What Exactly Do We Know About Plastics

8/3/2019 What Exactly Do We Know About Plastics

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Plastics: overturning received ideas

Some things becomeso amiliar, we cease tonotice them.

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Some objects are soeveryday, we think we

know all there is toknow about them.

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What exactly do weknow about plastics ?


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Plastics ineveryday lie

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Did you know that plastics have helped toreduce the average weight o cars by200kg thereby economising 500 litres o petrolevery 100,000km ?

source: Fédération de la Plasturgie - France

5




How could we organise hygienic wastecollection without plastic bin-bags ?

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Did you know that plastics make it possibleto store and transport corrosivesubstances saely?

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Did you know that PVC doors and windowshelp to avoid the chemical treatment owood and the need or painting ?

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Did you know that plastic gas and water pipes have a guaranteed lie o50 years?

source: Total Petrochemicals

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Did you know that plastic insulating oamsin a house can save the equivalent o150 litres o heating oil a year ?

source: Fédération de la Plasturgie - France

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Did you know that plastic toys oer muchgreater saety or children ?

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Pl ti t i i d id




Did you know that plastics are an integral parto data storage media: vinyl discs, magnetictapes, CDs, DVDs, memory cards, etc ?

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Pl ti t i i d id




Did you know that theinsides o ridges aremade o polystyreneor ease o cleaning,

hygiene and insulation?

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Pl ti t i i d id




What are plastics ?

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99% o all plastics are derived rom crude oil,used to produce dierent monomers that arethen joined together to orm polymers.


* 1% derived rom agriculture

ABSPolyethylenePolypropylene

PVCPET

Polycarbonate

PMMA Polystyrene

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Transport &heating

80%

Oils/tars16%

Did you know that only 4% o the totalvolume o crude oil produced is used tomake plastics?

Plastics 4%

source: Plastics Europe

How crude oil is used

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Did you know that i plastics in packaging were replaced by traditional materials, worldenergy consumption would double?

e = x2source: Plastics Europe / Gesellschaft fûr umfassende Analysen

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Did you know that i plastics in packaging were replaced by traditional materials, CO

2

emissions would increase 7 times over,adding to the greenhouse eect?

co2 x7source: Plastics Europe / Gesellschaft fûr umfassende Analysen

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Plastics are practical !

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Plastics can be ormed into an innity oshapes, rom the simplest o bottles to themost complex technical components.

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Plastics are highly durable, weather-resistant and low-maintenance.

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Plastics possess mechanical properties(elasticity, robustness, etc.) essential or demanding applications.

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By reducing the weight o packaging, plasticshelp to reduce the number o goodsvehicles on the road.

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What happens toplastic waste ?

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Landfll is not the answer, whatever the natureo the waste concerned.

Chemical

instability

Growing

shortage o

space

Prohibitive costsWaste o

energy

Visual and sensory

pollution

Pollution

o the

water table

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g

Plastic waste should go either to recycling or to clean waste-to-energy incineration.

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g

In Europe, almost 20% o plastic wasteis actively recycled.

source: Plastics Europe / images : www.save-a-cup.co.uk

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g

Did you know that it takes just 35 recycledplastic bottles to produce a polar feece jacket?

1 jacket35 plastic bottles


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g

Recycling has its limits: it is not technicallypossible or economically easible torecycle everything.

Diculty o processing(cleaning)

Costs & pollution

associated with

transport o materials

Diculty o

selective waste

collection

High energy costs

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For non-recyclable waste, clean incineration

is clearly the environment-riendlycomplementary solution.

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Waste incineration today is one o the

cleanest and most strictly regulated andmonitored industrial activities, producing verysmall quantities o fnal waste.

photo : Solvay

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Did you know that incineration reduces the

volume o waste by 90%?

source: www.incineration.org

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Did you know that between

1995 and 2006, dioxinemissions rom incinerators were reduced by 97%?

source: www.incineration.org

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60 W

Did you know that the electricity generated

by the incineration o just one plastic bagis enough to power a 60-watt light bulb or 10 minutes ?

10 min1 bagsource: Fédération de la Plasturgie - France

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Did you know that the incineration o

household waste produced by 5 millionParisians generates enough energy toheat 198,000 apartments?


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Did you know that the plastics included

in waste enable incinerators to operatewithout uel, and even to generate energy ?

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Did you know that plastics have an

energy value comparable to that oheating oil, and over double that o paper, wood and coal ?

Energy value (MJ/kg)

Ha Pascs Ca W Pap Ma Avaubawas

50

40

30

20

10

0

-10


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In Europe, the countries with the best green

credentials set an example by incineratingup to 75% o their waste.

100 %

90 %

80 %

70 %

60 %

50 %

40 %

30 %

20 %

10 %

0 %

S W i t z e r l A n d

A u S t r i A

d e n M A r k

n e t H e r l A n d S

S W e d e n

n o r W A y

B e l g i u M

g e r M A n y

F r A n C e

S P A i n

i t A l y

F i n l A n d

P o r t u g A l

g B

i r e l A n d e

g r e e C e

lAndFill

inCinerAtion

reCyCling

source: PlasticsEurope

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The trend is evident: landfll tipping is

increasingly being replaced by 80%incineration, 20% recycling.

100 %

90 %

80 %

70 %

60 %

50 %

40 %

30 %

20 %

10 %

0 %

100 %

90 %

80 %

70 %

60 %

50 %

40 %

30 %

20 %

10 %

0 %

lAndFill reCyCling

1980 2007 2015 ?

100 %

90 %

80 %

70 %

60 %

50 %

40 %

30 %

20 %

10 %

0 %

inCinerAtion


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Conclusion : plastics render us countless

everyday services. Just because they are

cheap does not mean we should waste them.

At the end o their useul lie, they should be

recycled or sent or clean waste-to-energy

incineration. Like any other orm o waste, they

should no longer be dumped in landfll sites or carelessly thrown away.

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What Exactly Do We Know About Plastics