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Author comment: A review of additive usage in polymer manufacturing: case study phenolic antioxidants — R2/PR7
Summary
This commentary examines the complexity and duplication of phenolic antioxidant additives in polymer manufacturing, arguing that simplifying the additive universe is essential to enabling plastic resource recovery and supporting the goals of the UN Environment Assembly Resolution on ending plastic pollution. The analysis reveals extensive redundancy of chemical species with different trade names and incremental patent modifications, providing a pathway for formulation simplification to reduce waste stream variability.
The March 2, 2022, United Nations Environment Assembly Resolution 5/14: “End plastic pollution: Toward an international legally binding instrument by 2024” provides an important path for addressing global plastic pollution, from monomer design and production through the value chain to the final fate of plastic products, including resource recovery. Of the goals set for this effort, simplifying the polymer and additive universe is among the most significant. One primary obstacle to resource recovery from plastic waste is polymer variability, which renders post-use plastic inherently waste-like. While simplification will not address microplastics and leaching of chemicals during use, these measures simplify the plastic universe and mitigate leakage which is critical to ensuring circular plastic use. This study provides a pathway for simplification of formulations through the elimination of problematic additives and revealing paths toward simplifying and reducing the variability in polymers, waste streams and pollution, while preserving critical uses. This study focuses on phenolic antioxidants to support this concept; however, these principles can be applied to other additive classes. The results show extensive duplication of chemical species with different trade names and the appearance of only minor changes to species with the intention of evergreening patents for improved marketability.