Avient meeting customer demands with sustainable products

Avient Corp. has been busy in 2021 commercializing new products that are sustainable while meeting customer needs.

Earlier this year, Avon Lake, Ohio-based Avient debuted Rejoin-brand post-consumer masterbatch colorants for polyolefin packaging. The colorants are made with post-consumer polyolefin as a carrier resin.

Officials said the material was developed in response to growing customer demand and is already being used by a major consumer products firm to achieve 100 percent post-consumer packaging on multiple personal care product lines.

ColorMatrix Optica-brand toners and colors also were launched earlier this year. Officials said that when added to PET and recycled PET materials, the toners and colors correct and reduce color variations and yellowing that occur during recycling.

Also added to the Avient lineup was ColorMatrix rePrize-brand IV Builder, a patented, liquid additive for recycled PET that increases the quality and performance of the material while reducing the energy needed to produce it.

Avient earlier this year worked with polyvinyl butral (PVB) products maker Shark Solutions on reSound R-brand recycled-content thermoplastic elastomers. Both new TPEs contain 25 percent post-consumer content from PVB reclaimed from broken automotive windshields and laminated architectural glass.

At the Fakuma 2021 trade show in Germany, Avient promoted its supplying of a recycled-content TPE Société Bic SA for use in a women's razor. The material has a soft, grippy feel and is highly colorable. It is formulated to achieve 62 percent recycled content, helping Clichy, France-based Bic live up to its sustainability promises.

Avient is one of the world's largest concentrate makers and one of North America's largest compounders and resin distributors. The firm employs more than 8,000 worldwide. For 2020, Avient was certified as a Great Place to Work by the Great Place to Work Institute.

In 2020, Avient posted sales of about $3.2 billion. After acquiring the global masterbatch concentrates business of Clariant AG, Avient expects 2021 sales to be around $4.6 billion.