{"id":16989,"date":"2024-04-10T06:00:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ulprospector.com\/knowledge\/?p=16989"},"modified":"2024-05-09T10:42:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T16:42:51","slug":"pe-plastics-the-sustainability-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/16989\/pe-plastics-the-sustainability-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastics – the sustainability challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In the article “Polymers in Electric Vehicles” (March 2024), the importance of resource conservation was emphasized. Plastics have inherent properties which make them ideal for modern transport systems; they are light, corrosion-free and easily moulded into complex shapes without the need for assembly or fastening systems. Using 100kg of plastics in a car can replace between 200-300kg of traditional materials.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The value of plastics<\/a> is even greater in aerospace. Some 22% of the Airbus A380 (the world\u2019s largest commercial aircraft) is built from carbon-reinforced plastics. This helps to reduce the fuel burn to a rate comparable to that of an economical family car. The fuselage of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner is made from three plastic composite sections. This serves to reduce fuel burn by as much as 20%.<\/p>\n

Plastics<\/a> also have a huge role to play in sustainable construction, whether it be PVC windows, plastic foam insulation, or plastic water pipes. Plastic foams provide excellent insulative properties and are very cost-effective. If all buildings in Europe were to the optimal standards it would save 460 million tonnes of CO2 per year.<\/p>\n

Plastic products are also used in surgery, healthcare products, pharmaceuticals, drug delivery systems and medical packaging.<\/p>\n

A blessing and a curse<\/strong><\/p>\n

But plastic is both a blessing and a curse. Plastics<\/a> have many useful applications, but the global production and consumption trends of these materials are currently unsustainable. While these remarkable materials are incredibly useful, our reliance on them has huge environmental impacts \u2013 including that they linger in our environment and oceans forever; microplastics have already made their way into people’s lungs. Many pieces of plastic packaging are thrown away after a single use. While some of them can be recycled<\/a>, many cannot. This does not only create an ever-increasing demand for raw materials and energy, but it is also a burden on the environment, as large quantities of plastic waste leak into the environment. Globally, between 5 and 14 million tonnes of plastic, which is 1.5 \u2013 4% of global plastics production, end up in the oceans each year, where they can persist for hundreds of years. We are already unable to cope with the amount of plastic waste we generate, unless we rethink the way we manufacture, use and manage plastics.<\/p>\n

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Global plastic production by industrial sector, 2015<\/em><\/p>\n

In 2015 alone, the world produced more than 380 million tonnes of plastic. It\u2019s estimated that during the 2010s, about 80% of plastic waste ended up being thrown away in landfills, burned, or leaked into the environment instead of being properly managed. And every year, plastic production, and usage release about 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This is about 4% of the total amount of carbon dioxide that the world can afford to emit. To put that in perspective, it’s roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide that Germany, the United Kingdom, and France produce together.<\/p>\n

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We have become too accustomed to use plastics<\/a> for just about everything. But reducing plastic pollution does not necessarily mean we need to change the way we live our lives. It is principally in packaging that plastics get a bad name. Yet, they also provide unparalleled benefits as a packaging material. This is because plastics are lightweight, resource efficient and offer excellent barrier properties, significantly reducing waste and saving energy.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, tackling one of the biggest environmental scourges of our time will require governments to regulate, businesses to innovate and individuals to act. The United Nations report “Single-Use Plastics: A Roadmap for Sustainability”<\/em> sets out the latest thinking on how we can achieve this. It looks at what governments, businesses and individuals have achieved at national and sub-national levels to curb the consumption of single-use plastics. It offers lessons that may be useful for policymakers who are considering regulating the production and use of single-use plastics. An important first step would be if plastic could at least be produced in a climate-neutral way and subsequently recycled into usable energy.<\/p>\n

Using plastics<\/a> in a smarter way includes reducing unnecessary packaging and single-use products, as well as a more circular design that makes products last longer and easier to reuse and repair. When using plastics, we need to think about how we can maximize the life of products and design them to allow us to reuse the materials. On average, 10 times more energy goes into the production of the food or goods packaging contains than the packaging itself. Food waste in the UK is 2%, compared to between 40-50% in the developing world. This is due, in no small part, to plastic packaging systems.<\/p>\n

Good practice examples include stores that offer to take back their own products at the end of the product life cycle, which can improve the quality of recycled<\/a> materials or enable some type of reuse. The role of consumers is also critical in choosing what to buy and ensuring proper recycling. Overall, many European markets of recycled raw materials, including for mixed plastics, are not functioning well, according to a recent EEA analysis.<\/p>\n

A complementary report, \u2018The Fate of EU Plastic Waste\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, by the EEA\u2019s European Topic Centre on Circular Economy and Resource Use, investigates the dynamics of plastic waste trade within the EU and exports from the EU. The report demonstrates that EU plastic waste exports continue to decline and are concentrated in a few receiving countries. Raising environmental concerns, case study results also indicate that plastic waste leaving the EU is of much lower quality than that traded within the EU, and that receiving countries often lack proper waste management infrastructure.<\/p>\n

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Only 4% of global oil production is used for plastics<\/a> and much less energy is used to produce it compared to other materials. When plastics have completed their use phase, whether as a car bumper or a bottle, they can either be recycled<\/a> – or if this is not economically or environmentally beneficial, the calorific value of the plastic can be recovered through waste incineration.<\/p>\n

Alternative raw materials<\/strong><\/p>\n

Research is being conducted to find materials<\/a> that can replace oil-based plastics, while offering the benefits of reducing carbon emissions, being easier to recycle and being biodegradable. A higher focus on finding sustainable solutions to manage its waste is crucial. Masdar, Mitsubishi Chemical<\/a>, and INPEX plan to make polypropylene from e-methanol, which itself is made from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Green hydrogen is produced by using renewable energy to split water with electrolysers.<\/p>\n

Recycling<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are two primary methods to recycle plastics. Mechanical recycling<\/strong> is the simplest method. Here, plastics which soften on heating are reformed into moulding granules to make new products. The process involves collection, sorting, baling then size reduction into flake (film and sheet) or granules which may then need washing and drying. This is then re-compounded with additives and\/or more virgin raw material, extruded and chopped into pellets ready for reuse.<\/p>\n

Feedstock recycling<\/strong> involves breaking down polymers into their constituent parts through the use of heat or pressure. In turn, these parts can be used to make new plastics<\/a> and chemicals. Feedstock recycling provides benefits when the materials being recycled are mixed or contaminated.<\/p>\n

An alternative to recycling is to recover the thermal content of plastics through waste incineration<\/strong>, providing an alternative source of energy.<\/p>\n

References (many of these references also contain lists of further references)<\/strong><\/p>\n