Design for Recycling – Closing the Loop webinar will be presented by Karen Laird and Don Loepp on Apr. 24th 2019 on Plastics News Europe. It will start at 14:00 GMT/15:00 CET and 17:30 Iran standard time.
Plastics are inexpensive, lightweight and durable materials, which can readily be moulded into a variety of products that find use in a wide range of applications. As a consequence, the production of plastics has increased markedly over the last 60 years. However, current levels of their usage and disposal generate several environmental problems. Around 4 per cent of world oil and gas production, a non-renewable resource, is used as feedstock for plastics and a further 3-4% is expended to provide energy for their manufacture. A major portion of plastic produced each year is used to make disposable items of packaging or other short-lived products that are discarded within a year of manufacture.
Recycling is one of the most important actions currently available to reduce these impacts and represents one of the most dynamic areas in the plastics industry today. Recycling provides opportunities to reduce oil usage, carbon dioxide emissions and the quantities of waste requiring disposal. Here, we briefly set recycling into context against other waste-reduction strategies, namely reduction in material use through downgauging or product reuse, the use of alternative biodegradable materials and energy recovery as fuel.
Versatile and made to last, plastics are today found in everything from cars to medical devices to food packaging and much more – including the environment. Public outrage at plastic pollution is mounting, as are concerns about resource scarcity, which have served to increase awareness about the need for better solutions.
Preventing the leakage of end-of life plastics into natural systems and ensuring these plastics are collected, preferably to be reused or recycled, has become a priority topic within the ongoing transition to a more circular economic approach. Effective recycling will require designers and producers to radically rethink product and packaging designs if we are to successfully close the plastics loop.
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