Avient launches new automotive grades with PCR content

Avient Corporation has announced the addition of two reSound REC Recycled Content Thermoplastic Elastomers (TPEs). The new grades for automotive interior applications are formulated with post-consumer recycled (PCR) content, The company claims that the materials  offer a more sustainable TPE option with comparable performance to traditional TPEs. 

Developed in response to the growing demand for improved sustainability in transportation, this reSound REC 7310 product series aims to meet common automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) standards for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and fogging. 

These initial grades in the series are 80 and 90 Shore A durometers and contain 35 or 45% PCR content from recycled food packaging. They can also be customised, and injection moulded or overmoulded to polypropylene (PP), making them useful for a range of interior applications. This includes door mats/mat pockets, center console trays, front and rear trunk liners, or components for instrument panels & dashboards. They are colored black to provide consistent and comparable aesthetics to prime grades for OEM-specific blacks. Additional colors are also possible. 

Matt Mitchell, director, global marketing, Specialty Engineered Materials at Avient said: “These materials enable automotive OEMs and Tier 1s to satisfy performance needs and advance their sustainability goals. The use of recycled content also reduces carbon emissions, waste, and pollution at the beginning of the product life cycle for added environmental benefits.” 

The reSound REC 7310 product series is manufactured and available in North America. 

Avient Corporation provides specialised and sustainable material solutions that aim to transform customer challenges into opportunities, these products include: Dyneema, the company claims that this is the ‘world’s strongest fibre’, enabling high levels of performance and protection for end-use applications, including marine and sustainable infrastructure and outdoor sports  Unique technologies that improve the recyclability of products and enable recycled content to be incorporated, thus advancing a more circular economy  Light-weighting solutions that replace heavier traditional materials like metal, glass and wood, which can improve fuel efficiency in all modes of transportation and reduce carbon footprint.