Polythene UK, the largest broker of polythene film and bags in the UK, is launching two new materials that can be applied across their entire product range providing a ‘green’ solution to the ongoing problem of polythene waste.The new materials Polyair and Polylite will be unveiled for the first time at the easyFairs Ecopack 2010 Show taking place at Birmingham’s NEC on 24thand 25th February and are set to transform the way polythene is bought and used in the UK.
The award-winning firm based in Witney, Oxfordshire, provides polythene products to many sectors including the food, furniture, and metals industries and has become one of the fastest growing companies in UK packaging.
Polyair, the first of the two new materials being launched by Polythene UK, is a material that is oxy-degradable in just 2-3 years. With governments and NGOs around the world identifying that plastic lasts too long when in the environment and especially the oceans, Polyair offers a real eco-compatible solution.
The new Polyair material uses an oxy-degradable additive that is put into the polythene at the extrusion stage making the finished product ‘oxy-degradable.’ Because of this the material will degrade and disappear in a very short timescale, leaving no fragments, no methane and no harmful residues.
James Woollard, Managing Director at Polythene UK explains: - Polyair does not need a biologically active environment to start degrading – this will happen even if the polythene is left in the open air! Polyair is a fantastic solution if we are wanting to address the serious litter problems caused by waste polythene. He continues: - Polyair polythene is totally degradable and therefore far superior to ‘bio-degrable’ materials which require the polythene to be in a biologically active environment (such as being buried in the ground), before the degradation process is initiated.
The second of Polythene UK’s new materials being launched exclusively at the easyFairs Ecopack 2010 Show is Polylite.
Polylite is essentially standard polythene, but made in a superior way when compared to traditional methods. Polythene UK’s manufacturing methods enables them to produce a multi-layered, tough, lightweight film that offers great strength at lower gauges whilst reducing the weight of polythene consumption.
James comments: - Polylite can reduce the weight of polythene consumption by 20% - leading to less plastic waste going into our landfill system and therefore significantly reducing the users carbon footprint. It’s a terrific material that again provides a fantastic solution to tackling the problem of polythene waste.
