Live Cycle Analysis
Plastics

Plastics & Sustainability

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Plastics & Sustainability http://www.plasticseurope.org/plasticssustainability.aspx

The plastics industry aims to be a responsible partner to policy-makers and other stakeholders in finding solutions to the crucial issues of climate change, energy and resource efficiency, consumer protection and waste management. Plastics have a great potential to help deal with these issues and this is the reason why PlasticsEurope is working closely with the value chain to develop a common plastics industry vision and approach.

Plastic plays a major role in delivering and sustaining the quality, comfort and safety of modern life-styles. Its impressive ratio of cost to performance also means that people of all income groups can enjoy these benefits. But meeting the needs of society is not just about ''today''. Future generations also have the right to material and other benefits. Meeting the needs of tomorrow is the foundation of the concept of ‘Sustainable Development’. Plastic products are already helping every day to improve people’s lives, whilst conserving natural resources and helping to protect the environment for tomorrow, in a world that is growing in population, with ever-increasing demands for water, food, shelter, sanitation, energy, health services and economic security.

FAQs

Why does PlasticsEurope publish Eco-profiles only as averages?

PlasticsEurope’s intention is to place robust data in the public domain for use in product life-cycle studies. Such data must be representative in terms of technological, geographical, and time-related scope. As association of plastics manufacturers in Europe, the scope of PlasticsEurope is the current European production of polymers and precursors.

This leaves the question why a technology mix is reported. When sourcing polymers (or any other commodity material for that matter), specifiers and purchasers effectively draw on a »pool«, i.e. a variety of suppliers. This is because they may purchase from traders and/or switch suppliers at any time, e.g. based on pricing. Further, plastics are compound materials: aside from the polymers as such, various additives are introduced in the compounding and conversion steps which leads to a further »blending« of supply chains. As a consequence, when conducting product life cycle assessment studies for plastics applications, a distinction between specific polymer producers is usually neither possible nor relevant. Just like an electricity mix based on a variety of fuels is relevant for consumers connected to the grid, PlasticsEurope Eco-profiles are held to the best representation of the European polymer production technology mix.

Aside from representativeness considerations, reporting industry averages also enables PlasticsEurope to meet the external demand for such information, while at the same time respecting the companies’ need for confidentiality of their own data on quantities of energy and raw materials used in their processes.

Furthermore, PlasticsEurope encourages environmental improvements in manufacturing through benchmarking. One of the objectives of the PlasticsEurope Eco-profile programme is to facilitate internal company benchmarking that can lead to a reduction in environmental impact. Eco-profiles enable member companies to compare themselves against the European average and to target environmental improvements against a standard ‘benchmark’.

[PlasticsEurope Eco-profile Methodology Document: sections 1.1.1, 2.3.2]