With its roadmap to resource efficiency, the European Commission highlighted zero-energy buildings and increased waste recycling as the way to go for an improved sustainability of the sector. But is it the right approach? Equally, what would be the role of plastics in such endeavour? In order to shed light on these questions from a fresh perspective, Newslink has met with Gaetan Siew, former president of the World Professional Organisation of Architects.

The 2012 edition of FuturEnergia is not just another sequel to PlasticsEurope and European Schoolnet’s six-year old education programme. With recent innovations such as Solar Impulse, the plastics industry has a unique opportunity to showcase the value of plastics in terms of innovations and welfare for future generations. And it works: According to Richard Thommeret, Solvay’s ambassador for education on plastics, youngsters have never been so interested and open-minded in this regard...

Currently in intense trialogue negotiations, Member States are trying to water down the draft Energy Efficiency Directive and especially the proposed renovation rate of buildings. In the latest document, the Danish Presidency limits the scope of the annual renovation rate to only those buildings that are owned by central governments. In the original proposal the renovation rate included all public buildings.

On May 16, PlasticsEurope’s Building and Construction Workgroup will be organising a workshop with relevant associations of the sector. "The objective of the workshop is for the relevant associations to learn from each other, to enhance mutual understanding, to identify areas where cooperation already exists and topics of common interest, and finally to map out where and how we could work together to amplify the effects of our efforts,” said Arjen Sevenster, B1C manager at PlasticsEurope.

PlasticsEurope’s Sustainability Platform, which took place on April 24-25, was a key step towards setting up a Plastics sustainability roadmap.
The event aimed at the identification of the main sustainability requirements and drivers for the EU plastics industry, an analysis of current PlasticsEurope activities and a proposal of flagship initiatives for the next decade. Annual targets and objectives for these initiatives were also discussed, with a key focus on knowledge sharing with all stakeholders.

According to German law, July 31 will be the deadline for German facility operators affected by the European Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) to set up their monitoring plan (Treibhausgasemissionshandelsgesetz). Since the European regulation is not yet finalized, facility operators can only prepare themselves with the latest draft of the Regulation available on http://ec.europa.eu/clima/news/articles/news_2011121401_en.htm

Currently in Belgium, the collection of rigid plastics for recycling is focused on specific products and materials. But would it be possible to extend this collection to other rigid plastics? OVAM, which stands for "Public Waste Agency of Flanders” and is responsible for waste management and soil remediation in Flanders, is currently looking into such possibility.

On June 20, Vacances Propres will launch its new summer communication campaign. The non-profit organisation, which is supported by PlasticsEurope, will aim to convince French mayors to strive for social responsibility of tourists especially when they are in open environments such as beaches, lakes and forests.

Within the framework of an extension of household plastic packaging collection to all kinds of plastics items, whose experimentation has just started, PVC producers and Valorplast are now looking into solutions for the recycling of rigid PVC packaging. Whilst efficient sorting is of course the first necessary step to isolate waste containing a high proportion of PVC packaging, the subsequent processes are equally important.

A new study has shed light on the sustainability of bio-based plastics. The latter indicates that "bio-based plastics are not sustainable, owing to practices including pesticide use”. However, this could change with further technological development, according to the authors of the study entitled "Sustainability of bio-based plastics: general comparative analysis and recommendations for improvement”, published in the British Journal of Cleaner Production.

The Polymer registration project is progressing well and is following two main directions. The first one, which started with the collection of data on existing polymers and their monomers consisted in gathering a huge quantity of information from members of different associations which are producing or importing polymers. Of particular interest is the fact that aside of the well-known plastics, a lot of other polymers ‒ mainly surfactants, adhesives and resins ‒ have also been identified.

Since March 2011, the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles has been banned throughout the EU. The Belgian senate is now following Denmark and going a step further than EU legislation by proposing a national ban on BPA in all food contact materials aimed at children under three years old.

The Swedish Government has taken several decisions aimed at determining the prevalence of Bisphenol A in products and acting against it. One of the measures is a ban on the use of Bisphenol A in packaging for food intended for children under the age of three.

An amazing stadium, three enlightening presentations, six experts and 19 journalists from 8 European countries – these were the main ingredients of the successful press visit of the Warsaw National Stadium organised by PlasticsEurope in April.

Seventeen plastics journalists from Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland have attended PlasticsEurope’s traditional day of information held in Frankfurt. The yearly event has been held for more than 10 years.

On the 28th of March, PlasticsEurope Iberica’s PVC Group together with the Centro Catalán del Plástico , run the award ceremony of the "Foro Ibérico del PVC” Prize to the best 2011 research work on PVC.

The international exhibition of the plastics and rubber industry will be taking place in Milan, from Tuesday May 8 to Saturday May 12, 2012.

On March 30, the sixth edition of the advanced training course "Design for Plastics", dedicated to the management and development of plastic products, was held with the support of PlasticsEurope Italy.

"Marine Litter, a global societal challenge” was the topic of last month’s FuturEnergia chat with around 150 students from all over Europe. Students and teachers from Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania and Lithuania had signed up for the opportunity to get an understanding of the complex and multi-dimensional problem of marine litter and to raise their questions directly to plastics industry representatives.

The final of "Plastics in debate”, the education programme of PlasticsEurope France, was held in Paris on April 2. Fifty young students from the four corners of the country, accompanied by their teachers, participated and exchanged views on the benefits of plastics and their impact on the environment.

Denmark has introduced a restriction proposal under REACH for four low-molecular weight phthalates in articles for indoor air or skin contact. The commenting period ended on March 16.

ECVM and the European additives producers were both invited to the the Vinyl India 2012 conference, held in Mumbai on April 12-13. ECVM presented both VinylPlus and the European regulatory environment, especially with respect to PVC resin manufacturing. Europe-inspired legislation is clearly considered in the medium term vision of the Indian PVC industry.

For the fourth time, PlasticsEurope Polska, together with the Polish Union of Plastics Converters, has organised the annual meeting of the Polish plastics industry. Held on April 19 in Warsaw under the slogan "Plastics industry in Poland – perspectives, innovations, challenges”, the meeting gathered about 90 leading representatives from manufacturing companies and converters, along with guests from PlasticsEurope, EuPC, the national administration and science and plastics industry press.