Eco-Efficiency, Energy and
Circularity

The chemical industry plays a pivotal role in facilitating
more sustainable and circular production. Enhancing the
eco-efficiency of our facilities is a vital component of our
sustainability approach.

Our global health, safety and environment (HSE) procedures set requirements to help foster environmental protection at all our sites.

For instance, site management continuously seeks ways to reduce environmental impacts, waste generation, and energy consumption through objective plans and targets outlined in each site's Improvement Plan. Each site management team is responsible for maintaining an Environmental Management System that identifies significant environmental impacts and ensures they are appropriately managed.

We use a dashboard to monitor eco-efficiency parameters. Our sites track these to measure performance. We are also constantly innovating to develop more sustainable and circular products.

View our annual sustainability data

Recycled and Bio-Based Feedstock Eco-Premium Solutions and Eco-Solutions Improving Recyclability Green Shipping Waste Water

Products from Recycled and Bio-Based Feedstock

To meet the growing demands of our customers for enhanced product sustainability, we develop products using bio-based raw materials that are partially or fully derived from natural sources. More sustainably produced
biobased sources enable a more circular economy and can also have a lower carbon footprint compared to alternatives across their life cycle, thereby reducing reducing GHG emissions.

We utilize co-product materials as inputs for higher-value products, including tallow and cotton linters, among others. For instance, we manufacture rheology modifiers for the paint industry based on cellulose made from cotton linters.

Woman showcasing product from recycled and bio-based feedstock

Eco-Premium Solutions and Eco-Solutions are fundamental drivers of our sustainability approach for creating more value with improved sustainability attributes of the products we sell, and of the processes we use to manufacture them. 

At the heart of our innovation philosophy are Eco-Premium Solutions that offer substantial sustainability benefits over mainstream alternatives in the market, while still delivering the same or superior product performance.

Learn more

Improving Recyclability

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.

Watch now!

See how the innovative recycling technologies could transform plastic waste into high-quality materials, enabling endless product cycles.

Two hands holding small pieces of plastic for recycling
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Reducing Waste through Green Shipping

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.

Nouryon enhancing the eco-efficiency and circularity

Waste

Approximately half of our sites successfully reduced their waste intensity by finding alternative uses for waste streams and effectively converting waste into by-products.

As a result, our total waste intensity decreased by 6% between 2019 and 2024. We remain committed to achieving our 2030 total waste intensity target and are formulating a plan to ensure that it is met.

Water Resources

Our manufacturing sites initiate 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 than 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.

Nouryon conducts an annual water risk assessment with a survey of all sites globally. We have also used the WRI Aqueduct tool to further inform water risks that forms the basis of our assessment of sites with high water stress.

Our 2024 Performance

Between 2019 and 2024, our freshwater consumption intensity increased by 4%. We are in the process of formulating a plan to ensure that we achieve our 2030 freshwater consumption intensity target.

Nouryon's water treatment

Did you know?

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.

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