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At this year’s International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) Forum in Denver, held May 13-16, Nova Chemicals’ PE and EPS ´óÏó´«Ã½ teams showcased their combined expertise. They demonstrated how their resins and expertise are enabling the development of tougher and more sustainable packaging for transport applications, including abuse-resistant, recyclable film structure designs for ships-in-own-container (SIOC) compliance and lightweight Arcel advanced EPS resins that protect fragile goods in transit. Both ´óÏó´«Ã½es have been focusing on plastics sustainability and packaging requirements of the e-commerce supply for several years and have a deep understanding of the impact these market trends have on the transportation industry. 

A key highlight is original research that demonstrates the viability of film-to-film recycling of flexible packaging for transportation applications. Product development research scientist Monika Kleczek presented a paper titled, “.” The presentation showed how PE packaging film can be mechanically recycled multiple times into high-value flexible transportation packaging materials, including machine-stretch film, vacuum-pack protective film, collation shrink film and dunnage film, before being ultimately recycled into durable rigid consumer or industrial products.

Said Kleczek, “This research highlights Nova Chemicals’ commitment to advancing a circular plastics economy. The transportation industry, brand owners and the plastic industry at-large have established aggressive sustainability targets that include making flexible packaging products more recycle-ready. While the research we’re presenting at ISTA focuses primarily on flexible packaging for the transportation industry, it will show that our PE resins have potential for broad application across a number of industrial and consumer packaging markets.”