EPDA’s Sustainability Committee is accountable for the sustainability strategy and performance of the association.
At the Edinburgh annual conference in 2018, Lari Hahtonen, (EPDA President) introduced the idea of a separate committee within the EPDA membership, tasked with tackling sustainability as an association. Both Manufacturers’ and Distributors’ are included in the committee to discuss this matter as it includes both sides of the membership.
The mission of the committee is to:
Inform the membership on best practices in sustainability, empowering and informing the association and industry as a whole.
The Sustainability Survey 2020
In March 2020 all 61 members of the EPDA received an invitation to participate in the first survey about sustainability. We – the sustainability committee- hoped for a high degree of participation given the importance of sustainability for our industry. Counting after 2 weeks a very humble 19 members responded, you may understand, we did not become very enthusiastic.
14 of 32 distributors (44%) and 5 of 29 manufacturers (17%) answered the survey.
Such a small number of participants it is not justified to extrapolate the findings to the whole population. Reliable statistical analysis is also very difficult with such a small number of respondents.
Worse, the results, the answers could be very well to be skewed, not representative at all for the whole group as, maybe, only those companies participated that do experience sustainability as a threat or as a special responsibility for our profession or as something that is important for the future of our ecosystem, for our planet. Just guessing…
This week I had an exchange of thoughts with my new HR employee. She told me that her 10-year-old daughter said: “Are you going to work for a plastic company? Mama, why do you do that? Plastic is bad!”. Such a negative – and incorrect! The image of our industry can have the effect that talented people will hesitate to join our profession. This is just one of the possible negative effects of the “populistic” the idea that plastics are bad, the “plastic-soup-effect”.
The reality is that, as we know, performance plastics can help enormously in relation to sustainability. So, we need to change this view and have the most talented young people eager to join us.
With our expertise in plastics we have the possibility to realise significant positive effects reducing waste, reducing wear and to help to find with our performance-plastics, excellent alternatives that last in a lot of applications much longer than conventional solutions with other materials. Using the best materials for a given application is a major contribution to sustainability. Often this solution could even be realized with a recycled plastic.
In the field of Acrylics, we experience this now with the protection-screens made from recycled PMMA. Our distribution-capacity can (should) contribute easily and efficient to closing the circle of plastic materials, getting used material back.
Especially our plastic industry can and should contribute a lot to a more sustainable world, for now and for future generation. Do not worry, activities related to sustainability are at least as profitable as the services you provide now, and it is a growing market.
We notice that the world is rapidly changing, certainly not only because of the Covid-19, but in general. The awareness of the importance of sustainability, of circularity, of recycling and re-use is growing rapidly. My company offers now a broad range of (partly) recycled plastics – mainly acrylics- and a fast-growing number of clients is buying from us just because of our focus on sustainability.
Carried out an energy audit
Recycle plastic waste
Recycle cutoff waste
Manufacturers
use pre-consumer waste
Distribute
goods with pre-consumer
waste
A small summary of the results
The first 9 questions related to simple in-house interventions like segregation of materials, motion sensors coupled to LED-lighting, collection of waste and used materials from clients, relatively simple kind of actions. The mean score of the number of interventions is 3.8, so almost half of the possible actions. Most common is separating plastics for recycling.
We asked manufacturers about in-house recycling, re-using pre-consumer content and about the quantity of material involved. Most manufacturers are active in this field. Quantities involved are usually more the 100 tons for each company. As we count only 5 manufacturing respondents, we expect this quantity to be much larger. We do hope, when we repeat the survey in 2021 for a higher participation from manufacturers. It would be great to get to know from them more about these very important issues.
A slight majority of the distributors (10) do sell plastics made from pre-consumer recycled content. However, suppose the non-respondents are not active in selling recycled plastics, then the percentage would drop to a thin 31%.
Selling recycled material is often very complicated, due to rules like those for food-contact. If the recycling process cannot be traced for the full 100%–which is often the case- then the use of recycled polymers for food-applications is formally impossible.
In general, we see a positive development in sales (and intention to sell) of recycled materials.
Finally, we asked about tasks for the sustainability committee. A full 100% of the respondents agreed that developing tools for the education of the public are a task for the committee. OK. Realising how huge a task like this is….!! We would like to be granted a very substantial budget, such as 1% of the turnover of our members (smile) for the education of the European population about the very positive contribution of performance plastics to sustainability. Helping with documentation about sustainability is also something members would like us to do. Nice, thank you!
Conclusion
We can conclude that our responding members do realise the importance of sustainability and that they are working on it. Also, it is very clear that the sustainability committee has a lot to do… I suggest meanwhile that before the next conference we will measure the activities of our members related to sustainability again in March 2021. Hopefully the conference can be organised next year. It would then be a pleasure to report about our 2021 finding and discuss about sustainability together.
Might you have any comments, suggestions, questions or news related to sustainability please contact me at sied@pyrasied.nl.
The full report is available here.
Thank you!
Sied Kooistra – vice-chair Sustainability Committee EPDA (October 2020)
Committee Members
Hans Winterleitner
Zell-Metall Engineering Plastics
Chair of the EPDA Sustainability Committee
For over 60 years the production of Zell-Metall GmbH products has been carried out with the highest precision on the most modern extrusion lines, all designed for high-quality and low stress materials. Zell-Metall Engineering Plastics are committed to sustainability and the following is a glimpse into their sustainability program and actions:
– 100% electricity made from water (ecological) for production
– A closed water-cooling system with water clearing devices (osmotic cleaning)
– No landfill, all materials are either recycled or reused or thermal converted
– Palettes made from wood of the region / district
– Raw-material cycle, internally and externally
– 100% electrically powered forklift trucks
All processes are under permanent optimization control
Sied Kooistra
Pyrasied Research
Deputy Chair of the EPDA Sustainability Committee
Circularity and sustainability are key-issues fundamental for the world and – of course- our business. PyraSied is investing in large stocks of 100% recycled materials, R-PMMA cast sheets (Greencast), HMPE, PET, HIPS. All made 100% from recycled pre- and postconsumer content. PyraSied’s Research department is developing together with extrusion companies R-PMMA XT sheets and tubes and is also trying to convince a PMMA tube-casting manufacturer to make R-PMMA cast tubes. PyraSied is intensively promoting 100% recycled performance plastics to architects, designers, retail companies and companies in the field of lighting. Reactions from the target groups are very positive and stimulating. I like doing this a lot!
Contact the Sustainability Committee
If you wish to discuss any issues surrounding sustainability, please contact the Sustainability Committee: