Polymer market - production, consumption, waste management

Abstract

Streszczenie: W artykule omówiono najnowsze dane dotyczące produkcji i zapotrzebowania przetwórców na tworzywa sztuczne w ujęciu światowym, europejskim i krajowym, z uwzględnieniem wymiany handlowej i perspektyw branży na najbliższe lata. Podano także podstawowe informacje na temat zagospodarowania odpadów tworzyw sztucznych w aspekcie wyzwań związanych z pakietem Gospodarki o Obiegu Zamkniętym.

New Circular Challenges in the Development of Take-Away Food Packaging in the COVID-19 Period

“…appliences, mchnical eng., furniture, medical 16.7% Building&Construction 20.4% Automotive 9.6% Electrical&Electronic 6.2% Household, Leisure&Sport 4.1% In Poland, the demand for plastics is 3.5 million tons per year, with the largest user of plastics, similarly to the whole EU, being the packaging industry with a share of 33%. Plastic is mainly used for the production of packaging, foil, and single-use products: plastic plates, cups, cutlery, drink tubes, and shopping bags [20]. At the same time, as stated already above, the level of pollution of the planet with used plastic packaging is increasing dramatically.…”

Selected performance indices for assessment of polypropylene susceptibility to dyeing by pigments of different UV resistance

“…Industries such as: automotive, cosmetic and advertisement set very restrictive requirements concerning dyeing of the products. The standards related to coloring are also very high in construction industry, safety systems and interior architecture [1][2][3]. An increase in production of plastics and application of many new additives including dyes involves the need to identify the relations that occur in a material as a result of its modification.…”

“…Disrespecting standards connected with resistance to UV radiation: light resistance (LE), weather resistance (WE) can lead to economic and reputational loss of companies and generate large financial losses for manufacturers [6]. Some problems connected with dyeing of materials are caused by intensive implementation of plastic recycling and the requirements included in the sustainable economy packet [1,2,7]. The idea of sustainable development involves a tendency to reduce dyeing of polymers used in popular disposable packages.…”

“…This trend does not apply so much to cosmetic industry where colors still play a very important role [3,8]. Implementation of an ecological balance based on an analysis of a product life cycle (LCA), considering both the material acquisition costs, the environmental impact, and the process 1) University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Kaliskiego 7, 85-796 Bydgoszcz, Poland. * ) Author for correspondence: Marek.Bielinski@utp.edu.pl energy consumption confirms benefits provided by the use of polymer materials in many applications and justifies high development indices for these branches [7,9].…”

“…Stability of the most important functional qualities of plastics largely depends on their resistance to the impact of environmental factors. In the case of processing with simultaneous dyeing, such indices as: discoloration repeatability, lack of migration, susceptibility to mixing and others need to be assessed [1,[15][16][17].…”