ST BlowMoulding was established in 1980, on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, we are pleased to dedicate a thought to those who took part in its history. It has been 40 years of goals, choices and sometimes daring changes, constant commitment and a lot of satisfaction.
One of the greatest successes of ST BlowMoulding, leader in suction blow moulding technology, is the ASPI Series blow moulding machines, of which, in just over 10 years, it has sold more than 140 machines. Even in the technological field, there was no lack of significant innovations such as the 4WDS lateral radial thickness control system and D-Print / W-Print parison marker devices.
Furthermore, the last few years highlight the ever more constant presence of ST BlowMoulding in the industrial packaging field with the increasing production of blow moulding machines for the manufacturing of IBC and machines with parison transfer technology for L-Ring drums.
Today, ST BlowMoulding has over 400 machines sold worldwide and an increasing investment in research and development of new technologies.
A special thanks goes to those who have believed in us over the years: our partners and customers who have honored us with their trust, the employees, and all the professionals who with their passion and competence, have contributed making this milestone possible.
Moving Forward, by Your Side.
Celebrating 40 years with ST BlowMoulding
Innovative electric race car part shows potential for Electron Beam Melting
UK’s National Centre for Additive Manufacturing supports Formula Student race team’s electrification ambitions
The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, supported by Innovate UK, is focused in accelerating the UK’s industrial growth, developing and proving innovative manufacturing processes and technologies together with creating and embedding future skills.
Driving the commercialization of additive across the UK’s manufacturing sector
Accelerating the adoption of additive manufacturing is a specific focus for the National Centre for Additive Manufacturing Centre (NCAM), part of the MTC. NCAM works with a growing ecosystem of member partners, companies of all sizes and research institutes to challenge the boundaries of additive manufacturing regionally and nationally.
For the past three years, the NCAM’s DRAMA research project has helped build a stronger additive supply chain for the UK’s aerospace sector – an industry which has the largest number of small and medium sized enterprise (SME) companies in Europe.
The automotive sector and motorsports have also been the lifeblood of manufacturing in the West Midlands – one of the UK’s industrial heartlands. For generations the region has been the crux of invention, technology and innovation that has defined motoring and mobility globally.
So, it’s fitting that the NCAM’s Coventry-based team has been using additive technology to continue that innovation legacy and pushing the boundaries of automotive engineering with one of the UK’s leading formula student racing teams.
Electron Beams meets Electrification
Over the past three years, the MTC has been working with Oxford Brookes Racing (OBR), the formula student racing team at Oxford Brookes University, on various projects. After a long and successful history of combustion entries in the hotly contested formula student competition, OBR was keen to make the shift to all-electric for the 2020 season.
Once again, the OBR team turned to NCAM to explore the potential of additively manufacturing a complex and critical part that connects the suspension link, the brake mounts, the wheel, as well as housing the gearbox to the race car’s electric motor.
The part is based around a 4WD in-hub motor configuration with AMK AC servo motors mated to a compact epicyclic gearbox capable of producing over 300 N-m of torque at each wheel. Energy is supplied from a 600V, 6.6 kW-hr battery pack using lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) pouch cells with a peak output of over 130 kW. All to be managed through an open controls platform, ideal for implementing torque vectoring and advanced vehicle controls to unleash the full performance potential of an electric race car.
“Our team was aiming not only to develop a platform to take on the other top Formula Student teams in the world, but to also serve as a test bed for innovation in electric vehicles and controls software. It has also given us an opportunity to be on the forefront of not only performance, but also the industry by gaining both the knowledge and hands-on experience working with electric vehicles,” comments Charles Boileve at Oxford Brookes Racing.
“We’re here to help wherever we can. In fact, the OBR team already had a strong concept and design for additive in mind, which was about 90% there. Our team was able to add our deep additive expertise, offer guidance and add that remaining 10% in order to get the project up and running,” says Ruaridh Mitchinson, product development leader at NCAM.”
