Page 167 - CW E-Magazine (17-9-2024)

News from Abroad

CIRCULARITY INITIATIVE
Westlake launches pilot programme to recycle PVC

materials at leading hospital in Texas

US-based chlor-alkali major, West- lake Dimex where the material will be
lake, has announced that two of its weighed, reground, reused and pro-
business units – Westlake Global Com- cessed into new products such as com-
pounds and Westlake Dimex – have mercial and retail runner matting, exer-
launched “Choose Pink,” a pilot poly- cise equipment matting, dock edging,
vinyl chloride (PVC) recycling pro- and cord protection products,” said
gramme, with Houston Methodist Hos- Mr. Andy Antil, general manager of
pital. The programme will take place Westlake Dimex, a compounder of
at the Outpatient Centre (OPC) at the recycled polymers.
hospital.
By collecting and recycling sin-
The pilot recycling programme gle-use healthcare applications, there
will establish a collection system for is opportunity to reduce the hospital’s
post-patient, PVC items such as nasal carbon footprint and prevent sending
cannulas and masks; oxygen tubing; waste to landfills.
and saline bags from outpatient pro-
cedures, items traditionally disposed “This pilot PVC recycling pro-
of in the hospital setting. These items Methodist warehouse to be loaded onto gramme is an opportunity for our clini-
will be collected in designated hampers a semi-trailer that, once filled, will be cal technicians to divert a substantial
and bags to contain the recycled waste, transported to Westlake Dimex’s faci- amount of material from landfills and
which will eliminate the need for fur- lity in Marietta, Ohio for recycling. into a system where these items may
ther material sorting in this programme. be reformatted for other use,” said
Bags will be collected and placed into “Once a truckload of the PVC is Mr. Jason Fischer, director of the office
containers and transported to a Houston collected, it will be transported to West- of sustainability, Houston Methodist.
UNVIABLE OPERATIONS
Mitsui Chemicals to exit toner binder resin business

Japan-based Mitsui Chemicals has competition, soaring raw material pri- reduce costs but has now determined
decided to withdraw from business ces and shrinking demand for printing that it is unfeasible to ensure the level
associated with styrene–acrylic resin as a result of changes in work styles of profitability required to sustain the
and polyester resin for toner binders. since the COVID-19 pandemic. “Mitsui business and has therefore decided to
Production is scheduled to end in the Chemicals has undertaken all possible withdraw from it,” the company said in a
first half of fiscal 2025. Toner binders efforts to rationalise the business and press note.
are raw materials from which toner – a Chemanol inks licensing deal for MDEA project
consumable used in printers and copy
machines – is produced. In addition to Saudi Arabia’s Methanol Chemicals MDEA and its specialised com-
binding together the colorants, waxes Co. (Chemanol) has signed a technical pounds are used in many vital indus-
and other raw materials of which toner licensing agreement with an unnamed tries such as oil & gas, extraction of
is composed, toner binder melts when foreign company that owns the techno- environmental harmful gases and carbon
heated, thereby playing a part in affix- logy to produce methyl diethanolamine capture, and storage technologies. The
ing the toner to the paper. (MDEA) at a production capacity of project aims to enhance the local pro-
25-ktpa. In a statement to Saudi stock duction of specialised chemicals, and
The company said the profitability exchange, Tadawul, the company said reduce dependence on imports, specifi-
of the business has been placed “under the project’s initial operation is expec- cally in the oil and gas sector, the state-
extreme pressure” by escalating price ted in Q4 2027. ment added.

Chemical Weekly September 17, 2024 167

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