Plastic film collected for recycling.

Film supplier INDEVCO Plastics announced its launch of industrial films and bags that use up to 50% recycled resin, including both post-consumer and post-industrial content. | Mabeline72/Shutterstock

Two film suppliers recently expanded their offerings with recycled-content films. Meanwhile, an Australian project began producing a concrete-alternative from post-consumer flexible packaging.

Texas company adds more recycled resin products

Film supplier INDEVCO Plastics is continuing its recent product expansion with the addition of more recycled film offerings.

The Longview, Texas company on Feb. 19 announced its launch of industrial films and bags that use up to 50% recycled resin. That includes both post-consumer and post-industrial content, the company stated.

The industrial films and bags are “commonly used by industrial manufacturers to pack agricultural minerals, building materials, industrial and pool salt, lawn and garden products, pet food and litter products, and petrochemical products,” INDEVCO stated in a release.

The company attributed its recent product expansion in part to technological advancement.

“We’re capitalizing on new technologies from machine manufacturers and resin suppliers to do two things,” said Jay Bodine, INDEVCO plastics plant manager, in the release. “First, increase the amount of recycled resin in every film we produce and, second, keep the key properties of these films on par with films made with 100% virgin resins.”

The new offerings come shortly after INDEVCO in January released a print-grade film, designed for bundling food and beverage products, made from 50% post-consumer plastic.

Resin producer releases recycled-content film components

NOVA Chemicals has developed a series of film structures that use recycled LDPE and LLDPE. These designs can go into a variety of end products.

Calgary, Alberta-based NOVA on Feb. 22 announced the film structures, which “can be tailored to meet the demands of film applications including heavy-duty sack, collation shrink, stretch film, agricultural film, trash bags and liners, food packaging and protective packaging for e-commerce, such as bubble wrap and air pillows,” the company stated.

NOVA said the new designs will help enable greater PCR inclusion by end users.

“The introduction of these film structure designs is one of several initiatives we are pursuing to make it easier and more practical for the industry and our customers to incorporate PCR into new packaging and products,” stated Greg DeKunder, vice president of polyethylene marketing for the company. “The addition of our portfolio of PCR will allow NOVA Chemicals to be a one-stop supplier for our customers’ virgin and recycled polyethylene needs.”

Australian project scales up plastic-to-concrete efforts

Australian plastics processor and manufacturer Replas and a handful of partners this month began producing a concrete aggregate from post-consumer flexible film packaging collected through a Coles store drop-off system. The aggregate will be used in developing a new Coles supermarket.

Replas and Coles announced the project on Feb. 15. It will use some 6.5 million pieces of flexible plastic packaging as feedstock for concrete aggregate, which will go into a new Coles store location in Melbourne.

The output material, dubbed Polyrock, is produced by Replas. The plastic feedstock was collected using REDcycle store drop-off receptacles, which are available in all Coles locations. In 2018, Replas wrote in Plastics Recycling Update about its growing film collections across the country.

Replas produces a variety of wood-alternative products such as decking, benches and signage, made from recycled plastic.

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