“The collaboration case study project enabled demonstration of the full AM end‑to-manufacturing process; from a conception idea to design for AM, manufacture, inspection and post processing machining. The most exciting thing was working closely with MTC Design for Additive and process engineering experts to fully explore the EBM AM process capability, as well as disseminating the knowledge to Oxford Brookes racing team,” adds Mitchinson.
Core to the NCAM team’s expertise is identifying and tailoring the most appropriate technology for a specific application. In the case of the OBR part, electron beam melting (EBM) and a GE Additive Arcam EBM Q20plus were selected from a wide selection of technology at the center’s disposal. Once EBM was selected as the most appropriate, Emmanuel Muzangaza a senior research engineer at NCAM, worked closely with the OBR team on its part.
EBM systems create dimensionally accurate parts quickly and efficiently by utilizing a high-power electron beam. The process takes place in vacuum and at high temperatures, resulting in stress-relieved components with material properties better than cast and comparable to wrought material.
Some of the factors leading to the choice of selecting EBM over other additive technologies for the OBR project included;
- Design freedom that allows for dense nesting of entire build tank and large, bulky parts without swelling and the ability to easily create little to no supports on parts at low costs
- High process temperatures mean that parts can be produced with no or minimal residual stress
- Cost-Effectiveness. EBM enables the use of reactive and crack-prone materials such as Ti-6Al-4V at low costs and the possibility to reuse powder extracted from the system’s Powder Recovery Station (PRS).
2020 Season’s Red Flag
COVID-19 put paid to the FSUK 2020 season. However earlier in the year, over 80 teams from across the UK still participated in a virtual competition. The OBR20 team placed fifth overall in the Statics category and third overall in Virtual Dynamics category, which had they been scored together – as is done at the real-world event – the team would have placed second overall, and runners up for the third year in a row.
“While we hit a bump in the road this year, we continued to better ourselves as engineers – by pushing ahead and looking forward. The electric revolution is still coming, so we will be striving for perfection as a team, and remain committed to our vision of building a multi-year legacy,” adds Boileve.
www.ge.com/additive
Introduction of world´s first renewable Oxo products
Perstorp is pioneering the Oxo-market by launching the first partly renewable carboxylic acids – 2-Ethylhexanoic Acid Pro and Valeric Acid Pro. 2-EHA Pro is based on 25% renewable raw materials, and Valeric Acid Pro contains 20% renewable content. The renewable material consists of biogas, and replaces natural gas using the mass balance concept. Users can expect the same quality as the existing 2-EHA and Valeric acid, with the additional benefit of a lower carbon footprint. The renewable oxo portfolio will also include oxo aldehydes and alcohols.
“As customers wish to reduce their environmental impact, and develop more sustainable products, the interest in chemical products with renewable raw materials is increasing. We are proud to be the first to offer two new partly renewable oxo acids that will help customers reduce their carbon footprint and support the sustainable sourcing of renewable raw material. Our ambition is also to offer 100% renewable grades in soon future”, says Sam Chia, Product Manager.
In the last few years, Perstorp has expanded its portfolio of Pro-Environment products, produced from renewable and/or recycled raw materials, to cover both base polyols, specialty products, deicer, plasticizer and now acids, aldehydes and alcohols. All Pro-Environment products are ISCC PLUS certified, meaning that all our sustainable raw materials are certified in all parts of the value chain back to the point of origin. All Pro Environment customers are also given information about the GHG-value of the product and their contributions to reduced CO2– emissions.
“Continuously innovating to finding new sustainable solutions to reduce environmental impacts and meet the market demand for more environmentally responsible products is part of our DNA. Being able to offer the first renewable 2-EHA and Valeric Acid is one step towards our goal to becoming Finite Material Neutral, while inviting customers and users to join the movement towards a more sustainable tomorrow”, comments Logan Tseng, Product Manager.
