The higher the recycling code number, the less likely that polymer is recycled. Thus, companies involved in markets for numbers such as SPI code #6 and #7 face a heady challenge on the sustainability front. And that’s not getting any easier during a period of anti-plastics bias exemplified in Plastic Free July.
One of those fighting the odds is INEOS Styrolution, which has a global footprint in styrenics, a family of plastics that includes styrene monomer and #6-coded polystyrene, among others. PS and expanded PS (EPS) are used in packaging, building and construction, and other markets.