Chemical giant Dow (Midland, Michigan / USA; www.dow.com) recently announced that it will supply bio-based materials to American footwear manufacturer Crocs (Niwot, Colorado; www.crocs.com), as part of a collaboration that is set to lower Crocs’ greenhouse gas emissions.

Crocs will incorporate Dow’s bio-based materials into the production of its “Croslite” materials – a proprietary closed cell resin product (PCCR) – the production of which helps the company manufacture footwear with a lower carbon footprint, says Crocs. The company plans to introduce Croslite into existing footwear product lines, which are set to hit shelves by early 2022.

In other news, Dow’s packaging and speciality business unit announced a partnership with the packaging films division of French conglomerate Bolloré (Puteaux; www.bollorefilms.com) for a pilot project to produce “Oxbtec_Rcb”, a recyclable barrier shrink film for modified atmosphere packaging applications, made from the feedstock of hard-to-recycle mixed plastics waste.

Bolloré’s recyclable barrier shrink film is designed for food-contact applications. Dow breaks the used plastics down into their basic elements, which are repolymerised into the equivalent virgin material. Yorkshire Packaging Systems (YPS, Brighouse / UK; www.yps.co.uk), a supplier of shrink wrap machines and films, is set to offer Bolloré’s new film under an exclusive distribution agreement.