Plastics design driven by sustainability, COVID-19

Sustainability and the COVID-19 pandemic both are playing roles in application development for plastic products.

Global packaging firm Greif Inc. is using more post-consumer resin in its plastic products, Gianluca Valente, senior procurement director, said Oct. 27 as part of the online Global Plastics Summit 2021.

Delaware, Ohio-based Greif sourced more than 16 million pounds of material by recycling its own plastic drums in 2020.

"The pandemic slowed down some sustainability, but interest is still high from our customers for more lightweighting and more PCR [post consumer resin] usage," Valente said. "The trend is clear, and we have to go in this direction."

Plastic-based intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) are Greif's fastest growing industrial packaging substrate, according to Valente, and the firm plans to increase capacity for those products. All IBCs made by Greif are recyclable, he said.

Overall, however, plastic products makers "are doing a poor job of managing the end of life of plastics," according to Anthony Palmer, a market analyst with IHS Markit, the consulting firm that hosted GPS 2021.

"Design is increasingly driven by policy, not by the private sector alone," Palmer said. "Packaging and single-use products need to be developed as if the manufacturer is responsible for the full cycle cost."

He added that product designers need to reduce environmental impact, design out waste and design products for recyclability.

In some applications such as clamshell containers, Palmer said manufacturers have switched from polystyrene to PET because of PET's higher recycling rates. "There's a better profile for recovering [PET] at end of life," he added.

The pandemic also has increased sales for nonwoven polypropylene materials used in medical masks and other hygiene products, according to Jacques Prigneaux, economic affairs director with EDANA, a nonwovens trade group based in Brussels.

"Demand has been increasing, and medical applications have been the driver," Prigneaux said. "Nonwovens are needed to fight against the pandemic."

Some medical face masks use three different layers of nonwoven PP. The materials also are being used more in industrial wipes.

"After the pandemic, we still expect to see [nonwovens] used more than before," Prigneaux said. "There will be new applications, new materials and new needs."