Norner News 23

Norner AS

Leader

Crisis after crisis – sustainable solutions are needed more than ever

For almost six years now, I have enjoyed working with my highly competent colleagues and excellent customers worldwide. We have grown fast with the need for more circularity in the polymer material business, particularly during the last 3-4 years.

Featured

World Cleanup Day 2023

Each year we invite colleagues and families to join us to participate in the annual World Cleanup Day. In September our team organized a beach clean-up day outside our office. Colleagues and their families put in a tremendous effort. Within an afternoon, we cleared away 400 kg of waste! Discarded waste in the natural environment is a loss of resources, having numerous negative impacts. Our ambition is to make a difference, now and for future generations.

PYROCO2 – EU research aim for plastics from CO2

We find polymers in all areas of society, and they will be part of our daily life for the foreseeable future. Today, polymers are made from fossil feedstock; oil, and gas. The fast transition toward a more circular economy puts new expectations on the feedstock for polymers.

More circularity with chemical recycling

It is the right time to embrace the opportunities of chemical recycling to further improve the circularity of the plastics industry. It will be key to recycling waste that does not fit well in mechanical recycling.

UHMWPE – The sustainable lightweight solution

In recent years ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) has been the buzz of the polyolefin industry with high annual growth rates, forecasted above 8-9 % between 2020-2027. But how is it made and how does Norner support such developments?

We can help each other to increase circularity

We found great motivation in developing a cross-industry collaborative project where we could help each other in developing circular solutions. The new project was started in 2022 and included 10 different Norwegian companies.

RecyClass – documentation and certification of recyclability

EU authorities recently published a proposal for Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. This includes a target to achieve 100 % packaging recyclability by 2030, so we can be sure we must intensify the development of recyclable packaging.

Development of packaging pouch for long shelf life

The European Commission's target is that all plastic packaging will be recyclable by 2030. To reach this challenging goal, there is an urgent need for innovations within the field of recyclable flexible packaging solutions.

Performance uplift of recycled polyolefins

Norner collaborates with Kraton to evaluate their CirKular+™ performance enhancement additives for plastics recycling. Kraton - A world-leading specialty polymer and biobased chemical solutions supplier has developed new innovative solutions that enable improved quality and a higher recycling rate of polyolefins.

Making HDPE bottles from discarded fish farming installations

Orkla Home & Personal Care is evaluating how they could use locally sourced recycled materials for some of their products, like HDPE bottles. One alternative source of HDPE is PE waste from discarded installations in the fish farming industry produced with HDPE pipe type of resin. They engaged Norner in this challenging task and chose one of their soap bottles to be tested as a demonstrator.

Efficiency in Collection: A Green Success Story

With impressive efficiency in collection and recycling, Norway is well on its way to achieving their ambitious goal of high usage of recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), even reaching 100 %. However, as with any journey, challenges pave the way to progress.

Safe use of recycled plastics for cosmetics

HDPE bottles for Personal Care and Cosmetic products (Cosmetics) are an attractive segment for the use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials. The availability is poor for materials that have good enough mechanical properties and purity. The latter can cause odour and migration of substances which needs safety documentation. Can a 3-layer structure be the solution?

Increasing requirements on purity analyses of plastic

EU is introducing requirements to converters within packaging, building and construction, automotive, and several other applications where plastics are being used. The proposed Plastic and Packaging Waste Regulative (PPWR) states that by 2030, the minimum amount of recycled content of single-use plastic beverage bottles will be 30 %, and the number will increase to 65% by 2040. Similar targets will be published for other applications, and these are tough requirements to meet for the industry. The race to build knowledge and competence within plastic recycling and characterization of the resulting products is at full speed.

A notch is enough to break your plastic

Product failures are costly. Still, it happens in most daily use of plastics. It seems like some principles are forgotten or ignored.

Transforming aquaculture into a circular economy by 2030

In December 2022, the Circular Solutions for the Aquaculture Industry project (SirkAQ) was awarded a grant of almost NOK 70 million from the government’s Green Platform support scheme. The Green Platform is a national initiative to support research- and innovation-driven green restructuring in trade and industry.