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Smithers Rapra Consultant delivers keynote Speech
01/05/2009
John Colbert, Smithers Rapra consultant and world renowned expert on plastics extrusion is giving a keynote paper at the "Advances in Polymer Science and Technology Conference to be held at the Johannes Kepler University, Austria 8th - 10th July 2009.
Developments in Polymer Technology driven by our need for sustainability
A Sample from the paper.
Having destroyed the myth that we are all trying to save the planet, we now need to decide what we can do to reduce the environmental impact of our industry, save the world, and increase our profits. Do we follow the public perception, fuelled by the mass media, and cut out our use of the humble plastic bag? Some people believe that this will solve everything! What is the reality? In the UK we use around 230 bags per person per year which contributes the same carbon emissions as driving 25km in our car! Or should we use more plastics? Colin Williamson of Smile Plastics maintains that “Plastics is the environmentalists Friend”, and one of the facts that he cites is that the Airbus 380 uses 25% plastics and it consumes 30% less fuel than a 747.
At Smithers Rapra we carry out Research and Development on a wide range of polymer related issues, often these are European projects funded by the EU, and carried out in co-operation with various partners throughout the European community. Two of these projects, funded by ‘Intelligent Energy’, have involved a wide range of partners across the EU, and deal very much with sustainability. The first one, ‘Recipe’- www.eurecipe.com (Reduced energy consumption in polymer engineering), looked at the energy usage for the major plastic converting processes, and published a guide to ‘Low energy Plastics Processing’, of which around 3000 copies have now been downloaded from the website. ‘Recipe’, which finished a three year programme in 2007, also produced a downloadable programme aimed at calculating the cost of ownership for injection moulding, and an online programme that enabled companies to benchmark their factories energy consumption, and produce action plans specific to their operation for reducing energy consumption. Following on from ‘Recipe’ is another project entitled ‘ENER-Plast’- www.enerplast.eu which offers a guide to environmental legislation throughout the EU, and will also have available on its website a Carbon calculator, a guide to environmental design, and energy efficient machinery. The aim of ‘ENER-Plast’ is to offer an overview of the carbon footprint of the polymer supply chain. These two projects effectively look at what we currently do, and how we can do it in a more environmentally friendly way.