Eco-Efficiency and Circularity

Our products can assist our customers in enhancing the recyclability of their products. For instance, we provide polymer catalysts that can modify the properties of mechanically recycled polymers, enabling them to be upscaled and used in applications currently reserved for new virgin polymer streams. Our products also help maintain high quality in finished products made from recycled plastics.

In addition to product design, we seek opportunities to reduce waste in our value chain. For instance, at our Asa site in Japan, our customers return empty containers for products, so that these can be reused or recycled. In 2023, the site received nearly 170,000 containers from our customers for reuse or recycling.

We also use onsite expansion of our Expancel^® expandable microsphere product and point-of-use mobile expanders to decrease shipping volumes and costs. Every truckload of material our customers expand onsite saves 30 to 40 truckloads.

We are constantly seeking ways to ship more efficiently to save costs and reduce our environmental impact. This includes utilizing warehouses closer to customers and reusable dunnage, which provides a dual benefit by reducing packaging waste and eliminating the need for special cleaning at customer sites.

We conduct an annual water risk assessment. We utilize the WRI Aqueduct tool every three years and conduct an annual survey of all sites globally. This forms the basis of our assessment of sites with high water stress, as reported in our environmental data. We previously identified two sites – Ningbo and Boxing, in China – as water-stressed, and other sites to be monitored. This process also informs potential improvement opportunities. These two sites are exploring ways to improve their water management, such as reviewing projects to include reuse or recovery of wastewater or wash water, reducing water consumption, enhancing washing efficiency with less water, and exploring the use of alternative types of water.

Sites not identified as water-stressed are also initiating measures to improve water management by reducing water use or using alternative water sources. For instance, at our Salisbury, NC, US, site, certain wastewater is recycled within processes for reuse rather being sent to wastewater treatment. Our Fort Worth, TX, US, site has implemented measures to improve water management, including:

• Extending production cycles to reduce water consumption in the spray dryer.
• Decreasing the quantity of water added to in-process material to minimize the amount of water required to be dehydrated to achieve the desired finished production solid concentration
• Lowering process temperatures to reduce water evaporation in cooling towers.
• Increasing the target solid concentration for certain products to minimize dehydration rate and water addition during production.
• The introduction of a new filtration system, which reduces the frequency of changes and the quantity of water required to clean the filtration and reduces water discharge.

Our 2023 Performance

A rainwater harvesting system was successfully implemented at the Mahad site in India. This system involves the collection of rainwater from a rooftop area of 100 square meters and its diversion into a water storage tank. The system is designed to collect approximately 300 cubic meters of rainwater annually.

Between 2019 and 2023, our freshwater consumption intensity increased by 1%. We are in the process of formulating a plan to ensure we achieve our 2030 freshwater consumption intensity target