Plastics have an inherent odor that is quite unpleasant. This happens because during the manufacturing process, several chemicals are used to make the final product more appealing and long lasting. There are plasticizers and artificial colors that are basically chemicals and in the past, most of these released smelly gases. In recent days, the problem has been largely solved with improved ingredients in Masterbatches. The main ingredient that makes plastic less smelly is known as odor absorbers and we will get more into that later, but first let’s begin by understanding what the industry did to counter malodor in plastic products.
Use of fragrant masks
Malodor in plastics is caused primarily by two things. The first which is more common is bacteria and microbial organisms that emit gases during respiration. Though this seems not much of a problem but when you consider the fact that there could be millions of them on the surface of a plastic product and you have a big problem on your hands.
Masterbatches which contain anti-microbial agents can control the problem to a great extent, but it is only part of the solution because there is another reason behind smelly plastics – VOC.
Volatile organic compounds contain harmful chemicals that smell bad and are detrimental to human health. There is double interest among masterbatch makers therefore, to provide solution to this problem. Until now this was dealt with the help of masks that tried its best to keep the odor under control but was not very efficient at doing that. Sooner or later when the masks wore off, smell would return, making this a rather very ineffective solution. That was the past recent masterbatches come laced with something that is better at doing what it is supposed to do – keep odors out.
Use of odor absorbers
Quite early into application processors found that masks were failing in being effective. This gave rise to the need for something that went beyond the surface and did more than just mask the smell away with fragrance. The need was for: odor absorbers. This additive trapped VOC molecules and dealt with the issue at the very core. To make sure that smell was completely eliminated, Color masterbatches makers never did away with using masks. Now you will observe that plastics do not smell at all and that is because of these recent developments.
