SABIC’s LNP™ ELCRIN™ iQ upcycling technology transforms old PET bottles into high-quality PBT for cosmetic products, medical instruments, toys, flame-retardant electronic components, and even cutlery. The recycled PBT polymers, with which Plastoplan is once again meaningfully expanding its diverse portfolio of sustainable plastics, not only offer excellent mechanical and electrical properties but, like conventional PBT, can also be UL-listed and approved for medical and food contact applications.
A resource-efficient drop-in solution
The various Elcrin™ iQ grades consist of up to 56% chemically modified base polymer, which significantly reduces the carbon footprint compared to conventional PBT. They can be used as a “drop-in” solution to replace conventional PBT on a 1:1 basis.
SABIC tested just how easy this is in a field trial by supplying a pallet of the sustainable polymer to Koziol, the company that developed the innovative KLIKK plastic cutlery. Thanks to equivalent mechanical properties and process parameters, as well as food-grade approvals, the material—upcycled through chemical depolymerization—could be processed without any issues using existing tooling. The result: high-quality cutlery with a lower carbon footprint.
