FRANKFURT, GERMANY (Aug. 4, 12:15 p.m. ET) — Sustainability, environmental issues and recycling were the main topics at the meeting of the Fachverband Schaumkunststoffe e.V., the German specialty foam association, at the site of John Deere, an agricultural machinery and vehicle manufacturer, in Mannheim, Germany.
Joern Fries, environmental representative at John Deere, showed examples of energy saving and environmental measures in practice at the factory to more than 30 representatives from the foam sector.
As an example, waste water from the in-house enameling line passes through a plant biotope and undergoes a natural, biological clarifying process so that the cleaned water can then be reused.
During the joint meeting of Frankfurt-based FSK's Recycling Workgroup and its Environment/Occupational Safety/REACH Workgroup, essential factors for sustainability in companies and the industry were discussed, using examples from the automotive industry, the building industry and other industrial sectors.
The companies commented on the overwhelming growth of certificates and declarations regarding product sustainability, which they described as assessing aspects that are “hardly measurable and relatively meaningless.”
FSK notes: “The term sustainability is difficult to define nowadays and has become a variable ‘vogue' expression, weakening its true meaning.”
A full version of this story is available on www.urethanes-technology-international.com.
