100% Recyclable, Carbon Positive Material Revealed

Polythene UK, the multi award winning broker of Polythene films and bags, based in Oxfordshire, has recently unveiled a new 100% recyclable, carbon positive material, called Polyair.

The new Polyair material is bio-based. Made from sugar cane it’s the process of photosynthesis as the plant grows that makes this product carbon positive. The sugar cane actively captures CO2 from the atmosphere, while at the same time releasing oxygen – making this material not just green, but proactively green.

The company initially launched the product in 2009, as an oxy-degradable polythene. James Woollard, managing director at Polythene UK, explains: “When we initially launched Polyair a few years ago it was an oxy-degradable polythene. At the time everyone thought that the oxy-degradable route was the way to go. However, although we felt we needed this in our product portfolio, we soon began to wonder at the actual benefits of a material that completely degraded within 2/3 years – our atmosphere simply turned it to flakes and particles.”

James continues: “Two years ago, we decided that until we had satisfactorily answered this question, we would suspend sales of Polyair. After extensive consideration, consultation and research we are now delighted to say that we have found an amazing alternative and are now relaunching Polyair to the UK market and specifically the FTSE 500 – this bio-based product will have a massive environmental impact.”

Indeed, for every 1 tonne of the new Polyair manufactured this means that 2.5 tonnes of CO2 will have been captured from the atmosphere.

James adds: “Polyair can be used across our full product range of bags, covers, tubes, films, wraps and stretch film, giving customers a significantly greener, environmentally friendly option. Using a bio-based material, such as Polyair, at a percentage of 60% in film reduces the CO2 emissions to 0% even when you take into consideration the energy used for manufacturing and shipping.”

“Put simply, Polyair is truly the greenest material we know of. This product is the only 100% recyclable, carbon positive material on the market and, from a customer point of view, more importantly is not cost inhibitive if integrated with our Polylite solution.”

Polythene UK’s Polylite product is essentially standard polythene, but made in a superior way when compared to traditional methods. The manufacturing method enables production of a 100% recyclable, multi-layered, tough, lightweight film that offers outstanding strength at lower gauges whilst reducing the weight of polythene consumption.

James concludes: “Polylite can reduce the weight of polythene consumption by 20% - leading to less polythene waste going into our landfill system and therefore significantly reducing the users carbon footprint. It’s a terrific material that when integrated with Polyair provides a fantastic solution to tackling the problem of polythene waste.”