Sustainability in Polymers

Polymers are more environmentally friendly and sustainable than their image

The topic of sustainability plays a particularly important role for us. What hardly anyone knows is that plastics can significantly reduce CO₂ emissions.

For example, the production of aluminum releases an average of 13.5 metric tons of CO₂ equivalents per 1 metric ton of aluminum. By comparison, the processing of plastics emits only about 2.4 metric tons of CO₂ equivalents. With modern plastics and optimized design, mass-to-payload ratios similar to those of aluminum can be achieved. Substituting plastic for aluminum would thus reduce CO₂ emissions by over 80%.

Furthermore, the use of recycled plastic or recyclate can save a further 60% in CO₂ emissions on average compared with the use of new granulate. This is because recycling plastics does not require high temperatures or high amounts of energy to melt the material, nor does it require high pressures to deform the material.