• Plastics grocery bags require 40% less energy to manufacture than paper bags.
• For every 1 truck load of plastics bags, it takes 7 truck loads of paper bags to deliver the same quantity – this help to save energy and reduce emission.
• It takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper.

Why less material means less waste and less emissions.

• 2000 plastics bags weigh 30lbs, 2000 paper bags weigh 280lbs. Therefore plastics bags take up less space in a landfill.

•     Plastic bags generate 80 percent less waste than paper bags.1
•     Plastic grocery bags make up a tiny fraction (less than 0.5 percent) of the U.S. municipal solid
waste stream.2
•     The manufacture and use of paper bags generates 70% more air emissions than plastic.1
•     Plastic bags generate only 40% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of non-composted paper bags and only 21% of the GHG emissions of composted paper bags.3
•     The production of plastic bags consumes less than 4 percent of the water needed to make paper
bags.3
Plastic grocery bags are fully recyclable4 and the number of recycling programs is increasing daily.
•     Plastic bags can be made into dozens of useful new products, such as building and construction products, low-maintenance fencing and decking, and of course, new bags.
•     There is high demand for this material, and in most areas, demand exceeds the available supply because many consumers are not aware that collection programs are available at local stores.
•     In recent years, many grocers and retailers have introduced plastic bag collection programs. Consumers should look for a collection bin, usually located at the front of the store. The number of municipal drop-off centers and curbside programs to recycle plastic bags is increasing also. Consumers can locate plastic bag recycling programs in their communities by visiting www.PlasticBagRecycling.org.
•     In addition to grocery bags, other plastic retail bags, dry cleaning bags and newspaper bags can be included wherever plastic bags are collected for recycling.

Based on a report by WRAP’s (Waste and Resources Action Programme) and the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, a staggering 4.4 million whole apples are being thrown away untouched in the UK everyday. It also states that we throw away nearly £3 billion worth of perfectly good fruit and vegetables each year.

Read more about this report and also tips about how we can reduce waste and preserve our food. www.wrap.org.uk The Waste and Resources Action Programme.

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publish statistics on total Municipal Solid Waste generated in 2009. Plastics take up 12.3%. Read full article here.

Created Wednesday, November 17th

Published on Malay Mail Online

Its makers claim the material creates less solid waste, uses less energy to recycle, re-used as garbage bags, among others

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 05:05:00

WE refer to the various articles arising from the Penang State government’s decision to extend the “ban/tax” on plastic bags from three days to seven.

The Malaysian Plastics Forum (MPF)/Malaysian Plastics Manufacturers Association (MPMA) are disappointed as we believe the State authorities are influenced by several common misconceptions about plastic bags with statements like:

● “Plastic bags are bad because it is not degradable”;
● “A ban will encourage the use of reusable bags”;
● “Other materials, like paper, are better for the environment”; or
● “Plastic bags are the cause of littering”.

Many wrongly consider plastic bags to be “harmful” because it does not degrade. The sad truth is degradation in the presence of oxygen causes the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas (GHG) that causes global warming.

Degradation in the absence of oxygen, such as anaerobic respiration, is even worse because methane gas, which is 22 times more harmful than CO2 as a GHG, is released.

We quote this statement from the Australian Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts:

● “Our consultancy report, ‘The Impact of Degradable Plastic Bags in Australia’, found that there is probably little benefit obtained by using biodegradable plastics if you dispose them to landfills. This is because microorganisms cannot survive the dry, oxygen-deprived conditions normally found in landfills. All sorts of biodegradable materials, including food and paper, have been found “mummified” and preserved in such conditions. Even if the degradable materials degrade, the low oxygen level means that they release methane as they break down – a potent greenhouse gas”.

● “Plastic bags that are commonly replaced by degradable plastics actually make up a small amount (by volume) of the waste going into landfills, and most plastics are inert and do not contribute to toxic emissions or leaching.”

The non-degradation of plastic bags represents a form of carbon capture (carbon sequestration). It is therefore an irony many are harping on the issue of degradation, which releases CO2 or methane gas, only to see millions of dollars being spent on “Carbon Capture and Storage” programmes (International Energy Agency www.iea.org/Papers/2009/CCS_Roadmap.pdf [1]).

San Francisco banned plastic retail bags in 2007 to, inter alia, encourage the use of reusable bags. A 2008 survey (www.use-less-stuff.com [2]) found few switched to reusable bags. Instead, large amounts of paper bags, many with double bagging, were issued, causing an even greater environmental impact.

