Finding a bio-based plasticizer has been on Presco’s R&D agenda for over 5 years now. In the past, we have sampled and evaluated many different bio-based plasticizers in order to provide our customers with a bio-content vinyl film. The hurdles we needed to clear in the past proved to be too high (1) quadruple price delta (2) limited availability (3) unstable supply chain.
I’m proud to announce that our R&D team is currently sampling a promising bio-based plasticizer which seems to clear all the previous hurdles. This development is still in the early stages but our team is very optimistic. Of course, the qualifying process is very important to determine there are no long term negative affects to the physical properties of the vinyl film. Presco has very high quality standards to uphold and our customers expect us to do our due diligence to ensure bio-content vinyl film performs to the specifications determined by our customers.
We at Presco drive to give our customers options, especially in the ‘green’ world. We have a very large recycling program at Presco which has allowed us to recycle back into our vinyl film over 13 million lbs. No vinyl film leaves our facility and heads to a landfill – we either sell our un-usable scrap to the outside scrap market, or we grind the scrap in house and re-introduce it back into formulations tolerant of outside regrind. We even purchase millions of lbs. of vinyl scrap from other manufacturers. We are able to assist our customers in explaining the recyclability of vinyl film to the consumer market but we also understand that having a bio-content vinyl film has long been a request from consumers.
Stay tuned as we work to finalize the development of Presco bio-content vinyl film – it’s on the horizon!