Trinseo’s Giona Kilcher Sits Down with PCI Magazine

September 27, 2024

Trinseo's Giona Kilcher, Global Business Director, CASE, recently discussed how the Company is turning to chemical recycling, traditionally associated with plastics, to create more sustainably advantaged latex binders. An excerpt of the interview can be found below.

"While generally used for plastic, chemical recycling is an invaluable tool in furthering the sustainability of latex binders for coatings and many other applications. Binders are not inherently circular today, but chemical recycling enables the replacement of fossil resources in the making of latex.

Post-consumer plastics are collected from various value chains at the end of their life, and through the chemical recycling process, re-purposed into a high-quality monomer for major feedstocks. Today, the technology has been scaled for several monomers, including styrene and MMA, but many more are expected to join. This capability allows manufacturers to retain monomers in the value chain, thus reducing consumption of virgin fossil resources, and improving the sustainability and carbon footprint of the coating product and other valuable solutions.

Regulators will look at this new technical opportunity as a guide to set new and ambitious sustainability standards. It will be critical for industry leaders to access this novel and rapidly evolving solution to incorporate more environmentally friendly materials into their portfolios, as chemical recycling technology provides industry players with improved access to readily available, sustainable feedstocks."

The full interview can be read online at PCI Magazine.