Perstorp is world leading in dedicated 2-Ethylhexanoic Acid and Valeric Acid production. 2-EHA is used in plasticizers for PVB film, synthetic lubricants, as a corrosion inhibitor in radiator coolants, siccatives & paint driers, and resins. Valeric Acid is used for aviation lubricants, refrigeration lubricants and other esters for synthetic lubricants. With 2-EHA Pro and Valeric Acid Pro there is now a renewable alternative to help users lower their carbon footprint.
www.perstorp.com
Global styrenics leader nominated as finalist
- Company’s commitment and actions to sustainability recognised by Chemical Week
- Journey of continuous improvement since establishment of sustainability programme in 2014
INEOS Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics, announced that it has been chosen by Chemical Week as a finalist in the magazine’s sustainability awards 2020 under the category “best sustainability programme”.
INEOS Styrolution was nominated as a finalist based on its annual sustainability report, which provides a comprehensive review of the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance over the past year, and outlines the company’s strong commitment and actions to transition to a circular and low-carbon economy.
INEOS Styrolution was particularly recognised for its sustainability programme that has evolved significantly since it was established in 2014. Initially, the company concentrated its efforts on optimising its portfolio and provide high quality, safe and durable styrenics products to customers.
To address the increasing global challenges, the focus of the programme expanded to developing circular solutions. This has significantly accelerated the company’s efforts to develop post-consumer recycled products. Here the company has made significant steps forward with the introduction of INEOS Styrolution ECO, its family of sustainable products. This includes Terluran ECO, the company’s first ABS grades comprising post-consumer recycled material, and Styrolux ECO and Styroflex ECO made using renewable feedstock. The company also achieved a breakthrough in 2019 by producing virgin polystyrene at lab-scale from previously depolymerised material and is now focusing on producing this recycled polystyrene at commercial scale.
INEOS Styrolution has also been awarded a platinum rating by EcoVadis due to its advanced sustainability performance, ranking it in the top 1% of plastics manufacturers worldwide.
Petra Inghelbrecht, Global Sustainability Manager, comments: “Our programme has a strong focus on innovation for circularity and value chain collaboration. Our aim is to further shift towards low-carbon, circular polymers by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. We are very proud for being recognised for our efforts.”
www.ineos-styrolution.com
Bertrand Fillon is honored with the title of OE-A Fellow.
Since 2017 the OE-A honors persons who have made special contributions to the further development of the flexible, organic and printed electronics industry and the OE-A (Organic and Printed Electronics Association) – a working group of the VDMA. With the appointment as ‘OE-A Fellow’ a personal OE-A membership for life is connected.
This year, the OE-A Board has chosen Dr. Bertrand Fillon, Program Director of the CEA-Liten of France. The fellow certificate was digitally handed over by Stan Farnsworth, Chair of the OE-A Board and Chief Marketing Officer of NovaCentrix, during the online OE-A meeting. “Dr Fillon has made great contributions to both the OE-A and LOPEC, the international exhibition and conference for the printed electronics industry,” said Farnsworth. “For more than fifteen years, Bertrand Fillon has been an important ambassador for the OE-A and has contributed significantly to fostering the very good and ever-increasing cooperation with French companies and networks”, Farnsworth added.
Bertrand Fillon has also supported and promoted the flexible, organic and printed electronics industry at European and international level. Bertrand Fillon is also a member of the Scientific Board of the LOPEC conference. He is also involved in various European platforms and associations as well as in various expert groups at international and national level. “The OE-A would like to thank Dr Fillon for his services to the printed electronics industry, his support of the OE-A, and his work in establishing networked communities of both research and business in France and throughout Europe ,” continued Farnsworth. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration”.
www.oe-a.org / www.lopec.com
Label material wins Innovation in Sourcing Award
UPM Raflatac’s Forest Film label material has received the 2020 Innovation in Responsible Sourcing Award from the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC). The announcement came on Wednesday, September 30, at the SPC Innovator Awards ceremony as part of this year’s SPC Advance virtual event. Forest Film is the world’s first polypropylene film label material derived entirely from wood-based sources based on mass balance approach and brings UPM Raflatac’s vision of “labeling a smarter future beyond fossils” to life.
“Forest Film deserves attention for being a notable introduction of bio-based polypropylene with a well understood feedstock and an assurance mechanism for responsible sourcing,” says Adam Gendell, Associate Director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. “It is a significant advancement in the field of bio-based plastics, and we feel it’s earned its status as the winner of Innovation in Responsible Sourcing in the 2020 SPC Innovator Awards.”
