Royal DSM, a global science-based company in nutrition, health and sustainable living that produces resins for paint and hardwood floor coatings, announced it will begin phasing out products that contain N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), a water-compatible solvent the Environmental Protection Agency has linked to respiratory illness, reproductive harm and birth defects.
In 2017, the EPA proposed banning the chemical from paint removal products and adding additional warning labels, a proposal that has since been tabled. In the wood flooring industry, NMP is used in some water-based coatings. DSM’s phasing out of NMP is scheduled to be completed by July 2020.
Sjoerd Dijkstra, sustainability marketing manager for DSM, said phasing out the chemical is an acceleration of the company’s long-term strategy to remove all chemicals of high concern from its portfolio.
“Over the years, technology has become more and more advanced, so we as an industry have found a lot of different tricks where we can now actually make urethanes that are solvent-free, getting their properties from different chemical reactions,” Dijkstra said. The alternative products are equal in terms of performance and cost, according to Dijkstra. DSM, which is based in the Netherlands, recently introduced a self-matting bio-based resin (SP-2022xp) as a more sustainable alternative, and the company has begun working with coatings companies in North America to incorporate the new product.
While Dijkstra said the company sees greater health and societal benefits to the elimination of NMP, he notes there’s also a shift in the market that’s taking place. And aside from being labeled a priority under the Toxic Substances Control Act by the EPA, NMP is also listed as a “Substance of Very High Concern” by the European Union, which will restrict the chemical in mixtures in concentrations equal to or greater than 0.3% in May 2020. Last year, major retailers such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, Sherwin Williams and Walmart pledged to phase out paint removal products containing NMP.
"This is a transition in the industry,” Dijkstra said of the movement to phase out NMP. "We want to send an open invitation to industry, whether it's competitors, whether it's our customers or retailers; we would like to do this together because ultimately we can all benefit from this.”
