Milliken & Company’s Chemical Division has joined the Global Organization for PHA (GO!PHA) to help address the technical and market development challenges related to polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biodegradable biopolymers. Milliken will bring to GO!PHA its expertise in polymer chemistry to help improve the processing, performance, aesthetics and other important attributes of PHA. The goal is to expand the application range of this family of materials into more packaging applications.
GO!PHA is a coalition of industry and academic stakeholders dedicated to advancing the development, commercialization and adoption of PHA polymers through advocacy and knowledge sharing. Milliken will collaborate with other GO!PHA members to prioritize technical issues and explore ways to solve them by adapting existing high-performance Milliken additives or developing new technologies.
“Milliken’s participation in GO!PHA supports our corporate sustainability goals by giving us a collaborative platform to tackle the challenges of ocean plastics and natural resource conservation,” noted Allen Jacoby, senior vice president, plastics additives, for Milliken’s Chemical Division. “Replacing traditional materials with bio-based, biodegradable PHA polymers can provide lower impact options for food service and flexible packaging. We look forward to working with other GO!PHA members on enhancements that can make PHA polymers more appealing to product designers, converters and consumers.”
“We are delighted to welcome Milliken to GO!PHA,” said Rick Passenier, executive board member, GO!PHA. “Milliken’s polymer additives expertise and extensive development capabilities add tremendous value to our efforts in optimizing PHA properties and processability, and expanding the use of the material in single-use packaging applications.”
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