Oceanworks® & Avient collaborate to increase the use of recycled ocean plastics

Avient Corporation, a leading producer of specialized and environmentally friendly material solutions and services, has announced a partnership with Oceanworks® to assist clients in incorporating recovered ocean plastics into their products.

Plastics collected from the ocean, rivers, and ocean-bound collecting zones within 50 kilometers of a coastline are considered recycled ocean and ocean-bound plastics.

Avient and Oceanworks are cooperating on an extended recycled ocean plastics portfolio, building on the 2020 introduction of reSound™ R recycled content thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) made with Oceanworks recycled plastics. Oceanworks Guaranteed basic resins will be used to create the custom-formulated materials, which will include both TPEs and thermoplastics. Oceanworks will also provide source certification so that companies can communicate the story and effect of these assets with confidence and transparency.

Initially, Avient and Oceanworks met through the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW). Avient joined AEPW as a founding member in 2019. Oceanworks was chosen as a breakthrough initiative to be incubated under AEPW’s Innovation program in 2020, in collaboration with Plug & Play, an early-stage business accelerator.

Vice President, Sustainability, Avient Corporation, Walter Ripple, said expanding their relationship with Oceanworks is in line with their commitments as a formulator to sustainability and their emphasis on assisting clients in achieving their sustainability goals. Oceanworks operates the world’s biggest marketplace for recovered ocean plastics and contributes knowledge and expertise to the development of this new portfolio.

Oceanworks, Founder and President, Rob Ianelli, said Avient will assist them with expanding the use of recycled ocean plastics in specialized formulations and applications as a top worldwide polymer material formulation specialist Their global clients come from a variety of industries, all of which value the inclusion of recovered ocean plastics. Every tonne of at-risk plastic garbage diverted from the ocean is a contribution to the solution. They’re ecstatic to have the chance to work with Avient to drive even more customization and scale.

Mr. Ripple explained that customers want to use recycled ocean plastics, but they don’t always know where to find them or how to assess them. Customers may now include recovered ocean plastics solutions to help them accomplish both performance and environmental goals thanks to this new relationship.

Avient’ solutions using Oceanworks’ recovered ocean plastics may be used in a number of TPE and engineering thermoplastic compositions and are accessible internationally.