Kidlington’s Essentra accelerates trials for bioplastic alternatives

Essentra, a Kidlington-based manufacturer of industrial components, is looking to accelerate development of new bioplastic materials to create more sustainable product ranges.

The push follows a series of successful trials since the firm opened its new centre of excellence at the start of the year.

In the first six months of operation, teams at the Kidlington centre have completed 19 trials of 14 different materials, resulting in 52 individual product samples and nine stock keeping units (SKUs).

Essentra is particularly excited about ongoing trials to create flexible, seaweed-derived bioplastics in collaboration with business startup FlexSea.

These can in turn be the source of a new range of products, rather than being used to substitute existing raw materials.

The firm says the novel material is 100 per cent bio-based and truly home compostable.

Other materials being tested include different types of bio-woods, polylactic acids (PLA) and nylons – including post-industrial recycled (PIR) nylons – and a variety of different low-density polyethylene (LDPE) from both PIR and post-consumer recycled (PCR) sources.

Essentra is also trialling industrial and consumer products that have already been recycled once, thus completing the full circularity of a product material.

Significant investment is being made pre-trial to ensure the ethical sourcing and procurement of new materials, as well as their technical viability and safety in the moulding process.

Materials that then subsequently enter the trial process are tested for their product performance and repeatable consistency of performance.

This is followed by a more detailed evaluation of commercial viability, including validation of the future supply chain and analysis of true sustainability and environmental impact.

Jennifer Spence, ESG director at Essentra, says that customers are very much focused on the detail of the materials they are using.

“We continue to receive requests from customers around the sustainability aspects of our products,” she said, “which is why we go into so much detail before the start of any trials into where the products have come from and how a material performs at the end of its life.

“The centre of excellence is not only driving the development of new and more sustainable products, but also directly contributing to our scope three emission targets in line with our environment, social and governance responsibilities and ambition towards achieving net-zero in our operations by 2040 and across our value chain by 2050.”