MINERAL FILLERS | MATERIALS
Reducing cost and carbon
Minerals act as polymer substitutes to reduce cost and carbon footprint along with providing functional benefits. Jennifer Markarian reports on new products
Mineral fillers offer benefits for reducing the carbon footprint of thermoplastic compounds and end-use products. Suppliers are carrying out life cycle assessments (LCAs) as well as seeking to optimise their processes to reduce the environ- mental impacts of mining, purifying, milling and transporting, for example. Calcium carbonate has a long history as a
lower-cost filler in thermoplastics, and is seeing a revival as a part of plastics’ sustainability story as a lower-carbon footprint replacement for petrochem- ical-based polymers. Heritage Plastics, headquartered in Mississippi,
US, has been a proponent of calcium carbonate concentrates for thermoplastics for more than 40 years. “Achieving sustainability will require many
different solutions, and the use of calcium carbon- ate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is one of them,” said Heritage Plastics director of technical services and development, Jason Riggs. The company’s first LCA of its product was conducted in 2008, and has recently been updated by a third-party consultancy, YellowYellow, based in
www.filmandsheet.com
Toronto, Canada. The 2023 LCA showed that each kilogram of Heritage Plastics HM10-type concentrate results in a 56% reduction in emissions compared to each kilogram of traditional LLDPE production. Carbon dioxide (CO2
based on the manufacturing of three products in the HM10 minerals concentrate line (HM10 Max, HM10LC, and the HM10S Series), to arrive at an empirical value for the entire cradle-to-gate process. Each of the three products emitted 645 kgCO2
an average of 1,472 kg CO2 ) emissions were calculated
/tonne of product in 2023. LLDPE produces /tonne.
“The LCA was rigorous in its analysis of our three flagship products,” says Riggs. “It considered emissions from both the constituent, turn-key components, and those resulting from the manu- facturing operation at our plant in Sylacauga.” The LCA data is being used in a new emissions
calculator developed for Heritage Plastics, which Riggs says will give their customers a way to communicate the sustainability associated with the use of calcium carbonate. Incoa’s new InCal surface-treated calcium carbonate mineral modifiers are produced from
October 2024 | FILM & SHEET EXTRUSION 41
Main image: Okeanos has developed QR code technol- ogy which tracks the journey of calcium carbonate used in packaging from “ground to grocery”
IMAGE: OKEANOS
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