The innovative sourcing begins with UPM Raflatac’s sister company, UPM Biofuels, who convert pulp production residue called crude tall oil from sustainably managed forests into renewable naphtha, a drop-in raw material for the chemical industry. This product, called UPM BioVerno, is sent to a resin supplier and then a film supplier to convert it into the filmic face material UPM Raflatac then manufactures into the laminate label material known as Forest Film.
It is an International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS-certified product, meaning it uses sustainable resources to replace an equivalent amount of fossil resources in the production process – the mass balance approach. Forest Film products are proven to deliver savings on greenhouse gas emissions. When a comparison is made between a standard label construction and Forest Film, the carbon footprint, including biogenic carbon, significantly reduces emissions up to 66 percent (based on UPM Raflatac’s life cycle assessment study critically reviewed to be in accordance with ISO 14040/44 and PAS2050 standards).
Forest Film has identical performance to traditional plastic film label materials. It is now available as either polypropylene or polyethylene, in both clear and white films for a number of packaging end-uses.
“Thank you to the Sustainable Packaging Coalition for this tremendous honor,” says Tyler Matusevich, UPM Raflatac’s Sustainability Manager for the Americas. “Responsible sourcing is top priority for our company because raw materials are one of our biggest sources of environmental impact. Forest Film answers our customers’ and brand owners’ needs for using renewable instead of fossil-based raw materials. Thank you to all the SPC members who continue to drive the sustainable packaging industry forward. Let’s collaborate, let’s learn together and let’s change the world!”
UPM Raflatac’s collaboration project with Sustana Fiber to recycle label liner waste into new label face material was also named a finalist for the SPC’s Innovation in Recovery Award 2020. This recycled label face stock contains up to 30 percent recycled fiber made by Sustana Fiber from waste label liner collected by UPM Raflatac’s RafCycle service and other mixed paper waste collection streams.
www.upmraflatac.com
World’s largest polymer company receives first supply of certified renewable phenol
Next milestone in the strategic cooperation of Neste, Borealis and Covestro for the use of alternative raw materials
- Neste produces ISCC Plus certified 100 percent bio-based hydrocarbons from renewable raw materials
- Borealis uses hydrocarbons from Neste for manufacture of ISCC Plus certified phenol
- Covestro receives supply of 1,000 tons of renewable phenol from Borealis
As part of a strategic collaboration, Covestro received a first delivery of 1,000 tons of renewable phenol from Borealis, produced with renewable hydrocarbons from Neste. Neste produces these ISCC Plus certified hydrocarbons (ISCC: International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) entirely from renewable raw materials. The hydrocarbons are then converted into ISCC Plus mass balance certified phenol by Borealis and finally used by Covestro to produce the high-performance plastic polycarbonate – as a replacement for part of the phenol previously manufactured from purely fossil resources. Polycarbonate is used in car headlights, automotive glazing, LED lights, electronic devices as well as other applications.
“With this first supply, we are once again underlining our commitment to the increased use of alternative raw materials. In this way, we are recycling carbon and are driving the circularity forward, which must become the new global guiding principle,” says Covestro´s CEO Dr. Markus Steilemann. “By cooperating with upstream partners such as Neste and Borealis, we are showing how a sustainable value chain can work.”
“We are delighted to see our renewable feedstock helping Covestro to achieve this new milestone. It highlights the drop-in nature of our product replacing fossil crude and its fit for a continuously increasing number of demanding applications,” says Peter Vanacker, President and CEO of Neste. “Furthermore, it clearly demonstrates how sustainability-focused collaboration among frontrunner companies – Neste, Borealis and Covestro – can make a positive impact even within a complex value chain.”
”Life demands progress. We are proud to be pioneers to deliver renewable phenol to our strategic customer Covestro. Together with our innovative value chain partner Neste we are at the forefront of driving the circular economy,” says Alfred Stern, CEO of Borealis. “This is how we re-invent for more sustainable living.”
