Plastics Essential for a Sustainable Future

Ray Hammond Europe's foremost Futurologist gave a presentation on 23rd June on his book "The World in 2030" to an invited audience of Government officials and senior figures from the Environment Agency, WRAP and the Polymer Innovation Network.

The event was organised by the British Plastics Federation and Plastics Europe, who commissioned Ray Hammond to write the book.

Ray Hammond described the six key drivers of change that will shape the world in 2030 whilst explaining the key role plastics will play.

Hammond's six drivers are

" The World Population Explosion
" The Climate Crisis
" The Energy Crisis
" Expanding Globalisation
" The revolution in medicinal science
" Accelerating Technology Development

Hammond highlighted the fact that the current world population of 6.7billion will increase to 12 billion by 2050 (according to UN figures) a population that simply would not be sustainable without plastics. In order to feed the rapidly growing world population food production by 2030 will have been revolutionised again with GM crops and livestock and unused land in Eastern Europe and Africa taken into use. Plastic covering films and irrigation systems will have an important role to play. He also discussed the key role plastics pipes would play in delivering water to this massive populous.

Ray Hammond argued that the Climate Crisis is already self evident and we had to cut down the greenhouse gases which increase heat retention.
He said 'Plastics have a major role to play both in reducing the weight of components in cars and planes and energy efficiency in building construction and the manufacture of energy systems."

On the Energy Crisis Hammond commented 'the solution is around us in the wind, waves and the sun's heat'. He is sceptical about nuclear power because the true cost may be hidden and said that oil was becoming scarce and should not be burnt away in automobiles and energy provision.
He asserted that 'at the current time 8-9% of the world oil goes into petrochemicals however in terms of added value it is equivalent to the other 92%'. He concluded that it should be used for high value products such as plastics and chemicals and the energy contained in a used plastic product can be recycled or recovered through energy from waste facilities.

Using stem cell technology, nanotechnology and plastics Ray said that it was evident that by 2030 people will be healthier and live far longer than we may anticipate. Referring to plastics' role in health care, Hammond quipped 'if you remove all plastics from a modern hospital all you would be left with is a metal bed frame'.

Hammond concluded that despite the major challenges the world will face over the coming decades, he remained optimistic about the future.
Believing that exponential technological developments will assist in providing solutions to many of the world problems and that plastics is the key material in this technological revolution.

The Plastics response to the World in 2030

Jan-Erik Johansson the North Region Director for Plastics Europe gave a presentation based on Ray Hammond's findings showing how plastics contribute to energy efficiency and climate protection through buildings insulation, light-weighting transport and enabling renewable energy such as plastic composite windmill rotor blades.

Jan-Erik showed how plastics will help feed the growing world population with plastic enabled greenhouses and irrigation. Water consumption to grow tomatoes, for example, is cut by a third using plastic tunnels.

Johansson echoed Hammond's view that plastics packaging will play a key role in protecting precious food resources in the future, arguing advanced plastic packaging means less food wastage in transit to the consumer, with only 3% lost in Europe compared to 50% in the less developed world.

Johansson highlighted the role plastics insulation will play in Energy Conservation in the future. 'At the current time' Johansson said '40% of all energy in Europe goes into buildings, two thirds of this goes into heating. The Insulation Association based in Brussels estimated that 460 million tonnes of carbon can be saved if we insulate our homes to the correct standard'.

To manage the litter problem he called for a 'cross societal action programme' in which involved stakeholders, such as the plastics industry, contribute.

Peter Davis Director-General of the BPF and seminar chairman said, "The Plastics Industry has always looked ahead, to meet the challenges of the future. To do so, Plastics, Design and Innovation will be key and the UK Industry has formidable strengths in all three to meet the challenges of 2030."

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( Source: Packaging Europe )