The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) has announced the winners of this year’s Plastic Sustainability Innovation Awards, recognizing outstanding innovations in plastics manufacturing that deliver environmental advantages in design, materials and end-of-life management.
Winners in each category included:
PureCycle’s PureFive resin, which captured the Sustainable Innovation in Design Award. PureFive is created in a dissolution recycling process developed by the Procter & Gamble Co., which separates color, odor, other plastics and additives from post-consumer recycled PP. Last year, manufacturers used PureFive in fiber, injection molding and thermoforming applications.
GreenMantra Technologies’ Ceranovus specialty polymer additives, which snagged the Sustainable Innovation in Materials Award. The additives are molecularly engineered through a proprietary process that breaks down long carbon chains in recycled polyolefin plastics into tailored shorter-chain polymers and waxes, turning them into functional additives that enhance product performance, improve manufacturing efficiency and drive sustainability. According to GreenMantra Technologies CEO Domenic Di Mondo, the Ceranovus specialty polymer additives, which are completely derived from waste plastics, have been used in roofing, paving and drainage pipe applications.
Greyparrot, which took the Sustainable Innovation in End-of-Life Award, with its Greyparrot Analyzer, an artificial intelligence-powered waste analytics system that provides real-time data on material composition in sorting facilities. So far, recyclers have deployed 140 Greyparrot Analyzers at 55 facilities around the world.
Plastipak and its PPK Natura material, which claimed the Leadership in Sustainability Innovation Award, given to the company with the best overall score across the other categories excluding the People’s Choice Award. PPK Natura utilizes CarbonSmart monoethylene glycol (MEG) derived from waste carbon emissions through a proprietary carbon capture and transformation process. In this process, industrial carbon emissions — such as those from steel mills or other carbon-intensive industries — are captured and converted into ethanol. The ethanol is then processed into monoethylene glycol (MEG), a key building block for PET resin. MEG is combined with terephthalic acid to create PPK Natura, a fully recyclable PET resin with the same properties as virgin fossil-based PET.
SnapSlide, winner of the People’s Choice Award for the SnapSlide RX Vial. Combining child resistance with one-handed accessibility, the SnapSlide RX Vial uses 25 percent less plastic than conventional vials while increasing shipping efficiency by approximately 20 percent.
Patrick Krieger, PLASTICS senior VP of sustainability and policy, congratulated the winners, by saying, “Congratulations to all this year’s winners. These companies represent the innovation driving the plastics industry forward and advancing sustainability. Their achievements are a testament to the incredible progress being made across our industry.”