Neste produces its renewable hydrocarbons entirely from renewable raw materials, such as waste and residual oils and fats. These hydrocarbons can be used in existing production infrastructures and help replace fossil feedstocks that are used in the polymers and chemicals production. This makes it possible for companies such as Borealis and Covestro to produce more sustainable products with consistently high quality on the basis of their existing processes.
With the planned transformation of raw materials used in the company’s production, Covestro aims at helping key industries such as the automotive and electronics industries to achieve greater sustainability and reduce their dependence on materials from fossil resources. The project is part of a comprehensive program with which Covestro, together with its partners, is seeking to propel the transformation to a circular economy and become fully circular itself.
www.neste.com / www.neste.com/companies/products/plastics / www.borealisgroup.com / www.borealiseverminds.com / www.covestro.com
Dr. Lutz Werner is Now the New Business Unit Manager
From 1 October 2020, Dr. Lutz Werner has taken up the position of Business Unit Manager for Europe at Buehler – ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, a premier manufacturer of scientific equipment, consumables and accessories for metallography and materials analysis, including a broad portfolio of hardness testers. His office is at the location in Esslingen.
After studying physics and computer engineering at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Lutz Werner earned his PhD at the University of Kassel in the Department of Physics. In the course of his professional career, he has held various project management, business development and leadership positions at scientific precision instrument manufacturers and industrial automation companies.
Julien Noel, Vice President and General Manager, comments: “I am very excited to welcome Lutz in the Buehler family. His extensive experience in business development combined with his technical abilities will certainly be an asset to support Buehler’s growth in the region.”
Lutz Werner adds: “I’m looking forward to becoming a member of Buehler’s team for Europe, which enjoys an excellent reputation worldwide due to its innovative solutions for metallography and hardness testing as well as its exceptional customer service. My most important aims in my new role include establishing further partnerships and continuing the history of success associated with the name of Buehler.”
https://www.buehler.com
Richard Kelsey, SVP Finance Consumer appointed interim CFO
Tanja Dreilich, Managing Director and CFO, will leave the Constantia Flexibles Group by the end of 2020 in order to take on new professional challenges. The CFO tasks will be taken over by Richard Kelsey, SVP Finance Consumer, on an interim basis as of beginning of October with Tanja ensuring a smooth transition of the activities.
Pim Vervaat CEO Constantia Flexibles said: “With Tanja Dreilich, we are losing a CFO with a proven track record of successfully driving profitability and growth in highly dynamic companies in a variety of industries. I would like to thank her for her great personal commitment, her contribution to improving profitability and financing and for successfully managing several key projects in the group.”
The Constantia Group regrets Tanja ‘s departure and wishes her continued success and all the best for her personal and professional future.
Richard Kelsey has 10 years of experience with Constantia Flexibles in various roles in the Finance area. He joined Constantia Flexibles in October 2010 as Group Head of M&A subsequently assuming the responsibility of Group Controlling & Accounting for three years before taking on the role of SVP Finance Consumer Division on 1 July this year.
Plastic Putting the ‘P’ in Packaging
Initiatives to replace plastic with other alternatives have long been in play but the packaging section in the industrial sectors is now overturning the situation. Replacing plastic with single-use plastic, paper, and cotton products intended for the purpose didn’t seem to resolve the issue. The plastics industry took the opportunity and began providing undeniable options in a time where plastic is being rejected.
Plastics are strong, durable, lightweight, cost-effective, and consume fewer material resources for manufacturing in comparison to its alternatives. There are 6 different types of plastics used for packaging that possess salient features in durability, lightweight, sustainability, versatility, inexpensiveness, and most importantly, recyclability. Further discussed are the types, their properties, and their uses in applications.
The first type of resin is the High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), a safe plastic used in a wide range of products. As the name suggests, it is a high density to strength ratio resin with chemical resistance and is frequently used in packaging with unpigmented translucent and barrier properties for bottles and containers. It is used for packaging products with short life spans, household and industrial chemicals like detergents and bleach.
