Trinseo collaborates with COEXPAN to validate polystyrene recycling

Trinseo announced that Trinseo and COEXPAN, a global leader in sheet extrusion for FFS dairy markets in Europe, CIS and America, will collaborate to validate various polystyrene recycling technologies to develop polystyrene containing recycled content that is fit for use in the global dairy industry’s form fill seal (“FFS“) market. With materials and input supplied by Trinseo, Coexpan will be testing recycled polystyrene across various technologies at its INNOTECH (COEXPAN&EMSUR Innovation Technology Center for Rigid and Flexible Packaging).

The dairy FFS packaging market, which has historically preferred the use of polystyrene due to its technical superiority over alternative polymers, has recently seen greater interest in alternative materials owing to misperceptions regarding the circularity and recyclability of polystyrene.
Trinseo and Coexpan, jointly state: “r-PS is a game changer for the FFS market. Polystyrene offers a unique potential for not only closed loop recycling, but also a lower carbon footprint and extended lifecycle due to its simplicity and ease to fully recycle giving polystyrene a major competitive advantage vs all alternatives. Industrial volumes will come online by the third quarter 2022”