Avient opens Italy innovation centre to advance plastics recycling technology
Canadian Plastics
Recycling Research & DevelopmentThe new lab and plant in Pogliano will conduct chemistry testing and evaluations to help customers tackle and overcome the challenge of plastics recycling and the goal of a circular economy.
Avient’s new CycleWorks laboratory in Pogliano, Italy. Photo Credit: Avient Corp.
Material supplier Avient Corp. – which was formerly PolyOne Corp. – has officially opened its new CycleWorks facility in Pogliano, Italy.
In a statement, Avon Lake, Ohio-based Avient said the new lab and plant will conduct “cutting edge chemistry testing and evaluations” to help customers tackle and overcome the challenge of plastics recycling and the goal of a circular economy. The demonstration plant mimics real-world recycling conditions in a research environment.
“This high-tech facility will allow our dedicated team to understand the chemistry of polymers in the mechanical recycling process, and to see how and where problems occur,” said Dr. Jan Sültemeyer, global head of innovation & sustainability at Avient.
CycleWorks has already started producing useful data, Avient officials said, and the firm will use this data to develop new masterbatch formulations that are essentially field-tested for recycling. Avient expects to introduce solutions throughout 2021 as new data is generated.