The pigmented HDFE packaged bottles have stress crack or shattering resistance, higher tensile strength, temperature capabilities, and versatility. We see illustrations of it for packaging bottles containing milk, water, juice, cosmetics, shampoo, and household cleaners as well as bags used for groceries and retail purchases. These products can be recycled into pens, rubbish bins, outdoor furniture, fencing, and detergent bottles.
Second on the list is Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) that also includes Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE), which has a broad use in film application due to it’s tough, flexible and relative transparency for heat sealing. LDPE is resistant to acids, bases, and oils thus creating an excellent barrier to oxygen, water, and carbon dioxide. It provides flexibility in food packaging, lids, bottles, wires and cables, bags for dry cleaning, newspapers, bread, frozen foods, fresh produce, and household garbage and a shrink wrap and stretch film coating of it is used to coat paper cartons and hot and cold beverage cups, container lids and squeezable bottles in housing and essentials. It can be recycled to bin liners, shopping bags, floor tiles, shipping envelops, etc.
The next resin is Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) that has a clear and optically smooth surface formula in films and bottles. PET provides a gas, water, and moisture barrier for packaging plastic beverage bottles containing water, juice, beer, mouthwash, etc., food jars for peanut butter, jelly, jam and pickles, injection moulded consumer product containers, fibers in clothing, 3D printable thermoplastics, PETG and PET strapping.
Additional qualities of PET are its high impact capability and shatter resistance that do not let the product to break easily, while its resistance to most solvents do not taint the flavor of food packages. Cleaned, recycled PET flakes and pellets are used to manufacture spinning fiber for carpet yarns, fiberfill, and geotextiles, new containers, strappings and ropes, carpet fibers, clothing, and cushion or jacket filling.
Next is Polypropylene (PP) resin that has a chemical resistance with a strong, flexible, and high melting point required for hot-fill liquids or contents. It can be moulded for extensive varieties of products and optical clarity for biaxially oriented films, and stretch blow moulded containers. With a low moisture vapor transmission and inversion or intervention towards acids, alkalis, and most solvents it helps create sterile syringes, containers for yogurts, takeout meals, deli foods, medicine bottles, bottle caps and closures. These products are later recycled and remade into brooms, auto battery cases, pallets, signal lights, and bicycle tracks.
The resin Polystyrene (PS), commonly known as Styrofoam, in rigid or foam form, is a low-density foam with a low melting point but does not conduct much heat and its insulation helps transport hot or cold products. It is used in protective packaging, foodservice packaging, bottles, and food containers and its moisture barrier supports short life products.
PS has an optical clarity for general purpose and a significant amount of stiffness in foam and rigid forms. Low density and high stiffness in foamed applications, low thermal conductivity and excellent insulation properties are found in foamed forms. Foodservice items like caps, cups, plates, meat and poultry trays, disposable plates, bowls, and cutlery, disposable razors, protective packaging, and other rigid containers like CD cases contain PS and can be recycled into vests, foam packaging, insulation, and flower pots.
Lastly, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a resin with stable physical and electrical properties, chemical resistance, weather ability, and flow characteristics as well as high impact strength, clarity, processing performance, resistance to grease, oil, and chemicals and is the world’s widely used synthetic plastic. It has two forms, rigid and flexible. The rigid form helps manufacture blister packs and clamshells while the flexible forms create bags for bedding and medical, shrink, deli, and meat wraps tamper-resistant. Its products can later be recycled for piping, kayaks, packaging, traffic cones, post boxes, and speed bumps.
These resins provide the durability factor to plastics that protects keepsakes, food, electronics, and shipping products. They prevent and protect damage or contamination caused during transport, by moisture, microorganisms, insects, and light. Spillage while transporting to distances and also during usage of products is avoided thereby preventing waste. Household goods and gadgets, books, toothbrushes, sports equipment, etc. are shielded from scratches and dents that arise during transport.
Plastics promote resistance to corrosion and bio-inertness making plastic resource efficient while saving 75.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. It also provides preservation to products for an extended shelf life thus preventing waste.