Compared to a paper bag, a plastic bag consumes 71 per cent less energy during production, generates 68 per cent less GHG emissions, and uses less than six per cent of the water needed to produce paper bags. In addition, plastic bags create 80 per cent less solid waste, and use 90 per cent less energy to recycle.

Littering is a behavioral problem. San Francisco commissioned a Streets Litter Re-Audit in 2008 which showed plastic retail bags as a composition of total large litter increased from 0.60 per cent, before the ban, to 0.64 per cent after. Plastic bags are thus a very small component of total large litter and the ban did not reduce this composition.

Even if plastic bags are not used during the purchase stage, a plastic bag is still needed for disposing garbage. In the absence of plastic bags, consumers will have to pay for garbage bags. The cost of a regular size plastic bag is 4 sen while the selling price of a medium-size garbage bag is 40 sen. This will only cause hardship to the poor.

Garbage bags are comparatively thicker and require more energy and resources to produce. Shopping bags have handles which allow easy tying of the bag for garbage disposal. A garbage bag uses more plastic material as the top part of the bag does not have a “cut-off”. Consequently, more, not less, plastics actually end up in the landfill.

To judge the impact of a material on the environment, it is necessary to measure all the parameters right from the source of the raw material (“cradle”) up to its end of life (“grave”), that is, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Plastic bags, whether in terms of the total energy used, fossil fuel used or greenhouse gas emission, has the best LCA compared to other packaging materials.

The wise use of plastic bags is to only take what is required (REDUCE); using the same plastics bag at both the purchase and disposal stage (REUSE); and returning any excess (RECYCLE). They will benefit both consumer and the environment. Our proposal is to set up a workgroup based on the 3Rs model (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) with all stakeholders working together.

The Penang authorities should put in place stronger mechanisms to punish littering altogether, and increase the collection and recycling of all materials, including plastics.

We call upon the State government to urgently adopt the 3Rs model as an integrated and holistic approach that would not only benefit the environment but also not burden the rakyat. The 3Rs model, in place of the ban/tax model, needs to be given a chance to work!

We already know that plastic comes from crude oil. Now watch how used plastics can be converted back to oil. That’s recycle.

Below is list of abbreviations and acronyms used in the plastics industry. Not the full list but I am trying my best to include everything. These include international and regional standards organizations, government agencies, industry terminology, directives, etc. For abbreviations on plastics resin/material, click here.

ACCSQ — ASEAN Consultative Committee for Standards and Quality

ANSI – American National Standards Institute

ARSO – African Organization for Standardization

ASQ – American Society for Quality

ASME – American Society for Mechanical Engineers

ASTM – American Society for Testing and Material

CAD – Computer-aided Design

CAE – Computer-aided Engineering

CAM – Computer-aided Manufacturing/Computer-aided Machining

CAR – Corrective Action Report

CARACAL – Competent Authorities for REACH and CLP

CE – Conformité Européenne (EC stamp of approval)

CEN – Comité Européen de Normalisation (European Committee for Standardization)

CIT – Continuous Improvement Tools

CKD- Completely Knock Down

CLP – Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures

CMR – Carcinogenic, Mutagenic, Toxic to Reproduction (Chemical Safety Classification)

CNC – Computer Numerical Controlled

COPANT – Pan American Standards Commission

CSA – Canadian Standards Association

CSR – Chemical Safety Report

CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility

DIN – Deutsches Institut für Normung (German Standards Institute)

EAN – International Article Numbering (formerly European Article Numbering)

ECHA – European Chemical Agency

EFTA – European Free Trade Association

E&E – Electronic and Electrical

EMI – Electromagnetic Inteference

EPA – United States Environment Protection Agency

ESCAP – Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (United Nations)

ETA – Estimated (expected) time of arrival

ETD – Estimated (expected) time of departure

ETS – Estimated (expected) time of sailing

ESCR – Environmental Stress Cracking Resistance

FDA – US Food And Drug Administration

FRP – Fiber Reinforced Plastics

GADSL – Global Automotive Declarable Substance List

GATT – General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

GASG – Global Automotive Stakeholders Group

GBI – Green Building Index (Malaysia)

GPC – Gel Permeation Chromatography

HAO – High Alpha Olefin

HFFR – Halogen Free Flame Retardant Compounds

HRC – Rockwell hardness (C scale)

HS Code – Harmonized System (Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System)

