French chemicals and advanced materials producer Arkema is teaming up with engineering plastics compounder Agiplast to produce and regenerate engineering plastic compounds from high performance polyamides and PVDF fluropolymers, a compay press release announced Tuesday. 

“Arkema is in the perfect position to play the role of matchmaker in the latest step of our sustainability journey. We are able to pair companies (on a case-by-case basis) who are looking for a second life for their scraps or end-of-life products with companies who want to source recycled specialty polymer,” Erwoan Perzon, global group president of Technical Polymers business line at Arkema, said in a statement. “Ariplast is an ideal partner for us due to their extensive history in regenerating high added value materials for specialty markets.” 

The Virtucycle recycling program will work with Arkema’s specialty polymer customers to further open-loop and closed-loop post-industrial and post-consumer recycling projects. 

“The partnership with Arkema and its Virtucycle regeneration program are the perfect answer to the specialty polymers users’ quest for more sustainable products,” Frédéric Hepineuze, president of the Agriplast Group, said in the release. “We call it Regeneration because this is not just recycling; thanks to our unique know how, our expertise is to recover to a high degree, the original properties of high performance polymers in order to give them a second life.”

Earlier this week, Arkema said it is considering a sale of its Functional Polyolefins business line after receiving an offer from South Korean firm SK Global Chemical.

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