17% percent of packaging involves plastic that makes the product lightweight, unlike its substitutes that are 4-5 times heavier as they require more material output for packaging. Lightweight but strong, it protects the product without adding extra weight thus save manufacturing, transportation, and shipping costs. Being lightweight leads to superior sustainability, lowers energy consumption, material resource efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions.
The durability and lightweight qualities make packaging possible by using fewer resources, occupying less space in transport that then requires fewer modes of transportation due to lighter loads hence lower emissions. Products are delivered in a perfect condition and consequently increases trade.
The versatility of plastic helps build moulds into limitless shapes like bags, pouches, films, flow wraps, sleeves, shells, trays, pots, bottles, drums, etc. The mould fits of packaging are customized to the shape of products into a box, spherical, cylindrical, and many other shapes. It allows the product to provide a tight, simple, open form or hanger seals to hold hot foods, cold liquids, acids, or bases. From button cell batteries to bicycle pallets, versatility creates varied transformation in blown, injected, thermomoulded, decorative effects and colors, safety mechanisms, or shut seals like childproof locks on medication.
“Education is required to know what is recyclable and what is not.”- Clare Goldsberry.
The myth that paper is an all-time replacement for plastic depicts ignorance of the science that lead to poor decision-making. Basic paper cups are lined with polyethylene, plastic, to prevent dissolving. Plastics have multipurpose usages in common households as garbage bags, to carry or transport food and most frequently for packaging. The usage of plastic was always existent however the real problem was not plastic but people littering it rather than recycling, resulting in disposal complications.
An article in Plant Money determined that plastic bans may have reduced non-biodegradable litter but on the contrary, paper bags are worse because they require trees to be cut or a high percentage of recycled paper to be processed using lots of water and toxic chemicals and fuels for the production machinery.
According to Igor Catic, Professor Emeritus of Plastics Engineering at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, “Several ecological problems are cropping up with increased use of paper bags and must be used 43 times to be ecologically productive. Conversely, cotton bags have an even worse impact than plastics. They require fuel to grow and machines that use diesel or gasoline to work.” The Plant Money article states that cotton bags must be used 20,000 times.
Biodegradable, Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), sustainable products i.e. eco-friendly alternatives to plastics and other petrochemical plastics are some of the many new components that will be used to upgrade plastics usage soon. PHA products saw developments and productions from 2018 through 2019.
According to Dr. Jenna Jambeck and her team of researchers, April 2018, on the biodegradability aspect of PHA, compared PHA plastics with petrochemical plastics and found, “PHA is biodegradable in an anaerobic environment and its landfill degradation would take up to 40-60 days. While, petrochemical plastics degenerate in aerobic, sea or ocean, environments in 6 months.”
This research proved PHA to be a promising eco-friendly alternative to avoid the petrochemical waste that sustained harm to the environment. The future goal of many packaging industries is to create snack bags that are home compostable and to add PHA in straws, cutlery and cosmetics packaging.
The plastics industries use bio-based and compostable materials to promote sustainability. The flexible packaging stimulated industry collaborations of more than two supplier partners on a global scale. Compostable snack bags by PepsiCo and Danimer Scientific use traditional bio-based flexible packaging. Their packaging has right balanced sustainability, high performance, cost-effective, material that has a feeling comparable in noise and quality made of traditional film resins.
Current plastics packaging have multisensory elements that mimics leathery or soft-feel materials thus making it look attractive. They also possess a high-performance structure in reusability, brand benefits and quality that gain brand-loyal customers. The printing and graphics also add to the authenticity and overall quality.
New plastics packaging have extended shelf life properties as well as recyclability along with storage capabilities and ovenable films for food items and microwaveable convenience as well. Thus, along with the capacity to store its content efficiently, the consumer can heat the food package in an oven or a microwave and can store it back into the fridge without the need for transferring it into a container.
In conclusion, plastic bag packaging is one that enables plastics industries to get their products across the consumer without letting the consumer have the benefit of doubt in regards to the environment and the sold product. Along with aiding the environment, it provides for a circular economy and grants many secure jobs and to minimize losses.