Before anyone knew anything about COVID-19, sustainability was the biggest issue facing the global plastics industry.
This week at Fakuma 2021, it appears the industry is picking up on sustainability issues exactly where it left off in October 2019 at the K show. The need to be green — whether in terms of bio-based plastics, increased recycled content in consumer products or machines that use less energy — permeated the show floor in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
"[There is] a lot of pressure now as our climate is getting worse and worse and everyone is aware of it," Andrea Kossmann of recycling equipment maker Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH told Plastics News' Jim Johnson.
In particular, she added: "Younger people are saying you can't do that anymore."
Or as Michael Heitzinger of Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen GmbH puts it: "Recycling is coming from a niche product to mainstream."