and Röchling.
In the case of 2nd life and polymer recyclates our Ereplast subsidiary is helping drive our recycling technology and competence in all areas. In this way we have sufficient innovative recycling technology to show the market place. We will, for example, be exhibiting at the Plastics Recycling Exhibition in Amsterdam, May 10-11, 2023 to demonstrate a number of processes and products.
Subsidiaries such as Benvic Dugdale, for example, have long been leaders in profitably developing recycled ProVinyl recycled compound that comes from and returns to the building and construction sectors. The Benvic Group gets advantage from all our companies in this way – in France, Spain, UK, Italy, Poland and the USA we are able to cross fertilise and develop our biobased and recycling knowledge and technology between all our plants.
In recent years, multi-polymer Benvic is able to offer its customers material choices across an increasing range of polymer based – polyolfefins, pvcs, tpes and their recyclate variants.
Meanwhile the story in the circular market place is that plastics processors are winning business with those materials that give their OEM customers superior environmental performance - and credentials.
For Benvic’s customers, the success factors include:
For Benvic this means that we undertake an increasing amount of work in ‘curating’ our materials generation and materials supply chain, and in documenting and certifying data relating to the environmental performance, provenance, traceability and other credentials of these materials.
Inevitably – and in stark contrast to the previous economics of mass production - we find that there is no standard or routine route to a general market.
Sustainable polymer compounding is therefore bespoke – and driven according to the needs of the customer which, in turn is determined by the changing demands of their OEM customer within the objectives of the circular economy.
Benvic can and does select from and can also create a wide range of environmental options and materials to advise and supply any customer – whatever the sector and whatever the polymer process (extrusion, injection etc).
In discussion with these customers, Benvic is able to ‘mix and match’ diverse options in biomaterials, virgin polymers and polymer recyclate (post-consumer and post-industrial).
Simply put, sustainable compounders supply sustainable customers who, in turn, supply a sustainable circular economy.
Benvic’s ultimate aim and service is to help its customers win business in the marketplace through superior environmental performance and proof of the same.