HSEQ – Health Safety Environment Quality

HV – Vickers hardness number

IEC – International Electrotechnical Commission

IEC – International Engineering Consortium

IATA – International Air Transport Association

IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

ILO – International Labour Organization

IMA – In-mold Assembly

IMDS – International Material Data System

IML – In-mold Labelling

IPR – Intellectual Property Rights

IRMM – Institute for Reference Material and Measurements

ISIC – International Standard Industrial Classification

ISO – International Organization for Standardization

ISSN – International Standard Serial Number

IQGs – Information Quality Guidelines

JIL – Japan Institute of Labour

JISC – Japan Industrial Standards Committee

JAMP – Joint Article Management Promotion-consortium

JSA – Japanese Standards Association

KNCPC – Korean National Cleaner Production Center

LCL – Loose Container Load

MI – Melt Index

MIR – Melt Index Ratio

mPE – Metallocene Polyethylene

MW – Molecular Weight

MWD – Molecular Weight Distribution

NIST – National Institute of Standards and Technology

NSF – National Science Foundation

OECD – Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

OSHA – Occupational Health and Safety Administration

PASC – Pacific Area Standards Congress

PBT – Persistent, Bioaccumulative, Toxic

PKD – Partial Knoeck Down

PLC – Product Life Cycle

PPAP – Product Part Approval Process

PPM – Parts Per Million

QA – Quality Assurance

QC – Quality Control

QMP – Quality Management Plan

QSA – Quality System Audit

QSAR – Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship

REACH – Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemical

RoHS – Restriction of Hazardous Substances

ROO – Rule of Origin

SAP – Sampling and Analysis Plan

SIS – Swedish Standards Institute

SIEF – Substance Information Exchange Forum

SOP – Standard Operating Procedure

SVHC – Substance of Very High Concern

TBT – Technical Barrier to Trade

TQM – Total Quality Management

WTO – World Trade Organization

vPvB – Very Persistent, Very Bioaccumulative

This diagram shows the various stages in which raw material is converted to plastic products. The product example described here is a common shampoo bottle made of PE material.

From the beginning, the natural raw material of crude oil is converted into a monomer substance called Ethylene. From here the monomer goes through a polymerization process which incorporates other additives to form a polymer which produce what is known as plastics resins. Plastics manufacturers purchase these resins and through the use of various plastics processing machines – injection molding, blow molding, etc., to manufacture a product. The product – in this case – a shampoo goes through other secondary processes like filling the content (shampoo), applying labels, assembly of caps, etc., before it is shipped to a retailer.

Have you ever wondered what those numbers on the bottom of your plastic soda bottle mean? These little numbers with the arrows around them are found on most plastics product ranging from food storage containers to laundry detergent bottles, shopping bags to household appliances.

The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI) introduced this resin identification coding system in 1988 in an effort to help recycling centers in the US effectively separate the different types of plastics for recycling. Since then, this system has been adopted and used worldwide.

Research has shown that the material numbered 1 to 6 – PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, PS – are the 6 most commonly used plastics material in the world. These are material used to produce many of the plastics products we see around us. Number 7 represents all other types of plastics material.

Contrary to many misconceptions about this symbol, the number does not represent:

• - How many times the product has been recycled.
• - Quality rating of a product – 1 is good, 7 is bad – or vice versa.
• - Which number is safe for storing food and which is not.

In manufacturing of plastics products using injection molding process, molds are perhaps the most expensive investment in the entire operation. Plastics parts or products take its shape from the mold. It is often said that you may have the best injection molding machines but if the mold is poorly made, you will still get a poor product in the end.

An injection mold is a block of steel, assembled with different metal parts – each with a specific function. It has one or more cavity spaces inside the mold that allow molten plastics to flow into and to form its shape.

A mold have to perform several functions before a product is formed:

1. To receive the molten plastics material
2. To distribute the material
3. To form and shape the product
4. To cool and solidify the molten material
5. To eject the product from the mold

To operate these functions, a mold requires the following functional systems:

1. Spue and Runner system to receive the material and distribute the molten material.
2. Core and Cavity Inserts to form and shape the product.
3. Venting system to expel air that are trapped in the mold after it closes.
4. Cooling system to keep the mold cool and to solidify the molten material after the shape is formed.
5. Ejection system to remove the finished product from the mold.
6. Guiding system to avoid misalignment when the mold open and close during operation.
7. Mounting system to enable a mold to be mounted on a molding machine.

Click on link to view the Types of Injection Molds.